Revoir Paris

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.

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.

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?

Powerful and unforgettable 'Revoir Paris' is my new favourite film of all time, and the best I've ever seen made. It's a hard watch but it resonated way beyond its horrific subject. Virginie Efira's devastating and haunting César-winning performance carries the film, in every scene piecing memories together of the Paris Attacks interjected with real memories . It's beyond profound. This could be any of us. How life can change in a flash, and never be the same again. The kindness of strangers is so important. 'Thank you for letting me hold your hand' - we all need to do that. It's an incredibly intense watch but worth every second of your time. I hope internationally this film gets the recognition it deserves.

When unknown gunmen enter a Parisian restaurant and start shooting people that were enjoying their evening soirée, innocent lives are lost and the lives of those who survived are altered forever. Winocur's film portrays an already mundane fact of life, of armed terrorism that has entered the main stream of our lives, threatening to become an expected normal daily reality everywhere.

The survivors of the attack are seeking closure by gathering to commiserate and memorialize. After the traumatic event, Mia (Virginie Efira) is desperately searching for the cook who held her hand while they were hiding together during the shooting.

The search bears fruit and she eventually succeeds.