This is one of the most anticipated film festivals every year. The Gerardmer Fantastic Film Festival was held from January 24 to 29. Among the nine films in competition, the Grand Prize was awarded to La Pietà, a Spanish film directed by Eduardo Casanova.
For the moment, the film has no release date, but it will be seen on February 5 at the Cinémathèque française. With its impressive cast, Ángela Molina, Manel Llunell, the film tells the strange, toxic and uncomfortable relationship between Mateo and his over-protective mother Lili. Lili doesn't let him go out, sleeps with him, and doesn't let anyone get too close to him, at the risk of exposing her 20-year-old baby to danger. However, she is the one who represents a serious danger for him, the day he is diagnosed with cancer.
We understand why the jury of the Gérardmer Festival, including Michel Hazanavicius and Bérénice Bejo, was so pleased. La Pietà exudes a disturbing strangeness. Between the sets straight out of a dollhouse, the omnipresence of pink, in the clothes of the two protagonists and their apartment, but especially the interpretation of the two actors, the whole breathes uneasiness and causes an embarrassed and unexpected laughter. It is an absurdist comedy, which perfectly masters the uneasiness that he wants to instill throughout this phantasmagoria.
Moreover, the filmmaker makes a judicious parallel between the relationship of the mother and the son to that of the North Koreans with their dictator. These two parallel narratives are interwoven, complementing and responding to each other, until they merge. We come out of it with a beautiful impression of having seen a unique film, imperfect, but of a crazy originality. Always at the edge of the farce, without ever falling into it. A film not to be missed.
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Cinema: which film to see today, this Saturday May 18th, 2024?
