Is it true that opposites attract? You've got 2 hours to find out, which is the length of Monia Chokri's film Simple Comme Sylvain , presented in the Un Certain Regard selection at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. A former star of the Dolan galaxy, Monia Chokri's film is fresh and bubbly, in her own image, but also devilishly funny - rare are the Cannes screenings where the journalists, with their haggard faces and circled eyes, laugh so hard.
Sophie (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau), a philosophy professor in Montreal who has been sharing her life with Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume) for 10 years, falls for Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), a carpenter hired to renovate his country cottage in the Laurentians. Love at first sight is immediate and quickly consummated.
But now she has to choose: the intellectual who spends more time with his nose in his books than in the marital bed (which, by the way, they don't share) or the woodsman, vigorous by nature in his plaid lumberjack shirt, who prefers hunting to philosophy. Isn't this a rather simplistic and Manichean vision of (non-)virility?
The theme is universal, and cinema is full of works that tackle it, but Monia Chokri's pop st aging makes it unique in its own way. With its warm colors, the film is daring, ignores the sacred 180° rule, relies on sharp zooms for comic effect, and revolves around hilarious machine-gun dialogue - the drollery of Québécois expressions has a lot to do with it - as the 40-somethings mockingly discuss the prevailing eco-anxiety, glass of Merlot in hand.
But unlike Sonia, whom Monia Chokri looks on with great tenderness and without judgment - although she can't help rebuking her boyfriend on his poor vocabulary in her eyes - the Québécoise is not so tender with Sylvain and his love of Michel Sardou. From simple to simplet, there's only one letter and one step.
November 2023 cinema releases: list of films in theatres and opening times near you
Lovers of the 7th art have a lot to look forward to! And with good reason: the editors have unveiled the cinema releases for November 2023, and the program is as varied as ever. So much to discover for the whole family. Enjoy the show! [Read more]
Would you like to find out which comedies are coming to theaters now and in the coming months? We've put together a selection of films to be seen in cinemas now and in the near future! [Read more]
Not sure which film to see today? Well, we've got plenty of films to show near you. [Read more]
November 2023 cinema releases: list of films in theatres and opening times near you
Current and upcoming comedies in theatres
Cinema: which film to see today, this Monday May 6th, 2024?
