With the situation becoming more and more complicated to manage after a separation, a trucker drags his 9-year-old daughter, already a truck and racing enthusiast, into a road trip whose ultimate destination is the great rodeo of the Badlands, in Alberta.
Although what Joëlle Desjardins Paquette is telling apparently contains nothing autobiographical in terms of the narrative, we still feel in Rodeo an authenticity that cannot be invented. In her first feature film, the director, already noticed thanks to her short films (Paparman, Without outside or inside And Gray waves won prizes at various festivals), indeed evokes a world that she knew – and loved – in her childhood. This love shines through in every shot of his film.
The fascination that Lily (Lilou Roy-Lanouette) has for these big light-clad trucks that race, spitting their black smoke without embarrassment into the sky is the same as that experienced by the filmmaker at the age of her young heroine. . The story of Rodeo is thus built around this passion that the little girl shares with her father (Maxime Le Flaguais), himself a driver of this kind of behemoth. However, the moment that the latter chooses to take Lily on a big road trip – they both dream of attending a rodeo organized in Alberta – obviously hides a major family crisis.
Mainly focused on the touching relationship between father and daughter (outside characters just passing by), Rodeo is a visually splendid film (beautiful work by Juliette Lossky in the cinematography), from which also emanates a certain poetry. If certain screenplay detours sometimes turn out to be more predictable, the performances of the two actors are, on the other hand, impeccable. For his first big role in the cinema, 13 years later Stuck between heaven and earth (Sylvain Archambault), Maxime Le Flaguais modulates with great sensitivity the contradictions and inner heartbreaks of his character. Facing him, the young Lilou Roy-Lanouette, revealed thanks to Jouliks (Mariloup Wolfe), displays a constant aplomb, which is reminiscent of that of the very young Charlotte Laurier 40 years earlier in good riddance (Francis Mankiewicz).
Winner of the prize for best direction at the Whistler festival, Rodeo immediately imposes the unique approach of a filmmaker whose journey we will follow with interest.
Indoors
Drama
Rodeo
Joelle Desjardins Paquette
With Maxime Le Flaguais and Lilou Roy-Lanouette
1:21 a.m.