The year has not been easy for the film industry. Despite everything, between postponements and distancing measures, several films will have succeeded in reminding us why the cinema is capable, even in the darkest, of making our hearts beat faster. Here is the list of the 10 best of 2021.
Licorice Pizza, by Paul Thomas Anderson
1973, San Fernando Valley. Gary, 15, an actor with an entrepreneurial soul, instantly falls in love with Alana, 25, who is looking for herself. In an idealistic California, the two protagonists meet, and others too.
Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master, There Will Be Blood) is he a genius? The more films accumulate, the more the temptation to answer yes is immense. Revealing two young firsts far from the clichés – Alana Haim and the son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cooper Hoffman -, he signs
a loving Californian fresco, superbly set to music and images, as fresh as it is funny, as sweet as it is heady.
Spencer, by Pablo Larrain
After Jackie Kennedy, the extraordinary Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain tackles another mythical female figure, Lady Di. Filmed as an atmospheric and intense horror film, in the height of Christmas 1991 in the English countryside, Spencer is a plunge into the heart of the tortured mind of the princess, haunted by discomfort and even a figure of female oppression.
A great film served by a devoted and inhabited Kristen Stewart.
Annette, by Leos Carax
Worship, crazy, terrible child. Leos Carax will have had all the nicknames. But with this melody sung on the fate of a singer and a comedian giving birth to a silent little girl, on an idea and a scenario of the Sparks, he combines violence and passion with the grace and power of a master.
Marion Cotillard has never been so moving, Adam Driver so physical.
Dune, by Denis Villeneuve
Extraordinary, gigantic, monumental. All of this, Dune ballast. As an inspired grand manitou, Villeneuve orchestrates a ballet that is sometimes epic, sometimes melancholy, through a crazy staging, bringing the film closer to a pure work of art, doped with reflections on our relationship to others and the exploitation of resources. natural. What arouse impatience to see the sequel, scheduled for 2023.
Titanium, by Julia Ducournau
What a Palme d’Or! Wild, sexy, close to hallucination. For her second film, Julia Ducournau is amazing with inventiveness and confidence. Quoting Cronenberg, Tarantino, De Palma, she creates a completely barred universe (a dancer becomes pregnant with a Cadillac!), Carried by an intense and inhabited actress (formidable Agathe Rousselle), but whose rebellious originality arouses our passions.
Outside Serge Outside, by Martin Fournier and Pier-Luc Latulippe
After the extraordinary Manor, the two filmmakers sign a moving film on caregivers (the wife and neighbors of Serge Thériault, recluse at home for several years) and the prison of depression, doing work of benevolence and empathy, as tragic as it is. it is luminous. A film whose heart beats strong and which remains in memory for a long time.
Nomadland, by Chloé Zhao
She won everything: Oscar, Golden Lion, Golden Globes… And how can we not understand it? In the wake of its wonderful Cowboy, Chloé Zao delicately and gracefully draws the destiny of a sixty-year-old (Frances McDormand, amazing) who discovers the life of a nomad, in the American West.
Between hope of a freer life and disillusioned observation of the human consequences of the economic crisis, Nomadland is one of those films that will be remembered.
The night of kings, by Philippe Lacôte
Co-produced by Canada, this dive into an overcrowded Abidjan prison blends orality, magical realism and Greek tragedy. But even beyond its fascinating narrative and celebrating the strength of the stories, the film, as successful as it is surprising, certainly stands by the strength of its staging. Particularly through its velvety, warm photo direction, which transforms the interior of this prison into a timeless space, but never disconnected from reality. A tour de force.
Passing, by Rebecca Hall
In the 1920s, in New York, a young African-American woman runs into an old friend who lives her life pretending to be white. This first achievement by actress Rebecca Hall does not only have the intelligence to deploy a multidimensional and candid narrative, it also does it with
a rare sensitivity and calm, carried by a staging in black and white of crazy elegance and richness.
Dear friends!, by Andreï Kontchalovsky
In 1962, a workers’ revolt in Novocherkassk was brutally suppressed by the regime, leaving 26 dead and 87 wounded. Starting from the point of view of a party agent, a convinced Stalinist, a hard-line supporter whose daughter approves of the popular uprising, Kontchalovsky returns in this harsh and Renoirian film to a part of Soviet history that many would have liked to keep silent. , in
an implacable dramatic crescendo and a staging in black and white as tragic as it is humanist.
Good cinema to all.
We would like to give thanks to the writer of this article for this outstanding content
The year 2021 in 10 films | ICI.Radio-Canada.ca