Antonia, known as “Toni”, once had her proverbial 15 minutes of fame during her appearance on the show Star Academy. Nearly 20 years later, Toni is a widow and mother of five children. To make ends meet, she sings here and there, but the fact is that this career was her mother’s dream, not hers. Precisely, while her two eldest children are getting ready to take their baccalaureate and leave the nest, Toni finally dares to think about herself and ask herself, for the first time, what she would like to do with the rest of her life. The answer? Teach. However, her plan to return to school does not really excite her children. In Toni, with familyCamille Cottin amazes once again.
That the star of the series Ten percent and the film The dazzled delivers another wonderful performance is no surprise: she is prodigiously gifted, Camille Cottin.
What is particularly great about this performance is the ease with which the actress moves from the comic to the dramatic register in the same scene, the film constantly oscillating between the two. The result is a complex, very embodied and heartfelt composition. In other words, Camille Cottin is the immense and vibrant heart of the film.
This is the second feature film written and directed by Nathan Ambrosioni, whose first, Paper flagsreleased in 2019 when he was only 18, had earned him comparisons to Xavier Dolan. For the record, Paper flags told the complicated reunion between an ex-convict and his sister. For his second go-around, the young filmmaker therefore takes up, and expands, a family backdrop with rich conflicting possibilities.
In fact, in Toni’s household, beneath the smart exterior and apparent good understanding, conflicts surface and resentment simmers.
The clan is composed, in addition to Toni, of Mathilde, Marcus, Camille, Timothée and Olivia. Each member, both in writing and in the image, has their own identity. Among other tasty passages: the sequence of the “ coming out » by Marcus, which does not arouse either surprise or tears… much to the chagrin of the main person concerned.
Self-forgetfulness
Throughout, Nathan Ambrosioni makes judicious use of the scale of shots. Indeed, if the wide shots showing the whole family are numerous, they are nonetheless always revealing of something: after the screams and the tugging in the cabin of the too-small car, here is everyone pressed against each other, by choice, on the sofa. Contrasts that speak volumes…
We move to medium shots when Toni is handling one or two children, to indicate the mother’s special attention… As for the close-ups, they are mainly devoted to Toni, whose point of view the film adopts, but all the children are entitled to them as well. Normal, since Toni is constantly trying to make her children (variously egocentric, it’s their age) understand that nothing matters more to her than them.
And in this matter, Toni is very hard on herself, reproaching herself for example for considering her children too much “all five together”, and not individually. However, as we can see throughout and as Nathan Ambrosioni shows us through his staging, nothing could be further from the truth.
Toni is so accustomed to self-forgetfulness that her study project seems like an anomaly. In a very moving monologue, the protagonist explains her journey and how she participated in the “ Star Ac ” for her mother, not for herself, and how getting pregnant at 18 seemed almost like a liberation, an “opportunity to escape.”
After five children, and with no partner to help out, Toni is now under nothing but psychological and financial pressure; she is completely cut off from her needs and aspirations.
Hold on
Seeing her become aware of her situation, act, and then hold on is moving. Moreover, the story is not about returning to school, but rather the journey that will lead to it.
On this level, Toni, with family constitutes a bit of a spiritual antecedent to the classic Educating Rita (Rita’s Education), in which a young working-class woman decides to enroll in university, a decision met with hostility by her family and partner. In both cases, determination prevails in the realization of a project – even a dream – of one’s own. Ultimately, Toni, with family is as charming as it is inspiring.