Play with fire **
by Delphine and Muriel Coulin
French film, 1h58
The Coulin sisters, as it is now appropriate to call these two filmmakers who came late and together to direct, have the art of approaching the brutality of our contemporary societies through the intimate and of questioning the way in which women are looking for their place. 17 girls (2011) featured a group of high school girls who decide to get pregnant at the same time and build a collective utopia far from their fathers. See the country (2016) followed two soldiers returning from Afghanistan, faced with liberation from violence during a therapeutic stay in a seaside hotel in Cyprus.
It is the absence of women which is this time at the heart of their latest film, Play with fire. Adapted from a novel by Laurent Petitmangin set in Lorraine (What is needed at night, The Book Factory), it tells the story of a widowed father, Pierre (Vincent Lindon), and his two sons. One, Louis (Stefan Crepon), is preparing to leave for Paris to pursue brilliant studies at the Sorbonne, while the other, Félix known as Fus (Benjamin Voisin), who has dropped out of school, finds himself involved in a group ultra-right. In the house, where a large part of the film takes place, the mother’s shadow constantly hovers. And it is in this lack that the relationship between these three men was redefined, in a tangled and sometimes clumsy way.
A dialogue that has become impossible
Love is present everywhere, both between the father and his sons and between the two brothers. But can it survive when paths diverge, ideas clash and the worst happens? To this universal theme of the unconditional love we have for our children, Delphine and Muriel Coulin mix a political dimension which takes us back to the deep divide that the extreme right has been digging in our country for several years.
“For us, the story of Pierre who no longer recognizes his son is that of an entire country,” explained Delphine Coulin. Between this SNCF agent, a former trade unionist who experienced the time of social conquests, and his son, condemned to unemployment in a devastated industrial region, any dialogue seems to have become impossible.
The directors avoid the pitfall of the thesis film, which is heavily didactic, by focusing on the family nucleus and filial relationships. In the chiaroscuro of this house frozen by mourning, Pierre and his two boys meet, still share moments of tender complicity, but out of modesty prevent themselves from confessing their feelings.
Despite the sacrifice of the father who gave up his commitments to take care of his children alone, they continue to escape this heavy atmosphere. One by taking refuge in books, the other by finding another family in a group of radical football supporters who happily practice fighting.
The interpretation prize for Vincent Lindon in Venice
Vincent Lindon, a block of humanity, perfectly embodies this devoted and silent father, helpless in the face of his son’s drift. In line with his roles in the films of Stéphane Brizé — The law ofwalk or At war –, his performance earned him the Volpi Cup for best male performance at the last Venice Film Festival. Impressive in a final monologue where he admits his helplessness, the actor also benefits from the alchemy created with his two playing partners, Benjamin Voisin and Stefan Crepon. They form a convincing trio which recomposes itself according to events.
By filming them in close-up, the directors lock us with them in a bubble of tenderness and love, punctuated by arguments and reconciliations, which cracks as soon as they find themselves confronted with the outside world. A bias which can give the staging, just like the recurring presence of fire, black and red, a form of mannerism without ever hindering the strength of their subject. The marginal presence of women, confined to roles representing institutions, reinforces the atmosphere of masculinity in which Fus evolves, as well as its latent violence.
• No ! * Why not ** Good film *** Very good film **** Masterpiece
——–
Two sisters behind the camera
Muriel Coulin, graduated from the École Louis-Lumière, was an assistant for Louis Malle, Aki Kaurismäki and Krzysztof Kieslowski, then cinematographer for Emmanuel Finkiel.
Delphine Coulin, graduated in letters and political sciences, was in charge of documentary programs for Arte and published several novels, including Samba for Francee (2011), adapted for the cinema by Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache.
After several short films, they moved to feature films with 17 girls in 2011, awarded at the Deauville Festival, then See the countryscreenplay prize in the “Un certain regard” category at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. In 2023, they made a documentary on Charlotte Salomon, a young painter who died in Auschwitz.