Testament, Napoleon, I am not a hero... Films to see or avoid this week

Comedy by Denys Arcand, 1h55

He saw others. He receives a literary prize in the midst of raging feminists. In addition, there is a mistaken identity: the real winner is a homonym. Jean-Michel Bouchard attends the ceremony with an amused and furious look. This septuagenarian in a well-cut three-piece suit also observes his contemporaries with a solid dose of philosophy. Vaguely a writer, he lives in a luxurious retirement home surrounded by a vast park. His country has changed. Soon he no longer recognizes him. Maybe he needs new glasses. By setting his new film in a retirement home with hectic daily life, Quebecer Denys Arcand makes fun of our times. Far from political correctness. Bouchard sighs heavily. Her next-door neighbor no longer wants to be called Stéphanie. Now say Stef. The hero ironically trains himself to express himself in non-gendered language (try it: the result is tasty). The offended are becoming more and more numerous. Be careful where you put your feet. At 82, Denys Arcand is not as old as his arteries. But with Testament, he has a tough tooth. The time saddens him. He chooses to make fun of it. IN.

Also readOur review of Testament: with our best old people

Drama by Delphine Deloget, 1h52

Delphine Deloget is the happy discovery of the week with Nothing to lose, her first feature film, a never melodramatic drama of great accuracy. By offering the main role to Virginie Efira, she could not have afforded herself a better entry card. Moving, the actress plays Sylvie, a barmaid at night in a café-concert in Brest and a single mother close to her two boys, Jean-Jacques, the eldest, and Sofiane. But this youngest with a hyperactive tendency has a little too much fries... and he likes them a little too much too. One evening when his mother is working and his older brother hasn't come home yet, he gets the urge to cook some and ends up in the hospital with second-degree burns. Fortunately, nothing serious, but the domestic accident will set off a hellish spiral. As the boy was alone, the hospital made a report of neglect to Child Welfare, which itself launched a procedure to place Sofiane in a home and break up the family unit. If the scenario, very well documented, is based on real testimonies, the film then frees itself from it. He leaves a raw realism to focus on the portrait full of life, almost carnal, of a woman who does not give up, the survival instinct anchored in her body, despite increasingly insurmountable obstacles. Confronted in cinemas with the great Napoleonic battles led by Ridley Scott, this sadly ordinary but heroic fight of a mother also deserves the fields of honor. V.B.

Also readOur review of Nothing to Lose: Being a Mother in Troubled Times

Historical drama by Ridley Scott, 2h30

He did not dare to title his film Napoléon et Joséphine. He could have, for the sake of transparency. Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby) is a leading character here. Despite spectacular battle scenes, the director portrays Joaquin Phoenix as an emperor in love with Josephine in a reductive vision of history. In the shadow of the pyramids, Napoleon writes enamored letters to Joséphine. She doesn't answer him, too busy having sex with a handsome soldier - he looks like Labiche. Although Scott devotes time to this imperial melodrama, we get the impression that he doesn't care much about the artichoke-hearted Napoleon. It is the military strategist who interests the director, more at ease on the battlefield than in the bedroom. Scott's staging then honors the military genius of the Emperor. From the siege of Toulon in 1793, the Corsican showed himself to be a fine tactician in destroying the English fleet and Scott a master of the grand spectacle. Fans of Stratego, a board game inspired by the Napoleonic wars, will appreciate it. Between the war within the couple and in Europe, politics is the big loser. It disappears in ellipses sharp as a sabre. Talleyrand and Fouché make up the numbers. Basically, it appears that Napoleon is a great military leader because he is a poor diplomat. An insatiable conqueror without vision. The same could be said of Scott, whose fresco on one of the most controversial figures in French history leaves one strangely indifferent. E.S.

Drama by Anthony Chen, 1h37

Noticed at Cannes in 2013 with Ilo Ilo, awarded the Golden Camera for best first film, Singaporean Anthony Chen sets up his camera in Yanji, a town on the border of China and North Korea. It follows three young adults in the depths of winter. A melancholic and graceful Jules and Jim. E.S.

Comedy by Rudy Milstein, 1h41

Louis, a junior lawyer, is transparent in the firm that employs him. When he is mistakenly diagnosed with cancer, his outlook changes and he becomes someone who matters. Vincent Dedienne is perfect in this comedy about lies which is reminiscent of Pierre Salvadori. The scenario is less impeccable and the character of Géraldine Nakache, a cancer patient in remission and vulgar, is more painful than funny. E. S.