The Coubertin Spirit, Eternal Memory, Planet of the Apes... Films to watch this week

Comedy by Jérémie Sein, 1h18

In 2016, he missed the Games due to mononucleosis. In 2020, the Olympiads passed under his nose due to Covid. In 2024, Paul (Benjamin Voisin) intends to make up for it. This native of Tarbes is a three-time world champion in his discipline. Which ? Sport shooting, alas. Nobody knows. It doesn't matter. Gendarme and son of a gendarme, the athlete is pumped up. Between us, Paris. His coach doesn't let him go one step. In her tracksuit with blue-white-red stripes, Emmanuelle Bercot, mounted on springs, hairstyle in dreadlocks, still chewing gum and repeats like a mantra: “We come, we win and we leave. » Apparently, this summer the results will be disastrous. The defeats follow one another. No medals on the horizon. We must therefore prepare for the worst. We even rank behind Spain and Portugal, that’s saying something. We are counting on him to win a reward at the last minute. Stuck and clumsy, our Paul becomes a star.

The zaniness is the price of this invigorating comedy which is at times reminiscent of Les Fous du stadium with the late Charlots (note: compliment), but more realistic. It does not fear a slight anticipation, it is worth through fair observation, a certain nerve, recurring gags. The bandwidth of continuous news channels announces disasters in spades. It looks like it. Commentators ask their guests: “What's it like to be a terrible tennis player? " The question needs to be asked. The reproach is not likely to be addressed to the director who cheerfully climbs the steps of the podium, a true amateur in every sense of the word. Gold, silver or bronze, he has the choice. For him, the game is over. Everything is fine. IN.

À lire aussiNotre critique de L'Esprit Coubertin: les jeux sont bien faits

Documentary by Maite Alberdi, 1h25

To the question “What would you like to remember”, he answers “about us”: a couple almost like any other if it were not for the fact that the specter of Alzheimer's disease hovers in the home of Augusto and Luisa. Which prompts other questions repeated tirelessly: “What are we doing here? ”, “ Who are these people in the photo? ", " Who are you ? » Augusto Gongora was a famous Chilean journalist, engaged against the junta during the Pinochet era through programs broadcast undercover. He was then a figure on national television with various cultural chronicles. Paulina Urrutia was an actress before becoming the first female Minister of Culture under the government of Michelle Bachelet. She looks a bit like Isabella Rossellini and has a smile that will captivate hearts. Augusto loses his memory but he often reminds her how beautiful she is.

There is something dizzying in Eternal Memory, the documentary that Maite Alberdi devotes to Paulina and Augusto Gongora, a couple struck by the intrusion of illness. A dizziness that grips the viewer when faced with this sequence during which a man tries to extract words from his reflection in the mirror, convinced that he has someone in front of him. The success of this documentary lies in its delicate editing which alternates current sequences and period films, television archives which show Pinochet's Chile and the journalist at work. A delicacy that makes the viewer never feel like a voyeur. The camera always returns gently to this house where wood dominates, nestled in a green setting, and in which a couple fights to preserve their memory. Beyond the testimony on illness, the film is also a eulogy of love. F.D.

Also read: Our review of Eternal Memory: a couple at war with Alzheimer's

Science-fiction de Wes Ball, 2h25

A philosophical tale as much as a story of anticipation, even a satirical fable, the films in this saga offer over the decades a pessimistic vision of the future of humanity. Almost ten years before phenomenon series such as Star Wars (1977), Alien (1979), Star Trek (1979) or Terminator (1984), the saga has especially passed into posterity, because it addresses themes ranging from apocalypse to the nuclear threat, including the Cold War, racial conflicts and animal rights. The tenth film in this franchise, which generated $1.7 billion at the worldwide box office, is directed by Wes Ball. Entitled Planet of the Apes: The New Kingdom, it picks up the thread of the trilogy from 2011-2017. O.D.