I Comet, the title of Pascal Tagnati’s film, means “the comets” in Corsican, a reference to the characters who pass through and meet each other, necessarily leaving a trace behind them.
We are in an unidentified Corsican village, even if, in reality, it is Tolla, on the heights of Ajaccio. The season is summer, the time of vacation when the population of the place increases. And discussion scenes follow one another, all, with a few exceptions, shot in static shots. We talk about everything and nothing, we confide, we argue sometimes, we laugh, we cry. Very realistic moments of life, both interrelated and autonomous, orchestrated by the director, Pascal Tagnati.
“As long as we stage so many characters, with so many different points of view, in such a condensed time, inevitably there is something that tells about Corsica, but it is a consequence, it is not a goal.”
Pascal Tagnati, directorat franceinfo
“I like to insist on it, because I talk a lot about myself, adds the filmmaker, but if I speak of myself, consequently I speak of Corsica. She is part of who I am. So yes, it says something about Corsica, in any case about a Corsica that is at my height, on a human scale. A Corsica that is more in line with the concrete that I have lived since I was very young. They are ordinary people, I treat the ordinary.”
Thanks to its device and its mostly non-professional actors, “I Comete” manages to capture a snapshot of Corsica and its society, without naivety or indictment, for an endearing, unclassifiable and necessarily singular result.
We leave the Corsican mountains for the Morvan countryside. Where Chloé, teacher and single mother of little Jules, a lonely and hearing-impaired child, comes to settle. We quickly understand that she chose to flee a violent father and husband. Much awaited by the inhabitants of the village, she gradually integrates into their community, but unusual and disturbing phenomena occur: a child disappears, the cattle are attacked, her son has terrifying visions at night, and the doctor who seduced does not necessarily inspire confidence.
The movie is called Ogre, and its director, Arnaud Malherbe, is part of the recent wave of the French fantasy genre, dealing with social themes such as domestic violence, disability or bullying at school. Seen in several recent films by Cédric Klapisch or the humorous fake reality TV The flamethe actress Ana Girardot is very convincing in the role of Chloé:
“I like knowing that we’re going to make films, which have a real creative, artistic, strong approach, because that’s what also stimulates me to be on the set, to understand the issues and the risks that we going to take. I like being able to move from one box to another, I would hate to be confined to just one box. That’s what I like, it’s being able to change my mask, my disguise… I have to I can change.”
And if maybe a little something is missing so that Ogre totally seduces and frightens more, the actors and the technical choices, on light or sound for example, manage to give it its qualities and even a form of poetry.
Presented last July at the Cannes Film Festival from where it left with the Camera d’Or, Murina, directed by the Croatian Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, tells the emancipation of Julija, a woman in the making, exposed to paternal authority, who finds comfort when she dives into the water of the magnificent Kornati archipelago. Often sublime images and a beautiful feminist and sensual story.
Finally, two last films to recommend to you this week, first the Spanish documentary, who besides usby Jonas Trueba, who throughout his 3h45 takes the time to paint the portrait of young people from Madrid during the five years of their transition from teenagers to adults.
And in a completely different genre, comedy A talent in solid gold, where Nicolas Cage plays himself. The film is unfortunately quite anecdotal, but the idea, excellent, gives rise to memorable moments.