00:00Transcription by CastingWords
00:30You have two hours. Profitez.
00:32Filipe.
01:00After several award-winning shorts.
01:02Now this film stars Jonathan Cohen, who we're more used to seeing in comic roles here in France.
01:08But this is something far more surprising for him.
01:11Tell us about this film. What made it stand out for you, Manon?
01:14Well, it's one of those debuts that feels strangely mature, like a filmmaker who already knows exactly what world she wants to build.
01:23So Alice Vial comes from five shorts and some TV work.
01:27But here she takes a bold step into a deeply emotional and supernatural story.
01:33So the film follows Elsa, played by the extraordinary Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, a Québécois actress making her first appearance in a French production.
01:44So Elsa is a nurse, but she also has a gift.
01:47She can feel when her soul hasn't found peace yet.
01:50And the character is inspired by a real woman Alice Vial met, a nurse medium, who helped her deceased patients to ease their passing.
02:01Here is a glimpse.
02:02Dites-moi ce que vous avez fait hier soir.
02:05Je suis tombé en scooter.
02:09Ça va ? Je pense qu'il faut aller aux urgences, là.
02:11Ah non, merci.
02:12Et comment ?
02:13Et ses jambes, je vous l'ai déjà dit.
02:15Moi, j'ai raccroché.
02:16Mais raccroché de quoi ?
02:17Des hommes, des histoires.
02:19Promettez-moi de jamais renoncer à la tendresse.
02:22Vous savez ce qu'il faut ? De quoi faire des strips ?
02:24J'ai des vêtements que je peux enlever si c'est vraiment nécessaire.
02:28Oh, j'adore.
02:29so given the theme here it deals with death i guess it requires a delicate balance so is this
02:52more of a sort of gentle or heavy film yes what struck me is have a film talks about death but
02:58in a strange life-affirming way okay her approach is very delicate she places supernatural elements
03:05in the everyday in hospital corridors in quiet apartments on windy normandy streets and the film
03:13was shot mainly in le havre and you can really feel the sea air and the gray lights it's a setting
03:20that really allows emotions to echo looks very atmospheric and i guess it's something of a genre
03:25films about the afterlife did you see any other movies the influence seeping in here well her
03:32cinematic references say a lot ghost for example of course from the 90s a film where the invisible
03:39world brushes up against the living but always through emotion rather than too many special effects
03:46let's move on now to a love me tender this one's directed by anna casenave combé and adapted from
03:52constant de bray's novel it stars vicky creeps as a mother under pressure take a look
03:57of the
03:58show
03:59of the
04:00shows that he's my ex for our son of 8 years we have a week on two weeks
04:05hello maman
04:05there's no problem
04:07I have a story with the girls
04:11hello
04:15Paul
04:16I told you he can't talk
04:18Paul he will very well when he doesn't see you and when he sees you it's fucking
04:22It's a roadblock, it's a roadblock, you're going to shoot it.
04:26We'll stay in this room during the time you have to be with your mom.
04:32Paul needs to see his mother.
04:34We don't get nervous, okay?
04:37So Manon, tell us more about this story.
04:39Yes, so the film follows Clémence and as we could see in the clip,
04:43one day she tells her ex-husband that she's been in relationships with women
04:47and from that moment, everything collapses.
04:50He reacts by taking the full custody of their son.
04:55And so the film becomes the story of a woman who has to fight to hold her life together
05:00while the whole society and French administration seems to be against her.
05:06And as for the director, of course, this isn't just an adaptation.
05:10There's a real personal connection with the book written by Constance Debray.
05:14Let's hear a little more from Anna Casenave-Combey,
05:16talking about why she wanted to make this film on our sister show, A La Fiche.
05:20I had read the book as soon as it came out, in 2020.
05:27I was a young mother at the time.
05:30It's a novel that moved me deeply, not only because of the writing,
05:34but also because of the story it tells and the injustice suffered by the main character.
05:39It was an important read for me, and I was convinced that this mother needed to be brought to the screen,
05:46that she had something to contribute to the world of cinema.
05:50So there are some big ideas in there, social, political ideas, I guess, queer identity, motherhood.
05:57But overall, how did the film strike you?
05:59I really, really loved it.
06:01I found it extremely powerful and honest.
06:05Cambey films motherhood without any clichés, and Creeps is magnetic.
06:10She has this physical intensity and this natural authority that clashes with the situation of Clémence,
06:17which is pretty fragile in the film.
06:19She is a really interesting actor, definitely.
06:21Now to another powerful exploration of motherhood with La Condition, or The Condition.
06:26This one sees us taken to 1908, the turn of the 20th century, thanks to director Jérôme Bonel.
06:33Yes, so even if the two films take place in totally different eras,
06:38they echo each other on how society shapes and controls women's lives and bodies.
06:44Maternity isn't the main plot here, but the social expectations placed on women,
06:50including the pressure to be a wife and a mother in a certain way, are absolutely central.
06:57Let's watch a clip from the film.
07:14You don't know the last one, Celeste.
07:26Our little boy is born.
07:28Well, what's that?
07:30He will say that it's the grossest of the men in our house.
07:35Madam, I can't do anything.
07:37Celeste, we would like to keep the child.
07:39You want to say that he will never know that I am his mother?
07:41So the dynamic between the characters there looks pretty intense.
07:46I should imagine that that power dynamic or the triangle there is at the core of the film?
07:52Very much.
07:53Celeste is a young maid working for Victoire and her husband André.
07:58And Victoire is supposed to be the perfect bourgeois wife, but she feels completely trapped in that role.
08:04And these two women, separated by social rules, start forming a bond that challenges everything around them.
08:13Bonel explores how male domination operates quietly.
08:18And Swan Arlo's character, André, is the perfect example.
08:22He's polite, composed, respectable, yet carrying an internal violence shaped by centuries of patriarchy.
08:30And like you point out, there are echoes of that previous film, Love Me Tender, here as well, even if they're separated by more than a century.
08:37This one's also adapted from a novel, right?
08:40Yes, from Amour by Léonore de Recondo.
08:43Bonel fell in love with the book, but took years to find the right angle.
08:47He didn't want to make a dusty period piece.
08:50He really wanted the story to speak to today's audiences.
08:53So he took some liberties, he added characters that aren't in the book, and he kind of reshaped the narrative to bring out the modern resonance.
09:04And it works.
09:05It feels like a period film, but with contemporary urgency.
09:09I'm definitely holding up a mirror to some of the issues we still face today.
09:13Well, our last film this week is called Louise by Nicolas Quetel.
09:17What's your take on this one?
09:19It's a beautiful surprise.
09:21It's a film about trauma and the shadow of childhood violence.
09:26The story follows a young woman who ran away at 15 and returns years later to reconnect with her mother and her sister, but without revealing who she really is.
09:37Okay, so I guess with that layer of secrecy, it's a bit like a psychological thriller?
09:43Exactly, but it's more of an internal investigation than a suspense-driven one.
09:48Quetel plays with time through flashbacks and fractured memories, so that we slowly piece together who Louise was, who she is, and what she's afraid of becoming.
10:00And looking at the images there, it does seem to be quite visually striking.
10:03Very much so. Quetel worked closely with his cinematographer to give each period of Louise's life its own atmosphere.
10:13So, for example, her childhood is very colorful, very glittery, and it creates a visual journey that echoes her emotional one.
10:22And what about the performances? Because it's quite complex, children, adolescents, acting in this kind of drama.
10:29Well, Diane Ruxell is extraordinary. She's very mysterious and deeply moving without ever overplaying.
10:37And Cécile de France brings complexity to a mother who is not idealized, far from it.
10:43And also the soundtrack by Superpose is exceptional.
10:47OK, well, thanks for the tip. It sounds like an unexpected, intimate drama to wrap up the show with.
10:52Thanks for guiding us through all those French films this week once again.
10:57We'll leave you with a final look at Louise.
10:59Do remember to check in with us for more movies, arts, and culture on our website and our social media too.
11:04There's more news coming up just after this.
11:07My mom, it's Louise. Louise, my mother.
11:10You're going to tell them who you are?
11:13Who am I, in fact?
11:14I don't know what you are, my princess.
11:18My mother, my grand-sœur of Jeanne, she left the house when Jeanne was still young.
11:24And the last time I saw her, I saw her.
11:26I don't need to find her, my princess.
11:28You'll have your problems with what you have done.
11:35You sometimes conseils?
11:38It doesn't matter?
11:38It doesn't matter?
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