Pendant ce temps sur Terre

Elsa Martens (Megan Northam) is a young adult whose life takes on an unexpected turn after an unknown life form makes contact with her claiming to be able to bring her older brother back after his mysterious disappearance from a space mission.

Writer and director Jérémy Clapin is more interested in human dilemmas than in the usual sci-fi motives. Pendant ce temps sur Terre has a weak beginning where it is not clear where it wants to go but once it gets there its form is already recognizable.

It poses existential questions about what is the value of life and if there is truth in that there are lives worthier than others. Through Elsa, the movie explores purpose and how it can change an individual's worldview. It also gives emotional weight to longing and what constitutes the loss of a loved one.

Its cinematography blends animation with live action creating a differentiated treatment in terms of narrative and dramatic expressiveness. Pendant ce temps sur Terre is one of those movies that has memorable scenes but they are in contrast with the ones where lack of ambition renders them unextraordinary.

Saw this at the Imagine 2024 film festival in Amsterdam. It is not for the SciFi elements that I rank this movie 7 out of 10, but for the human dilemmas posed. Actually, I wanted to rate 8 out of 10, but it takes too long before we reach the core of the matter. It will let people lose interest before the real issues become clear. Not good, storytelling wise.

In essence, it is about how many lives of living humans you don't know you can take, when needed in exchange for the live of one man you know (your brother) and persistently want to get back. It starts easily when someone conspiring to rape our main protagonist Elsa, becomes the first candidate to be sacrificed in the race to obtain 5 living persons to trade for her brother lost in space. (Elsa severely damaged the attempting rapist with a chainsaw, rendering him unusable to host an alien.)

The next 3 are elderly people from the nursing home where Elsa works, most of them demented, so in some way a defendable act as a humane way out. So far so good. However, still three hours from the deadline, Elsa lets a man go who she picked up from the street (pushing a defective motorbike; offering to bring him home). While underway, the man spoke enthusiastically about his plans to open a restaurant, obviously a potentially useful member of society. It is a merciful thing to do, despite the narrow timeline for rescuing her brother...

The only SciFi involved is the sparse communications Elsa has with her brother in space, and with the five aliens around him. And related visuals showing where the brother is now. The brother seems genuine, as he tells a story out of their common past that only they know. The transfer of all five aliens is a prerequisite for bringing her brother back to earth, hence the chase for five humans to sacrifice, to be used as carrier for the aliens.

All in all, the slow burn may annoy some people, in addition to the fact that hardly any SciFi is involved in a story announced about a man lost in space. That raises expectations this movie won't satisfy. It takes some patience and some time, like what happened to me, to find out where it is all about.

No pun intended - a few things I was struggling with before writing this review ... talking about the ending in a way that may give away certain things ... rating, because of the great ending (at least in my humble opinion) ... should I go at least 8? Well I may change my mind and it really is tough for me to make up my mind I reckon overall.

All that said, the lesser you know about the movie the better it probably works. One thing you should know for sure: it is a slow burn. It may get stuck in your head (sorry for the pun) ... and it is tough to imagine "what would I do?" ... because our main character is in a tough spot to say the least.

So to decide what to do ... and to "obey" because of love ... well you'll understand. What you may not understand ... or at least is not entirely clear I think: the ending. If what we know up to this point is true ... it would point to one thing ... but then again, maybe it wasn't all as it was said it is(?) ... the animation is well done and sparsely used (and that is a good thing) ... a movie for the thinking minds ... no right or wrong here ...

Pendant Ce Temps Sur Terre (or Meanwhile On Earth for the English title) is a French/Belgian movie from writer/director Jérémy Clapin, certainly worth a watch if you like good cinematography, accompanied by a good soundtrack and decent acting. I would have scored it with a seven if it was not for the ending that I found a bit disappointing. For that alone I score it lower, as it was, in my opinion, not satisfying enough. But for the rest it's an interesting story, easy to watch and to understand. A bit of sci-fi fantasy without special effects, just a solid story. Too bad the ending wasn't better.

Sometimes, watching a movie makes you speechless.

Sometimes, those worlds live on in your mind instead.

This second feature from Jérémy Clapin pushes every single part of the medium further. From the acting, the directing, the music, the sound, everything in this piece works in perfect harmony to create something that is not only gripping and fascinating, but containing profound philosophical questions - and even more troubling answers.

The ticking time bomb of this film hinges on a central idea: what is the value of a life? A trolley problem of sorts engages you in this disturbing question, made even more powerful when turned inwards by the protagonist: i.e., what is the value of MY life?

It's an alien movie that lives in the space in between thoughts, some galaxy between your emotions that make them bounce around expertly, right up to this ending you can't help but fear is coming.

It's an alien movie about life, about death, about grief, about loss, about what is lost and what will never be found again. People in the room with me where crying all the way through, and I caught myself shaking in my seat, feeling queasy by the midpoint.

I have no more words to express how moved I've been by this. It is truly special. Seeing this at Fantasia film festival, it felt like watching a masterpiece before anyone else. GO WATCH THIS MOVIE. It's the best of the year, and it'll be the best I'll see in a long, long time.