Georges (Gérard Depardieu) is a big shot in French cinema who will soon begin filming which does not enchant him. But the actor, whose gluttony is commensurate with hypochondria, feels quite alone. One day, Aïssa (Déborah Lukumuena) is sent home as a replacement to serve as his assistant bodyguard. The young woman has little more than corpulence in common with him, but Georges becomes attached to her and attaches himself to her like a lifeline.
From the series call my agentbehind the scenes of the cinema seems to invite itself more and more in front of the camera. Robust, the first feature film by Frenchwoman Constance Meyer, observes the world of the seventh art through the eyes of one of its greatest actors, Gérard Depardieu, who, under cover of an assumed first name, plays his own role. But the mere presence of the sacred monster is not enough to make a film a great film. Far from it, in this case. Meyer still has a long way to go if she wants to rise among the hopes of French cinema.
It starts with the screenplay, also the brainchild of Constance Meyer. This one struggles to captivate us with this classic canvas of the two opposites that meet. The chemistry between the characters is far from obvious, and the evolution of their relationship turns more to intrusion than to real closeness. The fundamental link does not emerge, to the point that we end the film saying to ourselves “all that for that”.
All the oddities that make up the daily life of the actor still give a certain charm to the film, from trying on costumes to making prostheses. It is also a delight to see the great Gérard lend himself to the game of repetition. His timbre and his phrasing, recognizable among all, are enough to transport us. The words don’t matter, because the dialogues written by Meyer, whether they are those of the film or the film within the film, are not very memorable.
A dramatic comedy that is not one
The other weakness, which might not have been one, is humor. Robust is advertised as a dramatic comedy, but this one forgot to make people laugh. The gloom takes precedence without giving a chance to the rare moments a little lighter in the film, which would however have made the viewing less heavy. The particularly soft rhythm of the 95 minutes of the film tends to prove that time is indeed a relative notion.
If abrupt editing can pass for a defensible artistic choice, sound recording and mixing have no excuse. The slightest ambient noise almost takes precedence over the dialogues and attacks the ears without us being able to understand the interest. Did the sound engineer forget to place microphones on the actors, leaving it to the mixer to catch up with what could be caught up in post-production?
The director’s gaze, occasionally sharper, saves her film. Her way of filming the fight, for example, as if it were a dance between the two fighters, demonstrates the extent of the poetic reservoir at her disposal. Likewise, the almost phantasmagorical scene of the aquarium injects a very aesthetic momentum which has the effect on the viewer of a breath of fresh air. We can only regret that the scene is so short.
It is ultimately a bitter disappointment that this Robustyet selected as part of Cannes Critics’ Week in 2021. We can only hope for better from Constance Meyer for her second feature film.