This week’s cinema releases with Thierry Fiorile and Matteu Maestracci: “Les Feuilles Mortes” by Aki Kaurismäki and “The Tree of Golden Butterflies” by Pham Thiên Ân.
Taciturn and slightly depressed characters, a nocturnal atmosphere, and a lot of black humor, we are here in 100% Kaurismäki. And the unclassifiable 66-year-old Finnish director presents us with two single protagonists, a man and a woman, whose common point, at the start of the film, is that they are both fired from their jobs.
She is Ansa, a cashier in a sinister supermarket, fired because she steals an expired product that would have ended up in the trash. His name is Holappa, fired for alcoholism at work, knowing – as he says himself – that he “drinks because he’s depressed, and depressed because he drinks”. Two damaged characters, two poor and precarious workers, very much of our time, even if the film seems anachronistic, they will meet in a karaoke evening and will then try, not without difficulty, to find each other.
It’s very beautiful, very poetic, and there is therefore a lot of tenderness and humor in these nevertheless terrible situations (with also the war in Ukraine in the background on the radio), and humanity and hope in all this, without forgetting a tribute to cinema, which would encourage dialogue and meetings. The film won the Jury Prize at the last Cannes Film Festival.
The Golden Butterfly Tree by Pham Thien An
Winner of the Caméra d’or at Cannes, which rewards the best first film, all selections combined, Pham Thiên Ân has an incredible mastery of images, although he is self-taught, like his main character, he started by filming weddings .
This character must, following the accidental death of his sister-in-law, take care of his nephew, he leaves Ho Chi Minh City and joined his family’s campaign. A journey in the form of a spiritual quest. This man, who seeks faith, finds a Catholic community, a minority in the country, a youthful love who became a nun, and meets an old gentleman, a veteran of the colonial wars, who plays his own role.
It’s long (three hours) but captivating, very beautiful and we discover the doubts of youth in a changing country. Sublime images of nature, perfect sequence shots, there is Michael Haneke and Apichatpong Weerasethakul – one of the main directors of the new wave of Thai cinema – in this young filmmaker, sorry!