The 7th art and two films to discover this week: Chronicle of a temporary liaison by Emmanuel Mouret and About by John by Laurent Lariviere.
Expert in contemporary marivaudage, Emmanuel Mouret signs his film most faithful to his commitment as a filmmaker of romantic feelings. In Chronicle of a temporary liaison, Charlotte and Simon meet at a party, she is a single mother, free, enterprising and loudmouthed. He is married with children, a little awkward and stressed, they spend the night together, and decide to see each other again, but only when they feel like it, so not to give in to conventions, to routine, above all not to s to commit, and by extension not to fall in love.
But as often with Mouret, and therefore in life, it doesn’t happen like that, and not always as we want, so we follow the evolution of this relationship, according to their appointments.
Laurent Larivière, of which this is only the second film, offers the viewer from the start of his story, a pact. Isabelle Huppert, in a car, facing the camera, introduces herself: I am Joan Vera, and we quickly understand that what follows – the story of his life, his memories – have a free relationship to reality.
Joan Vera is 20 years old – played by Freya Mavor and lives in Dublin, where she throws herself headlong into her first love. Then Joan today, sees again by chance in Paris, this man from whom she had to separate at the time, and she does not tell him that she had a child by him. This son, played by Swann Arlaud, the unstable writer that Joan loves now, Lars Eidinger, the key moments of this life, the dramas and the wacky situations, everything fits together, mixes together.
It’s confusing, memory is like an intimate cinema that allows Joan to overcome hardships, and Isabelle Huppert rejoices in playing all these states.