Many genres in a single film: this is how “The Mysteries of the Bar Étoile” can be summed up, a curious film released this week in our cinemas.
The first sequence is enough to demonstrate the numerous changes of style present in this feature film: on a rainy night, the former activist Boris is working as a bartender at The shooting star when one of his victims shows up at the club to claim revenge. The latter’s plan does not end well, but Boris will have to understand how to save himself from the next attacks. The appearance of a lookalike, the depressed and lonely Dom, seems to provide the bartender, his ingenious companion Kayoko and their faithful friend Tim with a perfect escape plan. However, they didn’t calculate the intrusion of Dom’s ex-wife, a suspicious and decidedly bizarre detective.
Chosen as the opening title of last year’s Locarno Film Festival, “The mysteries of the Étoile bar” is framed by the typical tones of noir, but in between comic passages alternate with tragic and surreal ones. Behind the camera are Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon, directors and actors who use their real names for the characters they choose to play, returned behind the camera seven years after “Barefoot Paris”, their most famous film to date. Undoubtedly “The Mysteries of Bar Étoile” is a particular audiovisual experience, victim of ups and downs, but still capable of arousing interest due to its truly unconventional structure.
Among the film’s peculiarities there are also numerous gags that refer directly to the cinema: the game of mistaken identity gives rise to a series of references to the cinema of the past, starting from the famous “fake mirror” sequence created by the great Max Linder in 1921 in “Seven Years of Trouble” and then taken up by Groucho Marx in “Blitzkrieg of the Marx Brothers” in 1933. There is no shortage of surprising moments, especially as the conclusion approaches, but there are just as many predictable passages that know too much already seen and which end up limiting effective involvement. Although the aforementioned “Barefoot Paris” had a lighter and more carefree basis, even in this case the two authors do not abandon the humor, combined however with a bitterness and melancholy that manage to convey a fascinating atmosphere to the public overall, despite the defects mentioned above. A totally positive mention goes to the excellent soundtrack, full of music capable of making viewers empathize better with the surreal story that is told.
Gloria!
Among the new releases of the week there is also “Gloria!”, the first work by Margherita Vicario, a singer-songwriter and actress who has chosen to take the plunge by also positioning herself behind the camera. Presented in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, “Gloria! ” is set in a girls’ boarding school in early nineteenth-century Venice. Here lives a lonely, apparently mute girl called Teresa and is gifted with an extraordinary musical talent that no one knows anything about. The young woman even manages to perceive the harmony of the universe through music, as demonstrated by the remarkable opening sequence. While inside the institute everyone is busy with the imminent visit of the new Pope who has just been elected, starting from the priest who is trying to create a new composition for the Pope, Teresa discovers a new invention, a piano, in a secret room. While she begins to practice in secret, four girls from the boarding school will join her to create a sort of musical group passionate about profoundly modern tones and distant from the old ideas present in the place where they find themselves.
Dedicated to the many female composers who have been hidden from the pages of history, “Gloria!” it is a film that puts a story of “sisterhood” at the center of the story, showing the support that the girls give each other and in particular the help towards one of the group who will go through a moment of great difficulty. Initially engaging and full of interesting psychological nuances, the film unfortunately drops a lot in the distance, arriving at the ending with shortness of breath and a final sequence not up to the level of the very good things seen previously. The elegant staging and the photography which is striking for its decidedly suggestive chiaroscuro effects, however, give rise to hope for the future of a debutant who is still a little immature, but already capable of showing good talent and notable aesthetic sensitivity.
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2024-04-12 14:19:43