photo: the evening beauty, on the way to the cinema.

Going to the cinema in Nelson is nice, firstly because I can walk there, a real small-town luxury. The State Cinema itself is an art deco building that welcomes movie lovers with big red letters and huge posters outside from films like Orange Clock and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Inside, more vintage posters and beautiful photos by the photographer and owner (I think) Craig Potton, a well-known New Zealand nature photographer, cover the walls.

There are many rooms, more or less small, some with only about twenty seats, which adds to the cosy atmosphere. You can then go upstairs to Stephano’s, before or after the screening, to eat a good Italian pizza, or before the screening, to have a glass of Italian wine while watching the film, and that’s what I did.

On top of the friendly vibe of the place, the fact that I went to see not one but two French films at the Nelson Film Festival, which hasn’t happened to me for several years, adds to it.

I enjoyed the two films I saw there for different reasons. L’Étranger, based on the book of the same name by Albert Camus, could have failed because of the very theme of the book, which seemed extremely difficult to translate into images. Yet, even though I didn’t find the lead actor very convincing (unlike several critics, who thought he was brilliant), I particularly enjoyed the film’s atmosphere, in black and white, the depiction of Algerian society at the time (1930s-40s), the difficult coexistence of the « natives », as they are called in the film, and the French. The radiant Marie, the beauty of the landscape, and my memories of my two readings of the book rounded off my evening nicely. Maybe there will be a third reading.

Dossier 137 se penche sur un cas de brutalité policière (inspiré par plusieurs vraies situations) pendant les manifestations des gilets jaunes en 2018)  et les efforts d’une enquêtrice (Léa Drucker)  de la IPGN (Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale) pour aller au fond des choses à la suite de la plainte d’une mère, dont le fils a été atteint d’une balle de défense (balle de caoutchouc) et a subi des blessures graves à la tête, avec des conséquences tragiques pour le reste de sa vie.  J’ai trouvé Léa Drucker excellente, elle porte la majorité du film sur ses épaules. Les méandres politiques et administratives de la recherche de la vérité sont bien décrits, ainsi que l’épuisement moral en découlant. La fin est un peu décevante, mais probablement plus près de la vérité. Un détail m’a frappée : Stéphanie (Léa Drucker) s’habille comme une vraie enquêtrice : elle porte de vieux jeans, des baskets, et un vieux pull (toujours le même) au contraire des détectives de nombreuses séries policières britanniques, qui sont bien maquillées, tirées à quatre épingles ou portent des chaussures improbables.