Emma is a gifted young conductor. And it seems that her talent, determination and rigor are about to be rewarded as she is being approached for a prestigious position. Except that nothing is going well anymore. Indeed, Emma’s agent is her own father, Patrick, a dominant man. At the same time, Emma maintains a complicated romantic relationship with Naëlle, a violinist. Added to this is the fact that Emma has reached a technical plateau that she is struggling to overcome. Seemingly disparate, these problems all stem from Emma’s inability to express her emotions. Torments which, in Happy Daysby Chloé Robichaud, suits Sophie Desmarais perfectly.
From the outset, a few observations are necessary. First of all, after the middle distance runner in Sarah prefers the race (who revealed Sophie Desmarais), the politicians and the negotiator of Countrythe most recent protagonist imagined by Chloé Robichaud confirms her taste for atypical heroines of the kind that we see too little in the cinema.
Then, after a very stripped-down film, centered on a single character, then a film with three voices, Happy Days brings the screenwriter and director back to a singular perspective, as in Sarah prefers runningbut in a more abundant work dependent on his narrative experiments in Country. A synthesis, in short (not to mention a welcome antithesis to the insidious reaction Tar).
Finally, not content with merging the best of what has come before in her filmography, Chloé Robichaud tries in this film to do like her heroine, namely: to surpass herself by transcending what she has accomplished so far. She succeeds.
It must be said that the filmmaker’s script turns out to be very well constructed and its protagonist wonderfully complex. Sophie Desmarais does honor to this score: her performance is a tour de force. This, both emotionally (the main theme of the film) and technically, demonstrates his mastery of gestures with both hands and not just one as in certain other films (musicians will appreciate the nuance).
See clearly and rise
We therefore follow Emma through three types of relationships, distinct but linked: her frustrating relationship with her technique, her stormy relationship with Naëlle (excellent Nour Belkhiria), and above all, her toxic relationship with her father (paralyzing Sylvain Marcel), this one. there combining the professional and the personal (mention to Maude Guérin as a mother who rationalizes the violence). All seem, for the moment, to lead to an impasse.
Emma will also have to make important decisions after a painful but necessary introspection. An introspection which will place her in front of her anxieties and contradictions, in short, everything she has tried to repress since childhood.
And it is ultimately a fourth relationship, that of Emma with music, which will allow her to see clearly and rise.
In this regard, the film sensitively uses a judicious selection of classical pieces played by the Orchester métropolitain: conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin acted as artistic and technical advisor, which explains this. These pieces both comment on the action and inform us about the state of this heroine accustomed to keeping everything to herself.
This is never more true than during the ending where Emma, almost in a trance on the podium, is assailed by a flood of painful reminiscences. However, she will, paradoxically, never before have been so in symbiosis with her orchestra (resounds thenAdagietto by Mahler, and it is impossible to keep your eyes dry).
All of this is staged in a style that is both fluid and mastered by Chloé Robichaud, who has abandoned the studied compositions of the past in favor of a more unbridled expression, with a hand-held camera. She takes a risk by turning her back on what has already worked for her. And this is how the filmmaker rises, too.