Between past and present

(from Cannes Luigi Noera and Marina Pavido – Photos are courtesy of the Cannes Film Festival)

OUT OF COMPETITION

JEANNE DU BARRY di MAÏWENN – Opening Film

Born into poverty, the courtesan Jeanne du Barry is a young working-class woman
hungry for culture and pleasure, who uses his charm to climb the rungs of the social ladder up to
become the king's favourite. Unaware of her status as a courtesan, Louis XV buys back
interest in life thanks to their relationship. The two fall madly in love. Against each
decoration and label, Jeanne moves to Versailles, where his arrival scandalizes the court. Luigi Noera saw it for us (THE REVIEW).

CLASSIC RODS

CRAZY LOVE by Jacques Rivette

The Cannes Film Festival 2023 it started in the best way. Before the awards ceremony and subsequent screening of Jeanne du Barry, the opening film by the French director and actress Maïwenn, indeed, It was screened, in restored version, Crazy Love, directed by Jacques Rivette in 1967, as well as one of the masterpieces of the nouvellevaguist author.

In Crazy Love, therefore, life and entertainment alternate continuously, they merge, they get confused, until they almost become two essential realities from each other. The story staged is that of director Sébastien (played by Jean-Pierre Kalfon), who is about to stage Andromache by Racine e, a tal fine, organizes numerous rehearsals with his group of actors. Claire is also part of this group (Bubble Ogier), his wife, and Martha (Josee Destoop), his ex-wife. As you go along with the tests, Claire is increasingly intolerant of the tensions that arise and decides to leave the show (later replaced by Martha), even going so far as to leave her husband.

In staging Crazy Love, Rivette has opted for a directorial approach that is as realistic as possible. Cinema represents life without a filter and without any cut, making every single moment superfluous and essential at the same time. About that, especially important is the use of montage, only element to differentiate the film show from real life, just, with his scene changes and his (not too much) frequent cuts. The dialogues – now in the theatre, now in a bedroom that so much makes us think of the beautiful Until the last breath (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) – play a central role here and make us feel an integral part of the lives of the protagonists.

Jacques Rivette has always opted for an "extreme" approach, often making his own films (e, therefore, even the present Crazy Love) extremely long, magnetic in their staging and never excessive or over the top. The realism professed by his colleagues in the Nouvelle Vague sees its worthy fulfillment here. Seeing the film on the big screen many years after its creation is priceless.

marina fears