Is sex stronger than love? Can we love each other with thwarted desires? Are we forever prisoners of our past, of biology, of social determinism, of the weight of secrecy? What is a couple, this “madness for two” whose mysteries Roland Barthes tried to unravel in his Fragments of a Love Discourse?
These are the many questions posed by Katell Quillévéré (Suzanne, Mend the Living…) in her new film, Time to Love (in theaters November 29). Presented in May at Cannes (out of competition), where the critics gave it a good reception, this dense and dramatic film won the Valois de Diamant (best film award) at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, whose 16th edition has just been held. end, Sunday August 27, with the revelation of his prize list – Laetitia Casta chaired the jury (*).
Then, in a subtle collage, the film unknowingly shifts from reality to fiction. Madeleine (Anaïs Demoustier) is one of these “boche hens”. Chased by the pack, she rushes home, like a hunted animal, and angrily tries to erase the swastika that has been drawn on her stomach. Color then follows black and white.
Two years have passed. Madeleine is now employed at the Beau-Rivage hotel, in a corner of Finistère, where she provides services in Breton headdress. She raises her little boy alone, with whom she shares her maid’s room without managing to give him the love he demands. At table 12 sat François (Vincent Lacoste, who won the Best Actor award). An archeology student at the Sorbonne, this son of a wealthy textile industrialist is endowed with a lunar charm, despite a slight handicap caused by the onset of poliomyelitis, fortunately caught in time. Everything opposes them (culture, condition, aspirations…), except for the burden of a singular secret that each one carries deep inside, and which connects them. “Both of us, it’s a no-brainer,” François told Madeleine. They barely know each other and they get married.
What bonds can weld two beings so different, beyond the principle of pleasure – Madeleine and François struggle to consummate their marriage, and for good reason? How do you live after “that”, when the wickedness of men has branded you with a hot iron? How do you love a woman without “it” when you’re a man who desires other men? At the cost of betrayals and painful disappointments, love circulates in spite of everything in the couple. He slowly makes his way, crossing the fault lines of the two spouses to weave between them a fragile, but unbreakable bond. Yes, love circulates and it carries all the subjects of this overwhelming film.
Vincent Lacoste triumphs but could, in all fairness, share his prize with Anaïs Demoustier, who shows here a rare depth and with whom he was filming for the third time (Deux Fils, by Félix Moati, and Smoking makes you cough, by Quentin Dupieux , brought them together in 2019 and 2022).
Love is also the central subject of Rosalie, Stéphanie Di Giusto’s second film, which revisits the legend of the “woman with a beard” to paint a portrait of a woman of absolute strength and delicacy. Her film was awarded the prize for best music (Hania Rani) while her heroine, Nadia Tereszkiewicz (César for best female hope for her role in Les Amandiers, by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, in which she played the double), won the prize. for Best Actress.
The prize for best screenplay goes to The Poet’s Bride, a new film by Yolande Moreau, who shares it with Frédérique Moreau. In love with painting, Mireille Stockaert (Yolande Moreau) makes a living from her work as a waitress and supplements her income by fiddling with cartons of cigarettes. To maintain the large family home on the banks of the Meuse which she has just inherited, she hosts three tenants who will upset her routine and allow her to reconnect with love (him again). A hymn to poetry, an ode to crossroads served by a delightful cast (Estéban, Sergi Lopez, François Morel and… William Sheller).
From One Painting to Another (Georges Schwizgebel) and A Grain of Sand in the Universe (Suki), two animated films, tied for the prize for best short film.
The student jury awards its prize to Nothing to Lose, by Delphine Deloget, with Virginie Efira and Félix Lefebvre. A mother’s fight to regain custody of her son, who was taken from her.
The public prize is awarded to The Life of my mother, by Julien Carpentier, with Agnès Jaoui, William Lebghil and Salif Cissé. The reunion between a thirty-year-old and his bipolar mother, who tumbles into his life after two years of absence.
With a selection of high quality, this 16th Francophone Film Festival of Angoulême, which this year paid tribute to Switzerland and its cinema, was a very good vintage. Offering the public the possibility of discovering a number of films, including those of the competition, it gathered in less than a week nearly 58,000 spectators. What reinforce the conviction of its two linchpins, the producer and former agent Dominique Besnehard and the director and television producer Marie-France Brière: alive and well, the 7th art has not said its last word.
(*) Also composed of director Kaouther Ben Hania, actress and director Monia Chokri, director of fiction at France TV Anne Holmes, actor Raphaël Quenard, musician Souad Massi, cartoonist Zep, by writer and actress Rachel Khan and author and producer Jean-Louis Livi.