Criticism of ‘Novembre’, a thriller straight to the jugular

The warning of the character played by Jean Dujardin addressed to his team (“There is no room for personal emotions here”) can also be understood as a warning to the viewer. With surgical precision and excessively cold, Cédric Jimenez reconstructs the investigation immediately after the terrorist attack on November 13, 2015 in Paris. For it, he avoids the temptation to show the attacks, and deploys all his dramaturgy to get to the point and shed light on a story of which the outcome is known, but not the development.

More than a meticulous reconstruction of the investigation, with obvious errors that it does not avoid, ‘Novembre’ is an effective thriller with a nervous camera and sharp editing, which speaks of intuitions, clues and protocols, but which takes refuge in what it tells and how it tells it to the detriment of its protagonists. There is no room for subtext or reflection. Now, revisiting the latest tragic history, as Hollywood has always done, is a healthy exercise. Who knows if one day someone will dare to do it here.

For lovers of direct thrillers and to the jugular

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DATA SHEET

Address: Cedric Jimenez Distribution: Jean Dujardin, Anaïs Demoustier, Sandrine Kiberlain, Jérémie Rénier Country: France Year: 2022 Release date: 14–4-2023 Gender: thriller Script: Olivier Demangel Duration: 105 minutes

Synopsis: Five days in the heart of the French anti-terrorist services during the search for the suspects after the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris.