In Venice, Melvil Poupaud shines in “Un peu avant minuit”
Nicolas Parisier’s new film is in the competition at the Venice Film Festival
French cinema continues to take centre stage in the competition at the Venice Film Festival: following films by Cédric Kahn, Florian Zeller and Stéphane Brizé, it is now the turn of Nicolas Parisier, the fourth French director in the running for the Golden Lion. Parisier presented *Un peu avant minuit* at the Lido, his fourth feature film following *Le grand jeu*, *Alice and the Mayor* and *The Mystery of the Green Perfume*. The film centres on Léo, a forty-nine-year-old man on the verge of splitting up with his partner, with whom he lives in eastern France, when he learns of the death of his biological father, whom he has never met. Before setting off for Italia, where he must sort out the inheritance formalities, he spends a few days in Paris taking stock of his life. Through conversations with his activist daughter and encounters with the ghosts of his past, he begins to question his very existence and, above all, his relationship with women.
‘I was wondering whether it was still possible to conceive of an “innocent” love story, whether such a tale was still credible in the #MeToo era, now that we have entered a phase of demystifying desire’: This is how Nicolas Parisier describes the early stages of a project that subsequently evolved to portray a man attempting to reinterpret his romantic life over the years. Indeed, ‘Un peu avant minuit’ is essentially a narrative structured in episodes, a film characterised by the various encounters the main character has, as if they were different pieces of a single mosaic representing the phase of life he is currently experiencing.
Rather than relying on a rather conventional directorial style, Parisier relies on a screenplay that is, to all intents and purposes, a veritable torrent of words: particularly during the film’s many walks, conversations abound, risking a slightly verbose effect, yet at the same time these dialogues are rich in food for thought that should not be underestimated. The portrait that emerges is of a well-written character, despite the risk, in some instances, of falling into certain stereotypes and, in some passages, of coming across as overly contrived. Among the film’s strengths is also the remarkable performance by Melvil Poupaud, an actor who is certainly no newcomer, but who reaffirms his status as one of the most intense figures in contemporary French cinema.
