Virginie Efira is amazing in REVOIR PARIS. Between this and another Rendezvous with French Cinema film, OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN, she makes a strong claim for the next great actress that Hollywood is going to bring to these shores for Oscar gold.
The film has Efria's Mia taking refuge from the rain in a bistro on the way home. As she is making her way home for the evening a man with a gun bursts in and shoots of the place. Mia is left crawling through the carnage and promptly blocks out what happened. As time passes she struggles to regain her memory and come to terms with what happened.
Don't go into REVOIR PARIS looking for answers about the whys and hows of what happened. This is not about the shooting but the process of the recovery. The film comes from writer director Alice Winocour's own experience talking to her brother via text who was in a Paris theater being shot up by gunmen. Winocour's interest is in what it takes to become some what whole.
Refusing to take the expected way the film draws us in and pulls us a long. While the flow of news coverage of actual events and the course of films before this make us think this will go one way, Winocour and Efria bring us another. The pair, working beautifully in tandem put us into Mia's shoes and make us feel what she is feeling. We are a survivor too going through life uncertain of our past.
The real reason the film works is Virginie Efira who is other worldly good. As I said above her work here is Oscar worthy. Its a performance where she's telling us everything not just by words, but by looks and gestures. All hail the new queen of cinema.
This is a great film and while Music Box has picked it up for release, you should make an effort to see it when it open this year's edition of Rendezvous with French Cinema.
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