It is a service that Geneviève Albert renders us with her first feature film, Noémie says yes. Juvenile prostitution is shown to us with a heartbreaking realism that provokes strong emotions, then reflection. We come out destabilized, but also alerted.
Posted at 8:30 a.m.
The other great service that the director renders to all those who will see the film is to have placed actress Kelly Depeault at the center of her work. His performance is impeccable and punchy.
Noémie says yes recounts, as its title suggests, the moment when the young Noémie said yes to the proposal to be an escort during the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Montreal. After fleeing from the youth center where her mother refuses to take her out, Noémie falls into the arms of Zach (James-Edward Métayer), who, behind his lovey airs, is in fact the pimp who will make her live through life. ‘hell.
One could advise the sensitive souls to abstain from looking Noémie says yes. Because violence, without being shown for free, lines the film from start to finish. Sexual and physical violence against a character only 15 years old. But even those whom little reaches should be touched by this feature film, which shows the harsh reality of child prostitution for a long hour and a half without giving the viewer a break. The process makes sense. It is suffocating to see these scenes one after the other. And at the same time, we know that this fiction depicts a reality that is too true, so close to us, undeniable, but concealed at the same time.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY K-FILMS AMERICA
For her film, Geneviève Albert sought to speak to former prostitutes, even a young pimp, to better understand this universe which has fascinated her for a long time, enough for her to make it the theme of her very first feature film. We feel this search for reality, especially this desire not to magnify it.
The trap would have been to want to show the horror too much. Geneviève Albert, despite the harshness of the scenes she has imagined, maintains a certain restraint. His creative process prevents the body of the raped young woman from being in the same frame as the man. The director presents the act in such a way that we do not consider the prostitute and the client in a relationship, but in a transaction. In the unsaid, by the image alone, the message is clear. This is also the case in all the scenes where no text is necessary for Noémie’s distress to hit us. Many of these moments in the film show us the emotional journey of the teenager, the decline that awaits her, the pain that assails her. Sometimes without a single word.
Behind the camera, Geneviève Albert is in perfect control of her narration. In front of the lens, Kelly Depeault makes possible everything the director imagined. It is she who, by her gaze and her gestures alone, draws tears of compassion or anger from us. It is she who, in her laughter, her cries or her tears, tells us this heartbreaking story.
In this title role, the young actress is masterful. Kelly Depeault embodies all the emotions of her character without ever overdoing it, always keeping this magnetic interpretation accuracy. We never tire of seeing her on screen, she who is in all the scenes.
Indoors
Drama
Noémie says yes
Genevieve Albert
With Kelly Depeault, Emi Chicoine, Maxime Gibeault, James-Edward Métayer
1:53 a.m.