Résumé : November 2016: The United States is preparing to elect its new president. {America} is a vertiginous dive into the heart of Arizona, meeting the inhabitants of a small town crossed by Route 66, the dented heirs of the American dream who share their hopes and fears with us.
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Our opinion : After having filmed the poverty of the Parisian homeless and the splendor of the City of Light in his second feature At the edge of the world in 2014, the German director Claus Drexel captures with the same fervor the contrasts of this immense country capable of arousing as much admiration as mistrust. A voice announcing that “the American dream is dead” starts the film. Some however want to believe that he could be reborn
To take us to meet “Rednecks”, these Americans deeply attached to their country, Claus Drexel installs his camera in the heart of the mythical plains of the Far West, a land of cowboys where we live freely, we think freely and where there is no question of bowing to some state diktat, somewhere between the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley.
- Copyright Sylvain Reader
300 kms from Phoenix and 600 from Los Angeles, in this lost corner of Arizona is Seligman located on the famous route 66 immortalized by Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck recounting the exodus of ruined farmers to California during the Great Depression of the 1930s. After having experienced glorious years, in 1978, the road was decommissioned in favor of a highway that bypassed Seligman. From one day to the next, the city is deserted, businesses are in decline. Forty years later, time seems to have definitely stopped in this place where the beautiful cars of the 60s are nothing more than lifeless carcasses, abandoned in the middle of dry grass and rusty panels and where slums contrast with landscapes breathtaking. Here, as elsewhere, the feeling of abandonment (“people are unhappy with their salary, their health insurance. They don’t want a female president or a black man,” says a supporter of Bernie Sanders) and fear of others (“If you decide to live here, either you love it or you hate it. And if you hate it, we don’t want you here. Even if you love it, we don’t want you,” says the waitress at the only bar in the area) open the door to many risky choices.
- Copyright Sylvain Reader
Fleeing the cliché of the obtuse hillbilly, the director offers us a tasty gallery of characters sometimes rustic, sometimes steeped in common sense, always affable and above all animated by touching contradictions. Strictly alternating shots of landscapes and interviews, he chooses a framing – fixed shot and wide angle – intended to place them in a setting that tells something about them in such a way as to make them close to us. A jovial cowboy enthroned in the middle of his store full of weapons boasts to us of the magnificence of his toys intended to deceive the boredom of the natives. Two sturdy fellows busy cutting up the deer they’ve just killed in the back of their 4×4 invite us to share a few beers with them, in the middle of pools of blood. A young pregnant woman, hands on her round belly, affirms without any embarrassment her desire to be able to attend a capital execution one day. An arms collector lucidly rages against the deception of Trump’s candidacy when a few shots later, a Hopi Indian full of a now bygone spirituality lets a wind of serenity hover. A kaleidoscope of vignettes that astonish, amuse or even shock but never leave room for indifference.
However, the somewhat condescending look of old Europe sure of its culture and its principles with regard to an America in lack of reflection, associated with the obsessive litany on the relationship to weapons end up diminishing the force of this documentary. with devastating geographical beauty and unfeigned humour.
- Copyright Sylvain Reader
From a European point of view, the fascination arises from the ability of these ostracized Arizonans to yet sacrifice themselves for the glory of the nation rather than defend their personal situation. Driven by a visceral and naive impulse, they vote for a Trump, perceived as the candidate of the rich and whom they know full well that he will never save America, just for the pleasure of kicking the anthill and secretly hope for the return of the greatness of their country, which, against all odds, continues to inspire them with respect and pride.
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