Cinema: the three films to see this week
Posted Dec 7 2022 at 8:00 amUpdated 7 Dec. 2022 at 10:02
Pinocchio is everywhere. After Matteo Garrone in 2019 and Robert Zemeckis this fall, here is on Netflix the animated version of Guillermo del Toro, co-directed by Mark Gustafson. The author of ” The shape of water » propose not an adaptation but a variation on the work of Collodi, published in 1881. The plot is moved to the 1930s and the stakes are shaken up. Is Pinocchio more of a puppet than the kids trained to serve Mussolini’s ambitions? Painting images of rare artisanal beauty, the Mexican filmmaker reverses the moral of the tale: when Collodi encourages little readers to obey, Del Toro invites his spectators to lie in order to better save their own skins. The exercise is fascinating, the film an enchantment. Real thing.
From Collodi’s text, the film retains one of the most beautiful aspects: the difficulties of being a father… and a son. Maestro of family intrigues, the Japanese Hirokazu Kore-eda comes back with The Lucky Stars, a Korean film. The author of Like father, like son was no doubt fascinated by the “baby boxes” in Korean churches where mothers deposit the children they feel unable to raise. The Lucky Stars opens when two accomplices decide not to favor the orphan but to sell him.
In this minor but pleasant road-movie, as usual, Kore-eda gently films the cruelty of this world. Along a wacky path, like a lost Pinocchio, the baby will find, if not his family, at least a family.
Maïmouna Doucouré appeared in French cinema with ” cute (2020), a tender and invigorating film that took a rare look at polygamy. His new project revisits the African family again. Hawa, a young albino grew up in the north of Paris with his cherry grandmother. Alas, Maminata’s days are numbered and Hawa will soon have to join a foster family. In preparing for this inevitable loss, he has only one idea in mind: to be adopted by Michelle Obama who is just passing through France to promote his autobiography. Hawa will try everything to see her again.
Doucouré cleverly plays with proportions to orchestrate the confrontation between a little girl and a world of giants. Like Pinocchio extricating himself from the entrails of the shark, Hawa will sneak through the corridors of the BNF or Roissy, armed with her determination and her scooter.
In an eclectic cast, the young director directs Thomas Pesquet and pop star Yseult in their own roles, as well as Malian diva Oumou Sangaré. Whether cute was a film about children, Hawaii is a film for children, a Christmas tale set in an ordinary setting. With elegance and mischief, the staging slaloms between magic and realism. While Hawaii arrives on Amazon Prime, Maïmouna Doucouré is already working on her next project: a biopic of Joséphine Baker, the idol of the music hall… who had adopted twelve children.
Adrien Gombeaud
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