Lucas Dont’s “Close”: Film Review | skin 2022

Golden Camera Support for Best Dog Debut Painting in 2018 girlThe story of a young trans woman who wants to dance on point with other girls, director Luca Dont returns to the cruise with a competitor. Close. This poignant but emotionally rich story was previously simply described as a film about friendship and teenage responsibility that revolves around two 13-year-old boys (Gustave de Wael and Eden Dambrin) whose intense connection is tested when they do. Start high school.

However, as audiences at Cannes were shocked to discover, Dont’s sophisticated, layered work, which covers the changes of the seasons, is more about: betrayal, shame, rejection, love and, ultimately, healing and growth. Given the jury’s capricious unpredictability, it may have nothing to do with Cannes, but it will definitely be a serious contender at festivals and award ceremonies in the future, and will likely have a big impact on Donté, his various teams, and his career. . The young stars of the film, especially Dambrin.

List of cast members, credits Close Drop the lead actors and then toss in the title card, which reads “And we introduce Eden Dambrin,” as if to ensure this young man will be making a lot more movies after that. Let’s hope this is so because the photogenic star gives an amazing performance that truly feels like the result of the actor’s own artistry and not just the result of good directing, editing and massive filming. Which is nothing short of editing or directing, especially considering how well Dont has shown he can work with young people. girl.

But Dont leads a very different performance here, no less physically, than Victor Polster as a budding dancer. Calling Dambrin to run, ride a bike, and play football and ice hockey onscreen for long stretches seems as restless as any kid his age. Still, there are moments of calm when your natural therapeutic talents shine brightest, in scenes where your lion simply responds to conversations he sees in the room or the sound of music. If one wants to film big scenes on YouTube where the actors listen to music silently and emotionally, this film has passages where Dambrin’s blinking expression is easily contrasted with Nicole Kidman’s in the opera. Of birth, Timothy Shalame in the last shot call me by your name And Adele Henel listens to Vivaldi Portrait of a fire woman.

Here I talk more about Dambrin than De Waelle, who also plays Leo’s best friend Remy. Readers who don’t want to know more should stop reading now, as it’s impossible to praise the achievement of this film without “spoiling” the main point of the story, which opens about a third of the way. We’re adult viewers here, and knowing what’s going on isn’t really going to “spoil” the movie; This is not Agatha Christie’s identity. In many ways, knowing what is going to happen can enrich the experience and also become a wake-up call for readers and viewers who are particularly sensitive to certain topics.

So here it is: it doesn’t feel like the beginning, but it really is a movie about suicide and guilt. As the movie opens, Leo and Remy, who are said to have been best friends since forever, have one of those deep, passionate connections that only come in childhood. They are pre-sexual, like a pair of puppies, leaning freely on each other’s shoulders, sitting close enough to touch, or even cuddling in bed, like siblings or parents.

When they start a new peer group at school, their peers notice this intimate relationship, notice, and some ask, with just a small dose of politely disguised homophobic curiosity, if they are a couple. They aren’t, but Leo anticipates problems that could lead to bullying or at least social exclusion. He’s never said anything out loud, but it’s just the faintest feeling he could have felt, on his own side or Remi’s, or even both sides, that there’s a physical attraction between them. He begins to avoid physical contact with each other at school and later when they are alone, leading to a room fight that goes too far one morning. He befriends another boy and starts playing ice hockey, though he’s not very good at it.

Remy doesn’t understand, or can understand, and it’s even worse. One way or another, one fall morning they don’t show up for class on the beach and before the school bus reaches the parking lot, all the parents are there to greet them and ready to take them to the meeting room. To understand the tragic news. Leo only realizes looking at his mother (Leah Drucker) that something is wrong, not even uttering the bitter words that Remy “is no longer with us”.

The rest of the movie is essentially about how Leo deals with this devastating shock, which at first he can’t even admit, let alone the revelation that he deeply doubts that his treatment of Remy led to his friend’s death. . Time passes in a rural Belgian town where action takes place and the changing seasons mean it’s time to pull, with some heavy symbolism, the Leo farming family can no longer sell all the pompous dahlia flowers and then dig them up. . tubers.

Entering hockey, helping out on a flower farm, and exploring his new circle of friends, Leo slowly progresses through Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of grief and several other stages, including the one he’s constantly trying to reach. He sees Remy’s sad mother Sophie (Emily Decken), but she can’t say anything to him.

Dont and his team know exactly how to turn the emotional dials with stunning magic watch lenses that give the golden-eyed Dambrin a glimpse of misery as he stands in fields of dahlias, the most glorious of benevolent domestic flowers. Plus the painful planktonic party in the background by Valentin Hajaj, all strings and oboe (an instrument Remy was learning), with a little sigh key.

If anyone was really stubborn, the movie might have been a little less observant of how a lion plays ice hockey, with Leo sitting in the classroom, the lion happy and secretly sad for seconds. But it’s hard not to like seeing Dambrin expand his reach as his character grows and, presumably, the actor himself, who grows taller as the film grows.

This is superfluous, except that Dont slows it down enough and forces its protagonist to be afraid to express their own feelings, so any therapeutic clichés we hear are from other characters who barely know Remy. . Those he truly loved cried at the oddest times, for example his father (Kevin Janssens) who suddenly missed dinner with Leo’s family and talked about the usual things Remy would never have. This is something that will break the viewer’s heart, especially those who have lost someone to suicide, or are just parents, or at least once had a friend.