Of course cinema is subjective etc, you know that. But this one is perfect.
Nothing bad, every actor is fine, the urban settings are sometimes luxurious but nobody is happy, people have money or live in the streets, all are liars.
The stellar cast alone would make any director drool.
Cinematography is beautiful. The plot is what makes this stand apart. No melodrama, no hysteria, just many plots, too many but not enough. I wonder what this ensemble would make were they given a full lenght movie. Perhaps this is the "magic" of it, that it remains short, and we dream we could keep it going for about 2 hours.
Pierre Richard as a semi clochard who sees the streets in a new light is touching, specially for us who basically remember him for his "happy naive" "Un grand blonde" séries. It's like if you grew up watching Tintin and suddenly they turn him into a Japanese comic/ Manga. At first it may truly shock, but we later accept "it's evolution, man".
Irene Jacob, mysterious as usual. The thief children are the hidden gems of the film. When one of them lies to her mum: "they are treating us well here" with a stolen cell phone. Their look when they face up to Dimitri shows they've got nothing to loose. I wonder how many of them would watch short films, and would really like to know what they'd say of us, probably middle class viewers.
The title is perfect. Not moralizing. Just a slice of life, of social classes that normally never touch. The policewoman is mistreated, then she mistreats somebody, then she botches everything.
