Memorias de París

When I read a description of this film, I was going to skip it as the topic didn't interest me. Then I thought that it would be nice to see Paris and I could skip through the boring parts. There are so many places where a film like this could have fallen down a rabbit hole and been written off. Like focusing too deeply on those who died or individual grief or revenge or another direction, but it didn't.

It focused on Mia a victim three months after the tragedy, who starts trying to piece that night together. She stumbles across a survivors group and they share information from that night which leads her farther along. This was a much better technique than having Mia sit on a psychiatrist's couch trying to remember and flashback after flashback.

A fine film, not to be missed.

I knew it was to be considered an arthouse film and that there was to be some violent attack within Paris. It was good that I was not told too much because I would not really have wanted to see that terrible attack in November 2015. It is and it isn't but is amazing and one of my best films for some time. At the very beginning there is a slow zoom from within a room looking out through the curtains and beyond the balcony. As the shot is held and there is a lovely view of Paris although it is not one that I recognise or identify. This surprisingly, unspectacular zoom reminded me of the long one at the end of Antonioni's, The Passenger (1975) dialogue is splendid the memory plays with us and so unsettling that it gives me the shivers. Obviously we have the appalling and sickening moment but it is later on that Mia (Virginie Efira) remembers little bits now and again and it is thrilling but worrying all the time. It is not usually the Paris we know but the bustling streets and noisy traffic and the thrill of the action more of Mia and her uncovering what and who she has to find. Clever and intelligent piece quite remarkable and I want to watch it again, after a little while.

This movie shows very well what (I imagine) it happens after an event like the one from November 2015 in Paris: life just cannot be the same. Survivors are haunted by what they have experienced and they feel deeply connected to the other people that survived - many of whom feel the urge to revisit the bistro where this took place and make sense of what happened. This experience is so profound, intimate and shifting for someone that this basically creates a new family, of survivors, at the expense of the existing relationships.

The main character finds herself trying to remember what happened, partly because she is being accused of blocking herself in a toilet in the moment of the attack and denying a hiding place for the others, partly because she cannot find shelter in her former relationships (friends, lover) all of which don't seem to understand why she cannot move on.

Among trauma, PTSD (portrayed in a very compelling way) and her struggle to piece things together, we also discover hope and human connection, and this is one of those movies where suspension of disbelief works. At some point I was actually surprised to recognize an actor from other movies, it just didn't occur to me that I was not watching a piece of real life. Leaving cheesiness aside, I highly recommend this one.

It's an enjoyable film, certainly worth the time. My major issue with it is that it's predictable. The lead reminds me of Jeff Bridges in Fearless and William Hurt in The Doctor. Both have traumatic experiences that make relationships with current lovers difficult if not impossible; a change of life is called for. That's what these films apparently require for plot, but is that true? Millions of men return from war to the same wives, jobs, lives. Other check boxes are ticked off: the co-survivors to whom the lead now more strongly relates; the initial accusation of guilt, later disspelled; the noble member(s) of the minority underclass that gets the lead all through it. For these requirements, sometimes the plot has phony constructs. Having said all that, the movie keeps you entertained, if it isn't really moving.

Or a tribute to the "before"and also the "after". This screenplay is brilliant, intelligent, the story of a young woman who survived after the killings in Paris of November 13th 2015. I am even surprised that it was not made before, since seven years now. Virginie Elfira is really a rising star for the French cinema. Her character survived the killings but can't remember what she actually did just before. Another survivor, whom she met on the memory settings of the events, accuses her to have run away in the women's room, to hide, whilst the other folks were slaughtered. So, our lead will try to excactly find out what happened. A typical French sensitive drama. I will remember this film, unlike the female character with her behavior before the killing. The only detail that bothered me is that it is again question of the migrant issue; a recurrent element in most of social French films. I am a bit tired about this. I understand that most directors want to speak about such a problem, but it annoys me. They absolutely want to be "fashion", see what I mean?