“Municipal”, “Irradiated”, “Les Promesses”… Films to see in theaters this week
THE MORNING LIST
A candidate, actor of his condition, throws himself headlong into a municipal campaign in the Ardennes (Municipal). A Parisian suburban mayor fights for the renovation of a city (Les Promesses). The cinema, this week, takes us to the political front. But also on that of the wars of the XXth century (Irradiés), on the roads of France and Switzerland (Presque), in the courtyard and between the walls of a school (Un monde). Good road !
“Municipal”: an acrobat attacking the town hall
In these times of epidemic and social crises, cultural outings, once adventurous, are no longer considered without a doubt. Certain films, not identified, however invite to break this routine. Their share of uncertainty and improbability calls us.
This is Municipale, a welcomingly fresh documentary fiction, an open-air laboratory experience, the first feature film by Thomas Paulot. Which imagined, in favor of the municipal elections of Revin, in the Ardennes, in 2020, to send there a "false" candidate, in the person of the actor Laurent Papot. The latter in no way seeks to conceal the singularity of the experience to which it lends itself.
Hot boiling, Papot plays the game, sets up his campaign headquarters in a disused bar, meets everyone, gets informed. Focuses on understanding the social, political and human issues of this city. What if he won? To this killer question, the candidate replies that the experience will stop there and that he will hand over his power to the citizens as soon as he is elected. And there, suddenly, in front of the beautiful self-management pirouette of the acrobat, doubt seizes the spectator again. So goes the film, anyway – between strength and weakness, belief and doubt.
“Irradiated”: a poem on the atomic bomb
The bottom of the air is ashen: gray and pale like an archive of a distant war, haggard and smoky like the aftermath of a bombardment. We cannot discover Irradiated, the last film by Rithy Panh, without thinking of the magnificent essay by Chris Marker (1921-2012), Le fond de l'air est rouge (1977), an incandescent work of montage on the history of struggles and disputes. The Franco-Cambodian filmmaker, born in 1964 in Phnom Penh, tells us about another conflagration, that of the repeated wars which will have tragically marked the 20th century, a trying "compression" of history which rightly gives the impression that no lesson has been learned from the successive conflicts.
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