[D66] Filmvraag

[René Oudeweg]

IK heb hem al gevonden:

18+

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/minister-l-exercise-de-l-190342/

hollywoodreporter.com 
<https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/minister-l-exercise-de-l-190342/> 



  The Hollywood Reporter

Jordan Mintzer
~4 minutes
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Minister (L’Exercise de l’Etat): Cannes 2011 Review


CANNES — At once intriguing and dense, disjointed and overwrought, /The 
Minister /(/L’Exercise de l’Etat/) reps a challenging second feature 
from writer-director *Pierre Schoeller* (/Versailles/), and one that 
doesn’t quite get all its ducks in a row. Anchored by*Olivier Gourmet*’s 
sharp performance as a French transports minister dealing with a 
multitude of sticky issues and stress-inducing scenarios, this episodic 
political yarn will tally up votes in Francophone territories, with a 
solid TV showing.

“Politics is a wound that never heals,” declares Bertrand Saint-Jean 
(Gourmet), a fast-acting, forever on the move policy machine who never 
lets down his guard – or his Blackberry – as he’s shuffled from one 
five-minute meeting to another. With the help of his PR maven, Pauline 
(*Zabou Breitman*), and top-notch private secretary, Gilles (*Michel 
Blanc*), Saint-Jean maneuvers his way through the complex inner workings 
of the French bureaucracy, sticking to his guns when he can, but 
capitulating when the powers-that-be decide otherwise.

Kicking off with a surreal dream sequence that shows a naked woman 
crawling into the mouth of a crocodile (the symbolism is rather obvious 
given what comes after), the story then shifts to a brutal bus accident 
site where Saint-Jean gives a pro-forma speech, before he heads back 
Paris to deal with a plethora of issues affecting his Ministry of 
Transportation. Among the many plot lines – which are tough to follow 
given how quickly the shifting narrative jumps between them – 
Saint-Jean’s trickiest beast is a controversial privatization of 
France’s train stations, a plan he’s fundamentally opposed to despite 
the government’s favoring of the reform.

Dardenne Bros. (credited as producers) regular Gourmet offers up his 
usual frenzied, sweatbucket antics, adding nuance to a character who 
exists more as a reaction to surrounding forces than as a distinct 
personality. As he faces an army of cabinet enemies and tries to keep 
his office afloat, Saint-Jean barely has time to stop and think – or see 
his family, beyond a run-and-gun sexual encounter with his wife (Arly 
Jover) – and the same could be said for Schoeller’s vision, which dishes 
out tons of ideas without ever holding onto one long enough to provide 
substantial dramatic pull.

As a trusty (but not too trusty) right-hand man, Blanc (/The Girl on the 
Train/) provides the film’s most solid supporting role, though his 
relationship with Saint-Jean is often too ambiguous to pin down, turning 
their third-act conflict into yet another subplot to be dealt with.

Gripping widescreen shooting by ace DP *Julien Hirsch* (/Unforgivable/) 
balances out the multitude of locations and settings, while a dissonant 
score by*Philippe Schoeller *(the director’s brother) is meant to 
reflect Saint-Jean’s frenetic state of mind.

/Venue: Cannes Film Festival 
<https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/cannes-film-festival/> (Un Certain 
Regard)
Sales: Doc & Film International 
<https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/international/>
Production companies: Archipel 35, Les Films du Fleuve, France 3 Cinema, 
RTBF (Télévision Belge), Belgacom
Cast: Olivier Gourmet, Michel Blanc, Zabou Breitman, Laurent Stocker, 
Sylvain Deblé, Eric Naggar, Arly Jover, Anne Azoulay
Director-screenwriter: Pierre Schoeller
Producers: Denis Freyd, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Director of photography: Julien Hirsch
Production designer: Jean Marc Tran Tan Ba
Costume designer: Pascaline Chavanne
Editor: Laurence Briaud
Music: Philippe Schoeller
No rating, 113 minutes/

On 3/17/23 18:43, René Oudeweg wrote:
>
> Ik was behoorlijk van mn apropos geraakt jaren geleden van een 
> revolutionaire Frnse film die op ARte vertoond werd waar tijdens de 
> openingsscene een gedekte tafel van een zwarte cultus waarnaast een 
> krokodil met open bek waar een naakte vrouw in kroop. Dat beeld is me 
> blijven achtervolgen.
>
> Zou graag de naam van de film willen weten zodat ik hem kan nog eens 
> kan zien...
>
> Er zijn vast kenners die de naam van deze Franse film weten. Een soort 
> Godard Weekend maar dan veel erger..
>
> Misschien kan Fluks even zijn zoekvermogens inzetten.
>
> R.O.
>
>
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