One could not imagine a more contrasted evening than yesterday’s one: on one side an American thriller about a missile attack on the US and, on the other side, a French adaptation of Camus’s famous “L’étranger”. As both movies were pretty decent, it somehow ended up working well for us. I am however not sure that it would have been the same if the screenings were inverted (meaning first the French, than the American one). Indeed, Bigelow’s film is a tensed, nervous and very rythmic film, that might have been slightly too “agressive” if it had been screened after the slow paced “L’étranger”.
Anyhow, things turned out well and our evening started with Bigelow’s race against time. A missile launch is detected by the US intelligence services. The movie retraces the 20mins following the first alert – the moment what seems to be a nuclear missile is detected – until it is about to erase the city of Chicago from the surface of the earth. It follows the same 20mins but from three different places: a military command, the office of the Secretary of State for Defence and the office of the President of the USA.
The persons in these three places follow a similar mental path: first disbelief (all are convinced that it is a false alert), then realization, finally followed by dread and panic.
It is extremely well constructed, efficient and breathless. The pace of the movie never slows down and holds you alert on the edge of your chair until the end.
Now. Does this mean that I would have given it 5 stars as The Guardian did? Definitely not. Why? Because, for me construction and efficiency are not enough. I also need a sense, a meaning, a purpose. When the lights turned back on, I however could not come up with such a meaning for my own self. I mean, we all know that the world is not doing great and that politicians have to take tough decisions (and might have to take even harder ones in a – potentially near – future). Do I need a movie to remind me of this and add additional anxiety to my life? Not really.
The second movie was a risky adaptation of Camus’s “Létranger” by François Ozon. To be honest, I had my doubts. Not an easy one to adapt as a movie.
However, against all odds, it ended up being a pretty good surprise: Ozon’s black and white picture (that did not work for me at all in “Frantz” back in 2016) beautifully renders the city of Alger, its heat, its sea, its atmosphere.
Add to it a wonderful young French actor (Benjamin Voisin, whom I had already spotted in “Illusions perdues” a few years ago) who really surpasses himself in a tricky role, and what you get is a quite faithful to the book and pretty enjoyable film.
I have difficulties explaining why I am not more enthusiastic than this. Maybe because I did have a feeling that, unlike the first movie, this one looses a bit of its rythm in its second part..
Conclusion: still, it was overall a surprisingly enjoyable evening!
Klara's cinema 