Every day, La Presse presents films seen on the Croisette.
Six years after the disappointing Wonderstruck, Todd Haynes is back in competition with May December, a film that could be placed on the side of Far from Heaven and Carol in terms of style, and also of Safe in its way of assuming these moments of discomfort, sometimes incongruous. The tone is set right from the start when, in a beautiful, lively Savannah-area home, a camera zooms in on the landlady (Julianne Moore), accompanied by a dramatic musical effect, because she thinks, opening the fridge, not having enough hot dogs for everyone. We quickly learn that this woman made headlines 20 years ago because of an affair with a minor, now her husband (Charles Melton), and that their story is now the subject of a film . The family is also awaiting the visit of a great actress (Natalie Portman), who has come to “study” the woman she is to play on screen. With a very particular tone, sprinkled with a very second degree humor, Todd Haynes offers an entertaining portrait, led by two remarkable actresses.
Banel is a teenage girl with a bright smile, very much in love with her 19-year-old young husband, Adama. We are in a remote village in Senegal, where the desire to live an independent love relationship comes up against multiple constraints, the first being that Adama, by his blood ties, is already called upon to become the village chief, a position he does not intend to assume. With this first feature film, the only one in the official competition, director Ramata-Toulaye Sy offers an evocative film, which echoes the clash between modernity and tradition. Over the scenes of great visual poetry (this house buried under a mountain of sand that the couple digs up day after day with the aim of being able to live there one day), the filmmaker manages to echo the state of spirit of a changing society. It should be noted that the Festival has selected several works from Africa this year, two of which are in the running for the Palme d’Or.
