New year, new “cinema” chapter. What will be the favorites, the surprises, the disappointments, the discoveries? Tears, enchantments, laughter, outbursts? But it’s not time for a review yet, a new page is turning, history will be written again in the heart of the dark theaters.

Hide in the shadows, and follow our advice… Here are the first 2016 thrills from mademoiselle cinéma… Enjoy, live, vibrate and above all… go to the movies!

_

“Encore Heureux”: couple on the verge of a nervous breakdown

They were happy, they are no longer, but hope to become so again. That’s how to roughly summarize Benoît Graffin‘s first film. A simple story of a couple in decline, at least, in appearance.

While the first few minutes of this tragic-burlesque comedy feel like “déjà vu”, the sequence of events sparks interest and various questions, including the inevitable “but how will all this end”?

Marie and Sam were living a rather pleasant life, until he lost his job. Confident and reassuring about what was to come, 2 years went by without the slightest professional opportunity appearing.

Marie can no longer stand her husband’s inactivity, his lack of courage and drive. Marie would like to run away, but she still believes in a “possible change”. Still hope, still family, still happy?

Family, the central character of a film that redefines its major outlines. In the confined space of a small apartment, problems, fears, and anxieties pile up, like so many dominoes ready to collapse. The family, this pillar deemed almost indestructible, explodes. The cause, a lost and erased father, whom life has battered to the point of no return.

Everyone seeks their place in this bottomless pit and gets used to situations that overwhelm them. Find happiness where you can! “Encore Heureux” draws its strength from exploring misfortune in its most comedic aspects and points out a certain social realism: What to do when you have lost everything? How to mend family and marital ties?

Although sincere, the film struggles, however, to find the right tone, the right balance between comedy, tragedy, realism, and absurd situations. Sandrine Kiberlain remains the major asset of this happy mess. Funny, moving, she brilliantly embodies a modern mother torn between flight and acceptance, her own desires, and her responsibilities. Sandrine Kiberlain is natural and elegant. Sandrine Kiberlain is the film…

Encore Heureux, by Benoît Graffin

With Sandrine Kiberlain, Edouard Baer, Bulle Ogier

Currently in theaters

_

“Spotlight”: the church under the spotlight

Every Oscars ceremony has its underdog, that little gem that scares the big favorite. If The Revenant is at the top of the list, Spotlight could create a surprise and give a boost to the “investigation made in Hollywood” style.

Tom McCarthy treats himself to an imperial cast (Mark Ruffalo in the lead) and a divine story (no pun intended), and places his Spotlight in the purest tradition of realistic sensationalism. A scandal that touches the oldest institution in the world, in an exciting and ingenious race for the truth.

Within the editorial staff of the Boston Globe, a team of investigative journalists, called Spotlight, investigates acts of pedophilia committed by religious figures, and protected by the highest authorities of the Catholic Church. Between testimonies, cover-ups, and political and media stakes, this investigation, as essential as it is sensitive, has brought to light an unprecedented scandal within the most prestigious of institutions.

Spotlight fascinates with its sobriety, its intelligence, and a certain perfectionism in the writing. Restoring prestige to the profession of journalist, Tom McCarthy excites Hollywood and its penchant for major social issues, brilliantly highlighted in the past with All the President’s Men by Alan J Pakula or The Insider by Michael Mann.

There’s something of Soderbergh in the air. McCarthy, as an investigator in the shadows, skillfully plays his cards right by letting the story and characters occupy all the space, in a neat and discreet staging. The plot asserts itself as it goes along in a masterful cross-cutting.

Each actor shows unlimited dedication to this surreal investigation. The characters move the pieces with touching caution. All the violence and ignominy of the external facts find their echo in the realization of a general blindness. One thing is certain, Spotlight does good where it hurts. An Oscar?

Spotlight by Tom McCarthy

With Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton

Currently in theaters

_

Happily Ever After: and they lived happily… not sure!

A little trip to Croatia to encounter intimacy, to encounter a woman, all women. Tatjana Božić and her cinema of the real, turn their gaze toward the past. And not just any past, since it’s her own.

In the form of an autobiographical documentary, the director questions her past to better grasp the present. With Happily Ever After, she creates a kind of romantic road movie, meeting her exes, in the hope of getting answers regarding the failure of her relationships. In an inventive staging, the director’s most intimate concerns are unveiled, taking the audience as witnesses in a kind of therapeutic catharsis.

A sort of album of enchanted and disenchanted memories, the film is built over the course of love stories that resurface like ghosts. The director takes the risk of reviving the pain, wishing to hear the truth about who she is, through the eyes and voices of those who wanted to but could not love her. She questions the forces of the universe as echoes of the unspeakable, as being the real cause of her failures, a force that transcends her.

She shares her fears and doubts with the men of her life but also with all women. Anonymous smiling faces, in empathy with the one who deep down loves the essentials: her son and her family, including an exemplary mother who recently passed away. Another ghostly voice that gives her the courage for independence and the desire to be herself.

They did not live happily ever after, and deep down, the director finds the solution in her own tears, accepting that she doesn’t know how to love properly and being sincere with herself. Her other love story is this camera she can’t let go of. This object that annoys the other, but which, like a third eye, reveals another truth and makes another reality perceptible. Fascinating…

Happily Ever After, by Tatjana Božić

With Tatjana Božić

In theaters February 3rd

_

“Deadpool”: hero in spite of himself…

Superhero films are on the rise, DC Comics and Marvel share the favors of an audience increasingly addicted to Avengers, X-Men or Guardians of the Galaxy. And yet, Captain America tires us with his pompous academicism, Hulk is still as green and Tony Stark still as rich and joking.

In all this happy family, we were missing a real anti-hero, an irreverent marginal we’d love to see step out of line. Fortunately, Deadpool alias Wade Wilson, arrives in time to save us from boredom. Played by a Ryan Reynolds in top form, Deadpool is an oasis of vulgarity, violence, and bad taste. And it feels good!

Deadpool surprises from its intro, mischievous and ingenious, it plunges us immediately into a world apart, crazy and promising. And yet, like superhero stories, the pitch is not a model of inventiveness: Wade Wilson, former soldier, jaded and lonely mercenary, is suffering from cancer that leaves him little hope of recovery.

Having fallen for a prostitute, he accepts the proposal of an (rather shady) organization which, following a series of experiments, transforms him into an extraordinary being, thirsty for revenge. Certainly, nothing stimulating, and yet Deadpool breaks the codes of the genre to create a hell of a mess full of humor and nicely placed winks.

And it is Ryan Reynolds himself who came to present this project, which was particularly close to his heart, following the scathing failure of Green Lantern, a cinematic catastrophe in green tights, which the Canadian actor wanted to erase from his filmography with a stroke of saving genius.

What better than a superhero at the antipodes of the protective good comrade, addicted to swear words, sex-addicted (including a strange fantasy with a unicorn), alcoholic, gambler, flirtatious, a stranger to the concepts of civic-mindedness, loyalty, and morality.

Deadpool addresses the public directly, as a witness to the absurd and the nonsensical, inviting it to adhere to this other form of enjoyable, barbaric heroism that, in a way, is closer to reality than other polished super-productions, bogged down in good sentiments.

Ryan Reynolds has a blast in this project, not easy to adapt, a real risk-taking for the director and Twentieth Century Fox. Belonging to the X-Men universe, the question is how to integrate Wade Wilson into the saga without disturbing the fans of Professor Xavier, Magneto or Wolverine.

Because Deadpool plays solo, in a singular framework far from the community spirit of an “Avengers” style. Deadpool would deserve to be exploited in a more suitable format, as a TV series hero, where all his madness could evolve over several episodes.

However, the film’s strength is also its weakness. Its jubilant darkness eventually becomes tiresome. Poorly dosed, the trash humor, sometimes too easy, struggles to hit the mark every time.

Sometimes indigestible, Deadpool spreads its butter on a slice of bread that’s too long. But the guilty pleasure is still there! When is Deadpool vs Captain America?

Deadpool by Tim Miller

With Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein

Currently in theaters

_

“Chocolat”: Omar Sy puts on a circus…

The Belle Epoque, its offbeat artists, bohemian revolutionaries, and slutty dancers. Painters and writers finding inspiration under the skirt of the little green fairy, wild cabarets, first steps of cinema. Not to mention the circus and its sadly famous clown, Rafael Padilla, alias Chocolat, the first great black artist of the French stage.

It is in the features of the untouchable Omar Sy that this great guy, acclaimed then forgotten, comes to life. Roschdy Zem gets back to work behind the camera to tell the story of the legendary duo that Chocolat formed with Footit, played by the delicate and poetic James Thierrée.

Here is a golden subject for Roschdy Zem who, for his fourth directing effort, took on the challenge of adapting the extraordinary path of an artist who is equally so for the silver screen. The camera of Roschdy Zem caresses Omar Sy‘s features with touching empathy. The tragedy evolving in a velvet setting, under the gaze of a dressed-up audience that self-satisfies by applauding exoticism, daily belittled by kicks in the butt.

Because it is as much a success story as it is the descent into hell of a man who wanted to believe in his uniqueness as a promise of acceptance. The happiness of changing his condition, of benefiting from the illusion of tolerance in an era where a black artist could only shine as a foil for the white artist.

There, the real subject of the film: the living conditions of an artist who met the demands of a ruthless fashion, that of an unhealthy interest in exoticism. These beings presented as circus freaks, or exhibited like animals in crude reenactments.

It is on this gap that the director plays: the artist wanting to be recognized as such, faced with the cruel reality of his condition. A gap illustrated in this unlikely and magnificent friendship.

Footit and Chocolat, clownish duo, laughter machine hiding the pain, the perpetual battle that the artist leads to continue to exist.

Omar Sy sparkles, plays to perfection all the imperfections of his character. Not to mention the infinite grace of Charlie Chaplin‘s grandson, James Thierrée, a circus man, who finds here a role tailored to measure. The sensitivity behind the mask.

Chocolat could have been a great film, if this reconstructed Paris didn’t look like postcard clichés, made to please an overseas audience. Roschdy Zem abandons his characters in favor of a staging sometimes clumsy and crushed by easy winks, drowned under accordion tunes.

We will forgive him his missteps as the acting duo is exemplary. Let’s call him Rafael Padilla and let his art exist for what it is: unique.

Chocolat, by Roschdy Zem

With Omar Sy, James Thierrée, Olivier Gourmet, Clotilde Hesme

In theaters February 3rd, 2016

_

The Cinema Train: your daily life, head in the stars…

What if you could travel to the heart of cinema history for the price of a metro ticket? It’s done, thanks to the ingenious initiative of the SNCF, STIF, and Gaumont.

Since January 28th, the greatest legends of the seventh art have taken over the trains of line D for a unique and atypical experience.

Nothing is more banal and monotonous than a commuter train ride, and yet the powerful gaze of Lino Ventura, the mischief of the Lumière brothers, the smile of Omar Sy, the beauty of Catherine Deneuve, the French Cancan dancers of Renoir, the magic of Belle Epoque Paris, will accompany you during your trip.

And it is an anniversary that we are celebrating in a common place transformed into an extraordinary museum. 120 years of cinema, celebrated through the greatest stages of its history and the most beautiful successes of Gaumont. Choose your atmosphere, from the first thrills on film with Charlie Chaplin, to the biggest modern successes, from The Visitors to The Intouchables.

No wonder Gaumont had the brilliant idea of organizing this exhibition in a train, cinema having a special relationship with it. Wasn’t the arrival of a train at La Ciotat station the starting point of what would become the seventh art?

Turn your head and admire the very first shooting cameras… Watch out! Fernandel is behind you… Look up to the sky, Jean Gabin is watching you! So many memories that have crossed the eras.

Each generation of cinephiles is represented, every traveler will be able to recognize their favorite actor, their cult scene, the discovery of a forgotten masterpiece. Gaumont opens its doors wide and presents, not without nostalgia, the pages of its history with almost palpable emotion.

The desire takes over us to take line D from end to end, the time to pace through each carriage and discover its treasures. Cinema, this popular art, joins its public far from the dark theaters.

And why not buy a bag of popcorn before climbing into the commuter train? Why not listen to the aquatic notes of Eric Serra, while looking up at this ceiling in the colors of “The Big Blue”? Know that the launch of a second train is planned for the month of March. In the meantime, don’t miss your stop and if the desire takes you to extend the pleasure, go to the cinema!

The Cinema Train (2016-2018), RER Line D

_

CONTEST express:

I therefore suggest that you win 3×2 tickets to go see the film Chocolat (the review of which you have just above) in French dark theaters.

To participate, just leave a comment below this article telling me what is the last film you saw at the cinema.

A random draw will designate the 3 winners of 2 tickets among the participants who answered the question. Good luck to everyone!

Rules:

– Competition limited to Metropolitan France

– + 1 chance if you are a fan of the blog’s facebook page; + 1 chance if you follow the blog’s twitter page; + 1 chance if you follow the blog’s hellocoton page + 1 chance if you follow the blog’s Instagram page + 1 chance for each share of the contest (don’t forget to leave your username in your comment if you want to benefit from extra chance(s))

– 1 entry per IP address

– contest start date Wednesday February 03, 2016 – closing date for entries Thursday February 04, 2016 and results the following day on the blog in an edit to this article.

EDIT of February 05, 2016:

Following the random draw, I announce that the winners of the cinema tickets for Chocolat are papillonmyosotis, Nelli and Romain.

Congratulations to you, I will quickly contact you by email so that you can give me your details. Thank you all for your participation!