REVIEW | “The Little One”, “The Stranger”, “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere”… What to see at the cinema?

“The Disappearance of Josef Mengele” by Kirill Serebrennikov

After the biography of the sulphurous Limonov, adapted from a novel by Emmanuel Carrère, Serebrenikov devotes his new film to the Nazi criminal Josef Mengele, the executioner doctor of Auschwitz to whom Olivier Guez had dedicated a novel of the same name.

We enter the head of Mengele, convinced of the validity of the ideology of the Third Reich until the end of his days. His son visits him to try to understand his father’s actions and this reunion is interspersed with flashbacks where we follow Mengele’s years on the run in different South American countries.

Serebrennikov chose black and white but color bursts in with the fake amateur film of an SS which shows Mengele in love and monstrous in Auschwitz, with unbearable images. Josef Mengele is played by August Diehl.

“The Little Last One” by Hafsia Herzi

Fatima is 17 years old, she lives in the suburbs in a happy family, driven by the humor of her sisters and the kindness of her mother. Fatima finishes her baccalaureate and joins a philosophy school in Paris where she discovers other codes, other words and other nights. For Fatima the question arises of how to reconcile her faith as a practicing Muslim and the discovery of her desire for a woman.

This is Hafsia Herzi’s third feature film. After receiving the César for best actress at the beginning of the year, her film was in the official selection at Cannes. Nadia Melliti, lead actress in La Petite Dernier, received the performance prize, it is her very first role in the cinema. The film also won the Queer Palm and is off to a very good start in theaters.

“The Stranger” by François Ozon

It is Benjamin François who is responsible for embodying one of the most famous characters in the world: Meursault, a man who seems foreign to all emotion, sorrow, love, compassion. His insensitivity will be put on trial after he kills an Arab. “I killed an Arab”, is Benjamin Voisin’s first line, in this colonized Algeria of the 1930s, while Camus’ novel opens with a very famous first sentence: “Today, mother is dead”.

Rebecca Marder is Marie, the woman who loves Meursault. Pierre Lottin plays his thug neighbor. And François Ozon chose the aesthetic of an expressionist Black and White, to tell the story of French Algeria and its blinding sun.

“The Richest Woman in the World” by Thierry Klifa

The poster for this film is almost iconic: Isabelle Huppert as Liliane, sits at the end of a huge boardroom table. The film tells the ambiguous relationship between this extremely wealthy woman and the photographer François Marie-Banier, described as arrogant, even vulgar, very funny and harsh.

It is Laurent Laffite who plays him. Marina Foïs plays the unloved daughter of Lilane Bettancourt and Mathieu Demy, her husband, of Jewish faith, who arrived in a Christian family with an anti-Semitic past.

“Springsteen : Deliver Me from Nowhere”

A biopic dedicated to Bruce Spingsteen and directed by Scott Cooper. We can here recall the recent biopic devoted to Bob Dylan, since the bias is the same: not to tell the whole life of an artist, but a specific moment, namely here: the depression of a musician who knows glory. It is precisely 1981, Springsteen is 32 years old and the recording industry expects a lot from him.

As Jon Landau – his manager – says: “they want hits, not depression”. And Springsteen does both. He embarked on writing an album that went against all commercial logic: he recorded alone, in a room, with few instruments and limited equipment. This will result in a beautiful twilight disc entitled “Nebraska”. We follow the genesis of the songs, the unwavering support of Jon Landau, who protects Springsteen from the industry, and from himself.

Because Springsteen is haunted by his childhood – which comes back in black and white flashbacks – with an alcoholic and violent father. This Springsteen, as a depressive musician, is played by Jeremy Allen White, known thanks to the series “The Bear”. And Jon Landau is played by another Jérémy, it’s Jérémy Strong.

Favorites:

• Ava Cahen : the theatrical release of the film “When Harry Met Sally” by Rob Reiner
• Franck Finance-Madureira : the Arras festival, the 26th edition of which begins on November 7
• Christophe Bourseiller : the film “Say no nonsense” by Vincent Glenn (released 11/26)
• Marie Sauvion: the film “On falling” by Laura Carreira (released 10/29)
• Rebecca Manzoni : the CineteK festival, which takes place in Montreuil in Seine Saint Denis, at the Le Méliès cinema, from November 14 to 16. Cinetek is an independent platform, on the internet (lacinetek.com), without shareholders or dividends. You will find more than 2500 films from the 20th and early 21st century. All these films are chosen and sometimes presented in videos on the site, by dozens of filmmakers such as Bong Joon Ho, James Gray or Alexandre Astier. This miracle of non-profit independence is celebrating its 10th anniversary with this three-day festival, with round tables and screenings at the Méliès. The films will be presented to you by filmmakers who love them, namely Jacques Audiard, Alice Diop and Pascale Ferran.