“May December” – an artificial paradise

To return to fiction, after two years on his beautiful documentary The Velvet UndergroundTodd Haynes Films dyear May December A meeting between an actress and a couple whose story will be adapted for cinema. LewR There is a uniont Based on a pedophile relationshipAnd the newbie will update their denial.

Filming a behind-the-scenes look at the film industry in action is always an interesting exercise, even if it’s poorly executed. However, it is very rare to see a film focus on something as singular and specific as an actress preparing for a role. So in May December, when Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), visits the home of actress Gracie Artherton-Yew (Julianne Moore), she is to observe the woman and question whose role she is going to play. In one word: Snoop. In doing so, she shakes up Gracie’s relationship with Joe Yoo (Charles Melton), 23 years her junior. She has been dating him unhealthily since 1992, when he was 13. He became a father for the first time at this age. After a stint in prison that freed the passion of the tabloids, it is in a kind of parallel reality that Gracie now spends her days with Joe.

Glass bubble

For Gracie and Joe’s family, as well as their three children, Elizabeth’s arrival evokes conflicting emotions. She initially provokes excitement and fascination, or questions – after all, she is a star. Then it turns to discomfort, if not anger, when she asks about the side effects of their existence, or when she is present in family and intimate moments.

Gracie’s life seems to be limited to making blueberry pies that she sells. Rare customers are always the same people: their loved ones who keep in touch with them. It is in self-reliance that the family lives in self-reliance, signed and signaled by the excrement occasionally left on the steps, wrapped in a carefully sealed package and enjoying destructive notoriety. Off-camera is naturally the scene of divisive opinions towards him. This is why everything is designed to protect the hermetic couple from the rest of the world.

This withdrawal into itself is a symptom of the double denial that keeps the family unit afloat. According to Gracie, Jo grew up much faster than she did. This would explain the premonition of their relationship, which would be misleading. And as proof of his conviction: he has many more sisters than her, and had to take care of two of his sisters before he met her, when she was more secure. For Gracie, nothing is unusual. For Joe, neither. Convinced of having chosen this life, he is unaware that his adolescence has been taken from him by his father’s premonition. Knowing Gracie’s obvious weakness, he refuses to face the reality of the matter.

Search for reality

Elizabeth’s approach involves eccentric methods, at the risk of misunderstanding with the family. Seeking to understand Gracie’s actions in order to reconstruct and embody them, she leads a real investigation. Elizabeth investigates, then turns into an observer, a journalist who wants to delve deeper into the events of the 1990s, and then move on from them. She searches key locations, interviews relatives and witnesses, puts forward and collects hypotheses. The profession of faith directs him: to find the real, the true. To embody his complexity in front of the camera. This doctrine is proclaimed, not without didacticism, on two occasions. First, when she meets high school students to answer questions about her profession as an actress. Then on set during the last sequence of the film.

When the word History Deployed by Elizabeth, she provokes Joe’s anger. First, for the couple, only current calculations and painful past should be forgotten. Especially, for Joe, as he usually calls it History, that is his whole life. Elizabeth’s words betray him. Joe’s existence becomes the raw material for the film, an object of study that becomes play and embodiment. His role becomes more and more distracting. How far is he willing to go to experience Gracie’s past and experiences? For what details?

She completes her investigation only when she comes across a vintage letter signed by Gracie. A kind of archive for Elizabeth, who has become a chronicler of ambiguity and human complexity. This letter, intended for fire, is the final concrete, material trace of the previous period. Of these, all that remains are delusional memories, save denial, as well as palpable feelings of injustice and inaccessibility.

An emissary of the unspeakable

Communication turns out to be one of the fundamental issues May December. First, it is the relationship between the actress and the person that she must interpret to create a cinematic character that shines through. Face-to-face, side-by-side, in the mirror: the production combines shots that assimilate them. Without ever highlighting it except in the framing, we note Elizabeth’s efforts to reproduce Gracie’s postures, facial expressions, and style of clothing.

Charles Melton also gets one of the cutest roles. His character is indeed most touching. Gracie’s victimization is led through her meeting and exchange with Elizabeth to make them aware of the abnormality, the uneasy nature of their relationship. It is not by chance that he raises butterflies: the allegory of the chrysalis is clear. But when he tries to broach the subject with his wife, he finds himself up against a wall. Locked in her world, she refuses communication and never understands her responsibility as an adult. And if he’s been under Gracie’s influence for 25 years, the relationship he has with Elizabeth is just as hard to pin down.

Natalie Portman’s character thus takes an active dimension in the film. Through his initial passive observation, he brings out the reality within the couple. And for the viewer, his role becomes increasingly ambiguous: how should he take his actions? Thanks for the miss in Jo Abim, May December Treating a very sensitive subject with great nuance and perspective, it also reflects the problematic relationship with reality that cinema draws upon.