“For France” by Rachid Hami
October 2012, Jallal Hami, the director’s brother (Aïssa in the film), has just joined the prestigious Saint-Cyr military school. One night, during a hazing as cruel and stupid as it is illegal, he drowns in freezing water while trying to cross a pond with all his gear on his back. Not only does the army not recognize his fault, but refuses for the boy, after having promised them, military honors at the Invalides. Finally, the “great dumb”, nickname deserved for the coup, will drag out the investigation: it is only eight years later that some officers will be sentenced to light sentences.
Of these pains, of these injustices, Rachid Hami does not make an avenging film, quite the contrary. He pays tribute to his brother and recounts their family history. In the 1990s, in Algeria, their mother was threatened by the Islamists, she left for France with her two sons. Together, they share the misery, and the love of their land of exile. Against the current of polarized and sterile debates, Rachid Hami dares to be nuanced.
“The Great Magic” by Noémie Lvovsky
The seventh feature film by the director-actress is freely adapted from a play by the Italian Eduardo De Filippo and takes us back a century, to the 1920s in France, in a hotel by the sea. A magician and his troupe entertain wealthy bored clients there. Among them, a couple: Charles, nicknamed the tyrant and played by Denis Podalydès, and his wife Marta, played by Judith Chemla. The latter takes advantage of the famous trick of the woman who disappeared precisely to escape, and flee at the same time the stage, the hotel and her jealous husband. The fugue will last four years.
Despite some rhythm problems in its second part, The Great Magic is an original, charming, pleasant and often funny film. He manages to pay homage to a whole range of diverse arts: opera, magic, singing, music (signed here by the group Feu! Chatterton). The actors come, for many, from the theater: Laurent Stocker, Noémie Lvovsky herself, Judith Chemla, Rebecca Marder, Micha Lescot, Laurent Poitrenaux, Catherine Hiegel, without forgetting a Denis Podalydès in majesty. François Morel and Sergi Lopez are also in the game.