The first feature film by young director Simon Rieth presented at Critics' Week, Nos Cérémonies is an inspired work about youth, filled with a deep love for its two main characters, who love each other as much as they confront each other. Like a vase repaired with gold using the ancestral Japanese method of kintsugi, the film lets us glimpse a fantastic glow in an evanescent setting with anassumed aesthetic.
We follow the journey, from childhood to adolescence, of Tony and Noé, two fusional but rival brothers, played by Raymond and Simon Baur - brothers in real life - in the natural settings of the Royan region, from maritime pine forests to deserted beaches and steep cliffs. It's only a short step from hand-to-hand games to naughty games, and it's precisely on the edge of one of these cliffs that a drama followed by a miracle will weld the two brothers together ad vitam, becoming one of those family secrets whispered in each other's ears under the comforter, at night, by the light of a flashlight.
Returning to their childhood home years later on the death of their father, the angelic faces have given way to sculptural, sun-licked bodies over which the adults, absent from the story, have no control. Simon Rieth films these out-of-time moments of late adolescence, interspersed with long discussions between new friends and old lovers - Cassandre, the little neighbor coveted by both sides.
The young people rant and rave, taking their time with disconcerting naturalness, and adulescent eroticism takes hold, reminiscent of the most beautiful naturalist dialogues in Kechiche's Mektoub My Love: Canto Uno. But rivalry is never far away, and the two brothers fall back into their childish ways of wrestling and horseplay - a magnificent scene of wushu, a traditional Chinese martial art in which the two young actors are French champions, will leave many stunned.
This sibling interdependence takes on ever greater importance, and fantasy seeps into the pores of the skin, like a drug, a need, a necessity. A strange phenomenon that gives weight and body to the word brother, like an incantation, but also brings its share of pain. We navigate between vertigo and reality, the sweetness of summer and the violence of certain crude scenes likely to shock the most sensitive. But poetry is always present, whether hidden in the textures, colors, lights or smiles. To life, to death.
May 2024 cinema releases: list of films in cinemas and opening times near you
"In May, do as you please", and if you feel like going to the movies, check out our selection of the best films coming out in May 2024. Whether it's a horror film, a romantic comedy or an action thriller, there's sure to be a movie to thrill you this month! [Read more]
Not sure which film to see today? Well, we've got plenty of films to show near you. [Read more]
May 2024 cinema releases: list of films in cinemas and opening times near you
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