“I’ll Always See Your Face” Caesar Wins for High School Students: Bravo!

Who didn’t cry at the end I will always see your face ? For her third feature film, filmmaker Jeanie Harry immerses us in a whole concept: restorative justice. Introduced into French law in 2014, this very specific protocol involves bringing crimes and victims together. All of which are of course carefully framed. Discuss together, to try to make repairs. or not. The film does not fully answer this.

And so much better. The director called a four-star cast (Mio Miu, Leila Bekhti, Gilles Lelouch, Elodie Bouchez) with a formidable artist, Adele Exarchopoulos, whose intensity was rewarded on February 23: at César, the actress was crowned with the best statue. Supporting actress. Also I will always see your face

He found himself snubbed despite his multiple nominations.

At least, until today! Because this very sensitive choral drama has just been crowned by Caesar for high school students. He knew how to speak to younger generations – or at least, to this jury of 2,286 final-year students from French high schools. A small victory for an unmissable task.

“This film required a lot of documents”

Surprise! While everyone was waiting for Justin Tryat or Thomas Kelly (animal kingdom) turn it’s Jeanne Harry who wins the statuette. worthy? Yes. Because we find there a strong score of particularly talented actors, including Adele Exarchopoulos, whose character follows a parallel path with others, until meeting her assailant in an intimate exchange space whose strength the audience sees well. is

But also because the film is an extension of a purpose peculiar to its author – the need for verisimilitude at the edge of documentary. At Terrafemina, the filmmaker clarified: “Documentary I don’t know, documentary that’s for sure (smile). To understand the protocols associated with this device, the film needs a lot of documentation. So this first phase is carried out with supervisors, support workers, restorative justice providers in France, who have thought about this very specific system.

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“I got the most information from him. But I also met some of the victims and perpetrators, to understand how these people were supported in their journey, what they must have gone through, their journey. There are many types of routes. Gleaning witnesses allowed me to try to find common markers on the side of both supervisors and victims. It was then a question of putting the fantasy into a reality that is already so romantic“

All the work upstream of the script, during the writing and even after, is necessary to capture this sense of sociological and human truth, which manages to invade the screen within the film with extreme dialogue – but where silence counts. The liberation of speech and listening weaves their way into the heart of the committed and polyphonic work.

“What is striking in the victims is this feeling of imprisonment: like an inner prison. This is also the experience of some writers. To be able to speak when you are well heard is partly to come out of it, so it is very liberating. There is a lot to release

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So Caesarized, but above all committed. so good