French director, Mikhaël Hers releases a beautiful intimate film largely for Charlotte Gainsbourg: Passengers of the night, on screens Wednesday, May 4. The Maison de la radio et de la musique, where a good part of the film was shot, is a magical place, with the memory of Macha Béranger who held a nocturnal program of exchanges with listeners in the 80s, where they confided their resentments. An exchange that will change Charlotte Gainsbourg’s life in the film: to see and listen to. Gorgeous.
Paris 80s. Elisabeth has just been dumped by her husband with their two teenagers in his care. Unemployed, she became a telephone receptionist for a France Inter nocturnal program. She meets Talulah, a young girl who wanders between prostitution, drugs and in search of herself. Elisabeth takes her in, while her awakening son discovers love with her.
Mikhaël Hers finds the tone of this rupture, quickly linked to the quest for a twist by his heroine in distress. He captures the Paris of the time, but especially the Maison de la radio, where a destiny will be played out. Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is Elisabeth in the film, is in communion with her, as if rarely identified with the role as she knows how to do. A splendid interpretation.
In a film that he co-wrote and directed, Mikhaël Hers transmits, beyond societal drama, his love of radio. The Maison de la Radio, where Elisabeth’s destiny is tied, is a magical place, through its architecture and the benevolence that emanates from it, which can be captured by all its visitors. With the fictional show Passengers of the nightwhich he directed with Emmanuelle Béart, alter ego of Macha Béranger who at the time held the cult show Hello Masha, where listeners shared their emotions, ranging from finding love to attempting suicide. A revealing phenomenon of the societal questions still in their infancy at the time, which are echoed today Passengers of the night.
The film visualizes the passage from darkness to light in a woman who is increasingly aware of her power of transmission. That of her experience with others, through the radio, thanks to her empathy, and of her son’s openness to love, thanks to her. Media for others, she understands, for herself, and for her son. An experience that unites the collective to the individual and vice versa. A collective revolution by the individual. An inner revolution that translates Passengers of the night in sound and color.
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Gender : Drama
Director : Mikhaël Hers
Actors : Charlotte Gainsbourg, Quito Rayon Richter, Noee Abita, Emmanuelle Beart, Didier Sandre, Megan Northam
Country : France
Duration : 1h51
Exit : May 4, 2022
Distributer : Distribution Pyramid
Synopsis : Paris, 1980s. Elisabeth has just been left by her husband and has to take care of the daily life of her two teenagers, Matthias and Judith. She finds a job in a night radio show, where she meets Talulah, an idle young girl whom she takes under her wing. Talulah discovers the warmth of a home and Matthias the possibility of a first love, while Elisabeth invents her path, perhaps for the first time. All love each other, struggle… their life started again?