The cinema outings of the week with Thierry Fiorile and Matteu Maestracci: “Les Âmes sœurs” by André Téchiné and “The Quiet Girl” by Colm Bairéad.
In soul mates, by André Téchiné, David, Benjamin Voisin, is a soldier seriously injured during an operation in Mali. When he comes out of the coma, he returns to his village, in Ariège, where his sister, Jeanne, Noémie Merlant, treats his physical and mental burns.
Because David has amnesia, his sister patiently tries to revive his memories, which he doesn’t really like, preferring to start a new life on a blank page. However, in their common past, there is more than love that binds a sister and her brother, a dark and still incandescent zone, despite the amnesia.
André Téchiné, filmmaker of complex feelings, skilfully directs this duo of young and brilliant performers. In the beautiful landscapes of Ariège, Téchiné’s native land, the film deploys its themes, with David’s military involvement fairly quickly taking a back seat. It is a question of this toxic relationship, of reconstruction, of going beyond memories and the director takes pleasure in projecting himself into an alter ego, a very fine supporting role for André Marcon, as an old misanthropic and funny homo.
It’s intense, well done, the final scene is very beautiful, even if we don’t find the breath of the great films of André Téchiné, like Appointment, wild reeds Or Hotel of the Americasabsolute masterpiece, to which Mathieu Lamboley, who signs the music of Soulmatesclearly hints.
The Quiet Girl by Colm Bairead
First film in the Gaelic language, nominated for the Oscar for best foreign language film, which takes us back to 1981 to tell us the story of Cait, the silent girl of the title, nine years old, neglected by her family, who, forced by the arrival of a new child, decides to send him to spend a summer with distant relatives, who themselves have no children, and have experienced a personal drama that they decide to hide from their guest.
The director, Colm Bairéad, was inspired by a time when many Irish children were placed in this way, due to the great poverty of many families. On the background, The Quiet Girl isn’t groundbreaking, and it’s even a little predictable at times, but there are some really moving scenes, the young Catherine Clinch who plays Cait is terrific, her adoptive mother too, and on form, even if the director wants sometimes making it a little too pretty, certain fleeting shots, on a full ashtray, a backlit interior, hands on a steering wheel, imprint themselves for a moment on our retinas.