(Paris) Between two blockbustersHollywood darling Timothée Chalamet returns under the camera of Luca Guadagnino, the director who made him famous, in a disturbing road movie cannibal in the United States.
The 26-year-old Franco-American, who will be next year in the next installment of Dunes and in the musical Wonkainspired by Roald Dahl, comes with Bones and Allin theaters on Wednesday, a ballad against the grain, in the deep America of the 1980s.
The film, in competition at the Venice Film Festival in September, left with a prize for best director.
This time, no sweet gay romance in the idyllic setting of an Italian villa like in 2017 with Call me by your name : the actor breaks his image of a smooth young man in all respects by lending his angel face to Lee, a vagabond who embarks on an odyssey with Maren, whose irrepressible appetite for human flesh he shares.
It is the story of “two very isolated young people, who do not yet have a real identity and assert themselves through love”, summed up Chalamet in Venice, confessing that he “was dying to work again with Luca” Guadagnino.
“To be young today […] means to be judged permanently. I can’t imagine what it’s like to grow up under the ax of social media. It was a relief to portray characters struggling with their dilemmas without having to go to Reddit, Twitter or TikTok to see how they fit into society,” Chalamet observed.
The character of Maren is played by Canadian actress Taylor Russell, best known so far for her roles in the series Strange Empire and Falling Skies.
Bonnie and Clyde
The two protagonists sail at the wheel of their blue pick-up and Ronald Reagan is at the White House, but it doesn’t matter: this umpteenth version of the infernal couple formed by Bonnie and Clyde evolves in an eternal America, that of the Midwest haunted by the left behind. for the American dream.
Over the course of their journey, Lee and Maren seek to understand their difference and learn to live with it, not without some violent hitches giving rise to a few gore scenes where we see them devouring still quivering bodies.
“There is something about those who live on the margins of society that attracts and moves me. I love these characters,” explained Luca Guadagnino. “I’m interested in their emotional journey.”
“I see this film as a meditation on what we are and how to overcome what we are, especially if it is something that we cannot control”, underlined the filmmaker, who chose to adapt the novel of the same title by Camille DeAngelis.
Beyond the analysis of the psychological springs accompanying the quest for self among these marginalized, Bones and All arouses an almost physical discomfort in the viewer, not so much by showing unbearable scenes as by making a couple who violate a universal taboo terribly attractive.
In the background, Guadagnino lets his camera frolic over grandiose and magical landscapes where his characters seem to be only fleeting shadows destined to be devoured by their destiny. A kind of children’s tale where the ogres are also beings of flesh and blood shivering with realism. To remember in this regard the chilling performance of an unrecognizable Chloë Sevigny in the role of Maren’s mother.