La Presse at the 80th Venice Film Festival | Falardo’s greatest enemy

A film producer Kongorama And My Salinger Year She was paired with director German Eduard Berger All peace on the Western FrontIt won four Oscars last March, including Best International Film.

“I don’t believe I would have had the same career if I hadn’t presented my films at festivals around the world,” admits Falardo, who attended the conference remotely due to health reasons that prevented him. From going to Venice.

Like Eduard Berger, who grew up in a family of engineers in the “city where cars were built” – Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg – Philippe Falardo didn’t become a filmmaker after his studies. in Political Science. “I come from a continent that prioritizes cars before people! “, he teased, before discussing his participation Course Target MondeThis is his film school.

“I must have made 20 films in 20 countries,” he says.

Quebecer remembers that Left half of refrigerator, his first film, was originally a documentary. His roommate at the time, like Paul Ahmarani’s character, is a depressed engineer looking for a job. “I submitted the project for funding as a documentary, but in the meantime, my roommate got a job. That’s good for him, but not for me! So inspired by his journey I turned the project into fiction. »

Like Edward Berger, Fallardo worked at home and in Hollywood, on TV and in film, and was nominated for an Oscar. Mr. Lazar. “I never thought I’d be making movies in America,” he says. Ironically, it was my closest film, a low-budget production made in Montreal, that gave me access to American studio resources. »

For Edward Berger, it was natural after directing the series Patrick Melrose He returned to Germany to film a World War I film with Benedict Cumberbatch. “Unfortunately, this is a matter that touches me personally as my country has fueled two world conflicts over 100 years. I think about it every day. It is inevitable that I should adhere to it. »

As Hollywood’s sirens call, Philippe Falardo asks himself whether he has anything to say about what’s being proposed to him. This was the case good lie (2013), with Reese Witherspoon, she had already shot a documentary about refugees in Sudan.

Edward Berger’s next feature is called Conference and Rome, filmed in the Vatican, with Ralph Fiennes and Sergio Castellito. Philippe Falardeau’s next film is an adaptation of the novel Mille Secrets Mille Dangers By Alain Farah. “It’s like the story of a guy who thinks he’s going to die on his wedding day,” he says. Maybe because I am a hypochondriac I was tempted to make this film! It also talks about our relationship with family, and it should be shot next summer. »

In the same fashion as Wes Anderson in the master class earlier in the day, the more experience Philippe Falardeau gains, the more he doubts himself. “Making a film is not easy for me,” he says. I censor myself because I know from experience that some things just don’t happen. I have to be careful myself. I sometimes miss the forehead I had when I was younger. I prefer distorted images to smooth images, but my images soften over time as I have more craftsmanship. Are they the best? I do not know. I am my worst enemy. »

Léa Seydoux united

Not only Hollywood actors are boycotting major festivals due to the Screen Actors Guild strike. One of the most internationally known French actresses, Lea Seydoux, was absent from Sunday’s world premiere in Venice. beast Written by Bertrand Bonello, in which he is the protagonist. He sent a note of solidarity with his American compatriots, which was read out at a press conference.

beastA retrospective play co-produced by Quebecers Nancy Grant and Xavier Dolan (who voiced the artificial intelligence in the film), loosely inspired by a 1903 short story by Henry James. The Beast in the Jungle. Bonello’s tenth feature is an elegant and intriguing, disturbing and tension-inducing film that takes place in parallel universes and variable space-time, in the past (1910, during the Paris flood), the present (2014, actually) and the future (2044).

Bonello maintains a mood of trepidation throughout the duration of this 2:20 film, alternating between French and English, Paris and Los Angeles. beast Begins with a scene within a scene, in which Léa Sedeaux plays a French actress in Hollywood who has to fear a green screen. It is found at the beginning of XX^e Century, in the shoes of a pianist married to a toy maker, meets a young Londoner (George Mackay). We finally find her in 2044, reluctant to purify her DNA in order to cut herself off from her feelings.

Through its various contexts, the film addresses fears linked to the invasion of artificial intelligence (the unemployment rate is 67% in 2044) or the misguided culture of incels. With processes reminiscent of certain films by Michael Haneke, Benny’s video Or Fun games For example. A film producer night time And Something organicHis first film, shot while living in Montreal, is at the top of his game in this lavish and icy, mysterious and sometimes opaque film that gradually reveals its many layers.

The killer was listening to The Smiths

the killer, David Fincher’s new film, doesn’t have a particularly original plot. Dozens and dozens of times we have seen the revenge stories of hired killers with a price on their heads. However, Fincher has a smooth and elegant way of bringing this violent and conventional story to the screen. By creating a special atmosphere and distilling, thanks to the simple pearls of wisdom of the killer’s inner dialogues, a very effective comedy.

The excellent Michael Fassbender hires this elite assassin for a high price, whose mundane routine, usually regulated to a quarter turn, is upset by a vengeance. The killer constantly changes identities, an excuse for jokes about American popular culture, which find no takers for Mostra among Europeans.

Among the assumed names of this creature, at once cynical and practical, conscientious and I say nothing, is, for example, the character Lou Grant. The Mary Tyler Moore ShowGeorge Jefferson, from the series Everyone in the familyOr even Sam Malone CheersHas a Massachusetts driver’s license…

So to keep his heart rate from racing, despite the pressure of his schedule and professional commitments, the killer listens exclusively to Smiths songs. “I found it fun and funny,” he said at a press conference on Sunday. I don’t believe there is a collection of popular music with such witty and witty lyrics. This mixtape is a fun way to get a glimpse into the life of this character we don’t know much about. It’s also certain that David Fincher doesn’t take himself too seriously.