Several spectators will go see (or not) Arlette by Mariloup Wolfe, from a screenplay by Marie Vien, for the wrong reasons. The film, in theaters on Friday, received some nonsensical publicity.
For or against the return of Maripier Morin to the big screen after a long slump under public opprobrium? Is it too early, two years after the crisis, to forgive him for his drifts of harassing drunkenness in the evenings and his bites at the singer Safia Nolin? The latter will have paid dearly for her public denunciation of the beautiful star, who had physically attacked her. Death threats on social networks, various traumas, spoiler label stuck on his face.
For his part, Maripier Morin posed in white penitent costume, proclaimed his desire for rehabilitation, testified to his therapeutic approaches, beat his culp, made a return to TV. A more aesthetic repentance than the red anger of his vis-à-vis. What make you want to support Safia Nolin unconditionally. Moreover, several artists send him words of love. After all, she is the victim. She who suffers a crime of facies.
But should the possible forgiveness of one determine the absolution of the other in our new churches? Wouldn’t it be better to campaign so that Safia Nolin’s intimidation stops? And may the media leave her alone, without constantly bringing her back to her conflict with Maripier Morin, which drags on in the public square!
Today, newspapers are transformed into vice squads; social media, into a pack of lynchers. In such a sign, the right to rehabilitation loses its footing. Because the collective or media sentences often appear much more severe than those of the courts of justice. Where are we going ?
The judicial system has proven to be so deficient in terms of sexual and family crimes that many are bypassing it to embrace the evolution of mentalities. But strongly that it adapts to the needs of time! Strongly also that the media – official and social – wonder about the roles they arrogate when a legal vacuum is hollow de facto.
While waiting for the revolution in court, are we really entitled to settle these disputes with our wooden hammers “gossed” in hand? Arbitrariness prevails everywhere. Let’s not just throw the blame on “wokism”, a movement that brings both social evolution and serial slippages. Cracks in the statue of justice frozen in the past are also stirring up these ripples. Complex causes.
Therefore, how, without toga and without solid beacons, to probe the hearts and the loins? Too early for the return of Maripier Morin to the cinema? Go find out… Why not? She takes care of herself, she apologizes, she has just had a child and she is changing her life. Why yes ? Safia Nolin suffers from her highlighting. The hearing will decide, it seems, by boycotting Arlette or not. Here is the dark room which has become the setting for public executions. Thumbs up, thumbs down, like in the Roman arenas. It’s scary, no matter which side of the scale our sympathies tip.
And the movie?
Make way for a work on the power of the image, in effect mirroring the life of its star. Very uneven. However, the subject ofArlette is inspiring. Its decor is planted in the city of Quebec and the National Assembly, so photogenic under the camera of Yves Bélanger.
A director of a free fashion magazine, young and pretty (Morin), a novice in politics, sees herself catapulted Minister of Culture just to freshen the air of the party. A great opportunity to address the role of the arts and letters in a society where ignorance is rampant, a subject treated here, and that’s good. But Maripier Morin plays without nuances, or almost. Yes, to Gilbert Sicotte as a devious Prime Minister and to David La Haye for his icy performance as Minister of Finance, beyond the caricature of his role. Yes, to Paul Ahmarani as a press officer fired at hue and dia. Congratulations to the nods to Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, music and intertitles!
Despite its cultural references, how thin this scenario seems! Was it necessary to transform the National Assembly to such an extent into pure boys club, when political mores have nevertheless changed? And what incredible adventures and sudden reversals! Add this conclusion in pink…
All that for that, alas! Proving by the absurd the inanity of a popular trial that never ends. We will never know if the public will desert Arlette in order to protest against the presence of his star in troubled waters or because the film will have bored him. Unless of course he applauds her. Question of perspective. And if the spectators judged Arlette on merit… Out of respect for the cinema, hostage to too many stakes which it has nothing to do with.