Tuesday, March 03, 2020

 

REVIEW: Cesar Best Actress ANAIS DEMOUSTIER in ALICE AND THE MAYOR


ANAIS DEMOUSTIER
Best Actress at the French Cesar Awards
ALICE AND THE MAYOR

RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA
MARCH 5-15, 2020

https://qporit.blogspot.com/2020/02/rendez-vous-with-french-cinema-2020.html


Anais Demoustier was honored by the European Film Production (EFP) as one of ten "European Shooting Stars" in 2010. Each year, the Shooting Stars are the ten most exciting new talents in European Cinema. ( [*] See below for other famous "Shooting Stars".)


Anais Demoustier at HIFF 2010
Photo by Eric Roffman - QPORIT


In 2010, and for some years before and after, the Shooting Stars were invited to the Hampton's International Film Festival (HIFF)(Private note to HIFF: Alas, they have not come for the past few years. 'T would be great to have them back again!) I had the opportunity to talk with Anais at HIFF, and I liked her immediately.


Anais Demoustier at HIFF 2010
Photo by Eric Roffman - QPORIT

In person she is charming, sweet, pretty in a very girl-next-door-in-Paris way. In two films of hers that I've seen (Sweet Evil and Living on Love Alone


ANAIS DEMOUSTIER
LIVING ON LOVE ALONE
Copyright Agat - Courtesy HIFF

she seems to play just that sort of girl -- herself, carefree and friendly -- until you discover that she is NOT! (Interestingly, she had an instant reaction to Harvey Weinstein, who was at HIFF that year, promoting Jessica Chastain and The Debt. He invited the Shooting Stars and other American Breakthrough Performers to a dinner, but Anais demurred and found him unpleasant.)


Harvey Weinstein sat down with Anais (center)
and other Shooting Stars in the afternoon, at 
HIFF 2010.
They and other young actors were all invited to a dinner, later.
Photo by Eric Roffman - QPORIT


In 2003, in her teens, she made The Time of the Wolf with Isabelle Huppert, directed by Michael Haneke. Since, she has made more than 50 films!

This year, after three previous nominations for a Cesar (in 2009, 2011, and 2018), she won the Best Actress Award in the Cesar Awards, the "French Oscars", for her role in Alice and the Mayor (which will be playing at Filmlinc's Rendez-Vous With French Cinema).


Here's the official Rendez-Vous description of Alice and the Mayor.

Alice and the Mayor / Alice et le maire
Nicolas Pariser, France/Belgium, 2019, 103m
French with English subtitles
New York Premiere

Alice (Anaïs Demoustier) leaves her Oxford philosophy professorship for a new communications post at the mayor’s office in her hometown of Lyon. But when the mayor (Fabrice Luchini) confides in her that he’s having trouble generating any ideas to improve the city, Alice realizes that her true task is to reawaken the progressive spirit that inspired his initial run for office.

Directed by Nicolas Pariser (2016 Rendez-Vous highlight The Great Game) and featuring supporting turns from Nora Hamzawi (Non-Fiction) and Antoine Reinartz (BPM), Alice and the Mayor finds an unsentimental urgency in idealism, unfolding in heartfelt and thought-provoking conversations that inspire meaningful political action over empty rhetoric.

A selection of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight.

Saturday, March 7, 1:00pm (Q&A with Nicolas Pariser was cancelled -- along with other in-person events -- as travel by the French Delegation to RdV was cancelled. )
Wednesday, March 11, 9:30pm


***

REVIEW


(SPOILER ALERT: CONTAINS SPOILERS!)

The inspiration for this film (or at least for the title) comes in part from Rohmer's style of filmmaking (Pauline at the Beach, Claire's Knee), focusing on a young woman and the world around her. It may also harken back, subconsciously if not explicitly, to Alice in Wonderland. For this is a story of a modern, sensible young woman, set down in a world of modern leftist politics, old French political office trappings, and quite a lot of (subtle) absurdity: something like West Wing, with tiny stakes, more humor, and much more lush architecture .

But the film is also a discussion of political philosophy. The Mayor is a famous leftist figure, who has run out of ideas he cares about. The film is full of fervent, passionate philosophers, who simultaneously do not seem to believe in themselves or their philosophy.  I am not up on the details of the philosophers and authors the film refers to; but, to the extent they are quoted correctly in the subtitled translations, they do seem to be somehow missing the point (which may be the point the film is making).

At times the film seemed like it would be inspirational for anyone interested in the future and the importance of government.  At other times, it seemed to be more about those ideas having lost their value and the film felt cynical and negative. 

Meanwhile, Alice runs through the film presenting a reasonable reaction to one passion-project after another. 

There is a strain running through the film that reminds me of the fisherman in Angelina Jolie's By The Sea (which is referenced in the interview with Melvil Poupaud, below). The fisherman simply  goes out to sea with the tide, catches what he can, and returns when the tide comes in... and does the same each day, oblivious to the tumult that is raging in the main characters' lives.

As a film, Alice and the Mayor moves more slowly than, say, Star Wars, or most American films: it is a leisurely and humorous look at pretension, with ideas that are suggested for further study.  This film, together with director Pariser's last, The Great Game, about a political conspiracy, would make for interesting study in a political philosophy course.

Anais Demoustier's naturalism in a slightly off-kilter world, earned her the French Cesar for Best Actress.

I enjoyed the film. It's a film I think I might enjoy even more watching again.

***




A subtitled trailer:




An interview (including translations) with Anais Demoustier and director Nicolas Pariser:




An interview I did with Melvil Poupaud after The Great Game,  Pariser's previous film):

At t = 11:21 he talks about working with director Pariser. 

This is a 360 video, and using the mouse, you can look around the room. (It can also be watched in a VR headset like Oculus GO or QUEST.) Pariser is sitting on the couch under the window listening, but not participating in the interview.





LINKS

RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA - IN QPORIT
https://qporit.blogspot.com/2020/02/rendez-vous-with-french-cinema-2020.html

FILMLINC
www.filmlinc.org

UNIFRANCE
en.unifrance.org

ALICE AND THE MAYOR - IMDB
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8903840/

NICOLAS PARISER - IMDB
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3033662/

FABRICE LUCHINI - IMDB
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0524528/

ANAIS DEMOUSTIER - IMDB
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1326732/

ANAIS DEMOUSTIER - IN THE FRENCH WIKIPEDIA
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anais_Demoustier

ANAIS DEMOUSTIER - IN QPORIT
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2011/03/anais-demoustier.html


Several of Anais Demoustier's more than 50 films are available on Amazon, including:

Elles,
Thérèse
Sweet Evil
The New Girlfriend
Marguerite & Julien


ANAIS DEMOUSTIER
SWEET EVIL
COURTESY HIFF


[*] Other famous "Shooting Stars" include:




***


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