“Would you mind if we took a little detour? – It’s not our way at all, not at all – I know, but what will it take? Ten minutes? What is ten minutes? In life, it’s nothing.” Of Miss Daisy and her driver (1989) a Green Book (2019), the gradual rapprochement between two a priori very distant characters who share the same vehicle has established itself almost as a cinematic sub-genre. It is a touching Parisian variant in accelerated, offering golden roles to its two main performers, which it delivers A great race [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] from Christian Carion which made its international premiere in the Special Presentations program of toronto party after opening at the end of August the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival and before its release in France on 21 September by Pathé.
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“I have a great race for you, in Bry-sur-Marne, the customer agrees to connect the meter immediately.” Charles (Danny Boon), 46, embodies the prototype of the Parisian taxi, irascible, grumpy and who seems to carry all the misery of the world on his shoulders with a contained anger ready to explode at any moment: “I spend my life in this taxi, it drives go crazy 12 hours a day, six days a week, all this to earn as much … Once you have paid for the car rental, expenses and everything else (…) There are some advantages: I don’t have a boss and when I don’t want to talk, I don’t talk . But there is the anguish of feeding your family that you don’t see anyway. And then driving drunk, aggressive, violent, stingy customers … “
The grandmother who insists on talking to a taxi driver doing the bare minimum of polite question and answer while waiting for the ride to pass is a classic Charles is about to endure when his client Madeleine Keller (Renaud line), 92, start chatting. However, the situation is immediately out of the ordinary as the old lady has to go to the other side of Paris to enter a retirement home. An obviously more than important turning point in her life that immerses her in the most surprising memories of her (love and drama) that she tells Charles, on the nostalgic detours or on the circumstances she imposes on the taxi. And a bond is intertwined between the two protagonists of this rotating camera …
Academic and popular film, A great race it works perfectly in its double-mirrored narrative simplicity, brought by two interpreters with a very natural chemistry. Going back in time through seven flashbacks (Alice Isaz in the role of the young Madeleine), the film also strongly tackles the theme of domestic violence. As for the “good feelings and dramas” that are at the heart of the story’s creative process (a scenario of Cirillo Geli adapted by the director), Christian Carion is one of those directors whose humanity is so firmly anchored that it easily transcends archetypes and easily touches emotions, beyond recipes. This does not exclude a mastery of the ingredients of staging and also of innovation. Indeed, the director and his chief operator Pierre Cottereau he shot all the scenes of the taxi driving through the streets of Paris and its suburbs in the studio, installing screens around the vehicle on which the entire journey was broadcast, which had previously been filmed from all angles. An immersive shot for the actors (who thus avoided green screens) that plunges the viewer into an incredibly credible visual journey through the French capital sprinkled with enveloping jazz sung by Dina Washington et Etta Giacomo.
Led by Une Hirondelle Productions, A great race it was co-produced by Artémis, TF1 Films Production and Pathé (which is also handling international sales).
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