“La Fracture” by Catherine Corsini, a “scratchy” film on the social and hospital crisis in France

Emblematic of a demanding and intimate auteur cinema, the director changes register in The divide, on screens Wednesday, October 27. She scoffs at the French social crisis in a choral film around yellow vests and caregivers, while talking about love. If the subject is serious, the film is irresistibly funny, embedding Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Marina Foïs, Pio Marmai and an unprofessional actress, the remarkable caregiver Assiatou Diallo Sagna, in a comedy off the beaten track.

Julie has just broken up with her partner Raf, who has a bad fall. They both end up in the emergency room, while the wounded from the biggest demonstration of yellow vests in Paris flock to the hospital. They meet Yann there, very angry, bruised by a police grenade. Tension mounts in the capital, the wounded are in excess and the hospital is overwhelmed: welcome to the longest night …

We did not expect Catherine Corsini on such a funny film with a social subject. If we laugh a lot, The divide This is not, however, a comedy, nor a satire or a parody. The situations are too realistic to be mere diversions. They seem like real anecdotes of which “it is better to laugh than to cry”. Assiatou Diallo, caregiver, plays her own role. At the heart of the action, she personifies what the nursing staff experience from day to day. Much applause at Cannes where the film won the Queer Palm, The divide deal with the crisis that the hospital is going through, amplified by the pandemic.

If it was necessary to qualify The divide, it could be a funny pamphlet. Pio Marmai, a truck driver who has not declared his absence to demonstrate, angry against Emmanuel Macron, against the patients, against the hospital, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, in love rejected, make hilarious numbers. The film is at the crossroads of Hara-kiri and Monty-Python, but he is also crossed by feelings.

It is to the writing of Catherine Corsini that we owe such insight, devastating humor and emotion that supports where it hurts. Its staging, twirling in the heart of this chaos behind closed doors in the hospital, the rhythm in which it takes us, evoke Funny drama (1937) by Marcel Carné with the absurd in common. A contemporary vision that hits the mark, lived and shot hot, with a critical and fruitful eye, without anger or activism. Only a story inhabited by real characters filmed with humor and heart.

Kind : Drama
Director : Catherine corsini
Actors : Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Marina Foïs, Pio Marmai, Assiatou Diallo Sagna
Country : France
Duration : 1h38
Exit : October 27, 2021
Distributer : The pact

Synopsis : Raf and Julie, a couple on the verge of breaking up, find themselves in an Emergency Department close to asphyxiation on the evening of a Parisian demonstration of “yellow vests”. Their meeting with Yann, a wounded and angry protester, will shatter everyone’s certainties and prejudices. Outside, the tension mounts. The hospital, under pressure, must close its doors. The staff are overwhelmed. The night will be long…