Three times nothing | An ode to friendship ★★★½

Filmmakers like Ken Loach or the Dardenne brothers make social cinema by tackling the themes they explore head-on, using fiction to expose a reality in a stripped-down way, as close as possible to the truth. Others prefer to deliver a social message through a story constructed to combine both entertainment and reflection. This is the path that Nadège Loiseau has chosen with her dramatic comedy Three times nothing. And it works.

Marc-Andre Lussier
The Press

From an unusual starting point – a lucky lottery ticket – the filmmaker takes us into the particular reality of three homeless people. Brindille (Antoine Bertrand) and Cap (Philippe Rebbot), who have known each other for seven years, have forged ties between them, but also in the community of the left behind gravitating around their small makeshift tents in the Bois de Vincennes. . Added to them, by a combination of circumstances, is La Flèche (Côme Levin), a young man with a more unpredictable temperament.

For a long time, Brindille and Cap have been playing the Lotto every week, which allows them to extract themselves a little from their reality by dreaming of the trips they would take if ever luck finally got on their side. When this day finally arrives, these men, without a fixed address, must first come up against a bureaucracy in which their existence is not recognized. How to open a bank account without an address and without a valid identity? But beyond the portrait of a society where these three individuals count for “nothing” (hence the title), Nadège Loiseau works precisely to highlight the deep humanity of these men who have not had it easy, thus giving them back their share of dignity.

Antoine Bertrand, funny and poignant

The story is also focused on the consequences of a sum falling from the sky, which inevitably changes the relationship between people, including within the trio itself. The character of Brindille – Nicolas Grenier, his real name – is probably the most emblematic in this regard, insofar as, as a father, he is the one of the three making every effort to regain a semblance of normality. In a rather refined way, the filmmaker also questions in passing what the conception of a “normal” life is to us.

It is also worth highlighting the performance of Antoine Bertrand, as funny as it is poignant, as well as the filmmaker’s desire to honor the actor’s Quebecness. We avoided folkloric clichés in this regard, which, let’s face it, is still rather rare in French cinema.

Thus, we will not really be explained why Nicolas found himself one day in Paris, but we nevertheless understand that he has been there for a while, that he has founded a family there, and that the French accent has not never had a hold on him.

On arrival, this ode to friendship is one of those films that do good to the soul because they have this ability to refocus us on our own humanity. These days, it’s always good to remember that.

Three times nothing is playing in theaters.

Drama

Three times nothing

Nadege Loiseau

With Antoine Bertrand, Philippe Rebbot, Como Levin

1:30 a.m.

★★★½