It had been ten years since Yves Angelo had stopped directing films, confining himself (with talent) to his first profession, that of cinematographer. When one remembers Les Ames grises (a jewel) or when one sees Au plus près du soleil, one can only regret that he didn't pick up the pace a little. Indeed, this is one of those films that doesn't leave you unscathed, because it hits right where it hurts, at the heart of our most intimate fears. A couple with an adopted child. She's a judge, he's a lawyer. All is well until the day she finds herself indicting a young woman whom she discovers to be the biological mother of her son. The trap closes in on the couple... It's not easy to pin a label on the film, and so much the better. If the vaudevillian dimension is quickly evacuated, we navigate between detective story, drama and, why not, a kind of tragedy that the ancient Greeks would not have disowned, so difficult do the threads of fate seem to be to cut. And they keep us on the edge of our seats. It has to be said that the film also boasts a considerable asset: its actors. Sylvie Testud and Grégory Gadebois are, as usual, absolutely terrific in their blend of stiffness and fragility. But it's a safe bet that we'll be hearing a lot more from Zacharie Chasseriaud, as a split teenager, and Mathilde Bisson, as an anatomical bombshell reminiscent of Pauline Lafont in L'Eté en pente douce...
Yves Alion
French film by Yves Angelo (2015), with Sylvie Testud, Grégory Gadebois, Mathilde Bisson, Zacharie Chasseriaud. 1h 43.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA3uY7vUBSk
