BALANCE SHEET | Our favorites of the month of March 2022

Each month, the members of the editorial staff offer you their favorite film during the review of the month, the one you had to discover at all costs in theaters or in your living room (SVOD releases, e-cinema, etc.). Check out each editor’s picks below. The Blue of the Mirror for the month of March 2022.

The choice of Thomas Périllon

Samuel Theis embarks on his first solo production with Small type and revisits his childhood in Moselle, signing a film on awakenings to life, whether emotional, intellectual, and even sexual, always at the height of a child. We discover the look of this young boy on the world, immersed in his discovery of sensuality, in his confusion, his trial and error. Theis’s great intelligence lies in his ability to capture this disorder and its taboo subject (the desire of a pre-adolescent for an adult), to materialize it without ever falling into the unhealthy, well aware of his responsibility to represent precisely this desire on screen. When Johnny, who puts his teacher on a pedestal, finds himself in the midst of a confusion of feelings, the film remains modest, does not fall into the sordid and succeeds remarkably in replacing the restrictions without complacency.

Florent Boutet’s choice

SOY FREE by Laure Portier

Laure Portier films her brother Arnaud who gradually becomes almost an object of fiction, the film material is so astonishing and surprising with this juxtaposition of small bits of video in various and varied formats. The emotion is in each shot, whether in the living room of a sick grandmother or in the South American forest where a character who has become a nomad has gone to seek his freedom. This long-term project is a film that is unlike anything else, unique in its desire to tell a young man deciding to flee from a destroyed family environment where he never had a place. Strong and unforgettable.

The choice of Antoine Rousseau

LITTLE NATURE by Samuel Theïs

With Small type, Samuel Theiss draws inspiration from his own childhood to paint a sensitive portrait of a young 10-year-old boy, trying to find his place in a difficult social environment and within an abusive family unit. His meeting with a teacher will gradually introduce him to culture but also awaken him to feelings of desire for this man, the only adult figure to encourage him and look at him with benevolence. The subject is troubling on paper! However, the director approaches it with remarkable accuracy, without complacency, with a view that is always at the right level. He thus delivers a very beautiful story of apprenticeship against social determinism, reinforced by the incredible energy of his young interpreter, Aliocha Reinert.

The choice of FX Thuaud

THE GREAT MOVEMENT by Kiro Russo

The film of the month comes to us from South America, a “Bolivian Rhapsody” which begins in the urban chaos of La Paz to end at the heart of a contemporary illness in which a model of society who had made satiety an unsurpassable horizon. A sensory and poetic film, connected to the beating heart of the earth. A cry of alarm filled with audiovisual flashes. To be located somewhere in the magic spheres, between Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

The choice of Fabien Genestier

LITTLE NATURE by Samuel Theïs

With his second feature film, Samuel Theis is increasingly establishing himself as one of the French directors to be reckoned with in the coming years. Small type indeed transcends the childhood film genre. Firstly because Samuel Theis is a virtuoso in directing actors and he gets the best out of his young interpreter (Aloicha Reinert is stunningly mature in his acting), then because his camera completely replaces the gaze of the child, offering perfect accuracy to a scenario which in other hands could have turned uncomfortable. This touching portrait of a young boy whom life has made grow up too quickly and with bad bearings, dreaming of emancipating himself from a world in which he does not recognize himself, is in fact akin to a subtle social painting without artifice. A stroke of force as much as a stroke of heart.

The choice of Jean-Christophe Manuceau

BRUNO REIDAL by Vincent Le Port

Based on a true story, Bruno Reidal invites us into a very uncomfortable place: the head of a killer. This first film by Vincent Le Port, of an impressive mastery, makes judicious use of the voice-over, and reveals an actor with a magnetic presence: Dimitri Doré. The result is uncomfortable and fascinating, not to be missed this March.

Augustin Pietron’s choice

LITTLE NATURE by Samuel Theïs

Who wouldn’t dream of having the couple Antoine Reinartz – Izïa Higelin as parents? Johnny does, however, have parents. But less “good”: they are not teachers and mediators in a museum. Especially less there. Or not at all: Johnny’s mother leaves his father at the start of the film; it completely disappears. ” Not trustworthy ” according to her. Johnny, ten years old, could send her the same criticism: she delegates so much that he becomes an adult too quickly. With a precision with autobiographical accents, Samuel Theis films the depths of the suburbs of the depths of the Moselle. A hundred kilometers away, Philippe Claudel was filming A childhood (2015). Same region, same settings and protagonists of the same age. The same shot, too: a young boy – Jimmy – massaging his mother’s bare legs. As if the two directors were accusing the same person. A mother who does not know how to be one. Who knows no limits, has no codes to provide to his child regarding sexuality. And who refuses that he rises because she could not do without him. In Samuel Theis, small nature finds its support, understands how to defend itself. Adult, he ends up really being one.

The choice of Victor Van De Kadsye

FUCKING UP by Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre

A poignant film that takes us on a turbulent flight to the world of low-cost airlines to gently land a moving intimate drama. Adèle Exarchopoulos finds there one of her most beautiful roles, which brings back to the generational scope that her famous role in the Palme d’or 2013 had, The Life of Adele.

Lena Haque’s Choice

FRESH by Mimi Cave (Disney+)

The choice of Malo Morcel

FUCKING UP by Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre

Observing Cassandre, an air hostess, struggling in her life and keeping a job she doesn’t want in order to stay as close as possible to a loved one who has disappeared seemed like a pitch suspended above the void. A long-awaited film due to the intriguing role played by Adèle Exarchopoulos, the feature film I don’t give a fuck directed by Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre, however, makes us rub shoulders with the 7th heaven during its flight time of 1h50 without ever really losing altitude. Fasten your seat belts and get ready to take part in a suspended journey where emotions are for the most part highlighted.

The choice of Samuel Regnard

THE BATMAN by Matt Reeves