This film focuses on the audience’ experience. Once the lights go dim and images get projected on a screen, the audience is transported to another place.
Stills from the film
Cast: Louis Birman, Dominique Païni. Clément Hervieu-Léger
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Rating:4/5
Runtime: 88 min
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To celebrate the magic of the movie theater experiece, in a reverential lyrical tribute, memories, fiction, and discoveries intertwine in a flow of cinematic imagery.
This film focuses on the audience’ experience. Once the lights go dim and images get projected on a screen, the audience is transported to another place. Desplechin’s docufiction in novel format is bookended in cinematic and literary references - presented in such a way that the viewer's experience becomes primary.
Desplechin’s relationship with cinema is reflected through the narration of his recurring character, alter-ego, Paul Dédalus (Mathieu Amalric ), a common man easy to identify with. All that we see here we experience through Paul’s eyes - specific moments that shaped his development as a film buff.
We see reflections from devoted fans and clips from classics. We get to revel in all the wonders and pleasures of being a movie lover through the growing stages of Paul’s development. Paul is played as a child (Louis Birman), a teenager (Milo Machado-Graner), in his twenties (Sam Chemoul), and in his thirties (Salif Cissé), at each age reflecting on formative experiences of being a spectator in a cinema hall.
In one scene we see a six-year-old Paul and his younger sister (Flavie Dachi) taken to the movies for the first time, by their grandmother (Françoise Lebrun). Paul is seen entranced by the beam of light emanating from the projector booth. In another, a 14-year-old Paul travels to Lille, lying about his age to see “Cries and Whispers.” It’s a viewing that changes Paul’s life.
Cinematographer Noé Bach works with Desplechin to permeate the experience with a warm amber glow - a befitting way to convey the romance of movies. This film is a tribute to the collective film experience. It blends fact and fiction to recreate the magic of the silver screen. And the allure is all-pervasive.
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