Cannes 2022: we saw Virginie Efira and Tahar Rahim sing, a shocking horror film and the…

1. Don Juan by Serge Bozon (Cannes Première)
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When Cannes sings to us. One year later Annetteplace to Don Juan. Which is not really a musical according to its director Serge Bozonwho prefers to talk about “music movie” and revisit another myth after Mrs. Hyde, adding some songs. Which, at the beginning, reflect the power of fascination of the main character, an actor involved in a new adaptation of the famous play by Moliere and in the throes of a love breakup. And then allow the protagonists to reveal their moods.

Started following a call for musical comedy projects by the CNC (with Tralala brothers Larrieu and the future The Great Magic of Noemie Lvovsky), Don Juan is therefore not an adaptation of Molière’s classic, of which he takes the opposite view. Laurent, the main character, is certainly a seducer, but above all a rejected lover, who sees his ex-wife everywhere. Or how to reread the myth in the light of #MeToo, largely thanks to its co-screenwriter Axelle Ropert.

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In front of the camera, Tahar Rahim and Virginie Efira give themselves body and soul, in the dialogues and the songs (even the dance for him), the time of an opus which could destabilize some spectators, given the way in which the sung parts (filmed in close-up and without cut) intervene and contrast with the fantasy that is generally associated with the genre. But it is pleasant to see that French cinema is less afraid to tackle it at the moment.

Maximilien Pierrette

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© ARP Selection

The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing and the screenings follow one another but are not alike, both in the Official Competition and in the parallel sections. In the Official Competition, the Danish director of Iranian origin Ali Abbasi, who caused a sensation with Border à Un Certain Regard, presents today The Nights of Mashhad (Holy Spider)a relentless thriller about a series of feminicides that shook public opinion in Iran.

Another film in the Competition, that of Valerie Bruni Tedeschi entitled The Almond Trees which recounts the romantic and professional setbacks of a young passionate theater troupe full of passion and dreams. Out of Competition, we saw the duo Virginie Efira – Tahar Rahim push the song in Don Juan and in Special Screening, the cry from the heart of thousands of young women to denounce sexist violence in the documentary Feminist Response.

Our podcast with Karim Leklou, featured in Goutte d’or, during this Cannes Film Festival:

As for the Directors’ Fortnight, Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) presents a special screening of a new visionary and shocking genre film Menwhile Charlotte Le Bon offers her fabulous first feature film Falcon Lake and finally Continental Drift with Isabelle Carré.

At Critics’ Week, it’s fantastic drama Our Ceremonies who knew how to win us over, while at Un Certain Regard, it was Davy Chou who overwhelmed us with his Return to Seoul. Finally, the first episodes ofIrma Vep by Olivier Assayas, who transposes his 1996 film into a serial format, were screened. For this series produced by HBO and A24, it is Alicia Vikander who succeeds Maggie Cheung in the role of the international actress who plays in an adaptation of Les Vampires by Louis Feuillade in a French production.