TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES

Sport and cinema

Slalom

Charlène Favier
2020 - France / Belgium - 1h32

Screenings : wednesday 24 - 7:45 pm - 400 Coups - 5 - presented and followed by a debate with Noée Abita - actress

15-year-old Lyz has just joined the prestigious ski school in Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Fred, a former champion turned trainer has decided to gamble everything on his new recruit. Galvanised by his support, Lyz gives everything, physically and emotionally. One victory follows another, but she soon finds herself in her trainer's hold…

Inspired from her own experience, without nevertheless making Lyz and career an autobiographical double, Charlène Favier unpicks the complex threads between fascination and the need for affection. The construction of these two characters and their relationship is fuelled by ambivalence. Supported by her technical team, with whom she had already worked on her school films and shorts, Charlène Favier sets in place a precise aesthetic which magnifies the ever-present and isolating mountains, while toying with a ballet that blows hot and cold, between slow camera movements and the speed of the downhill slalom. “The treatment of blue, and then red invading the screen, the different sources and paths of the light (the sun, lighting, windows, snow, pool water) reveal some meticulous work, anchoring the protagonists in a chilling modern tale. Noée Abita, revealed in Léa Mysius's Ava, nourishes the film with her angelic and rebellious determination. Jérémie Renier powerfully and subtlely takes on the role of the person who manipulates and derails her, blinded by himself.” (Olivier Pélisson; Bande à part)

CAST AND CREW

Cast : Noée Abita, Jérémie Renier, Marie Denarnaud, Muriel Combeau
Screenplay : Charlène Favier, Antoine Lacomblez, Marie Talon
Cinematography : Yann Maritaud
Editing : Maxime Pozzi-Garcia
Music : Alexandre Lier, Sylvain Ohrel, Nicolas Weil

Production : Mille et Une Productions

French distributor : Jour2fête