VENICE 2021: Another World ‘Un Autre Monde’
On the surface, Un Autre Monde 'Another World' gives off a shimmering gleam of conventional and classic French drama that evolves into a sophisticated and brooding character study with a strong voice, capping off an eventful and thoughtful unofficial trilogy of work from writer-director Stéphane Brizé.
Un Autre Monde 'Another World' begins life as a simplistic albeit a fine-tuned French drama. It soon shows its true colours in its two intertwined narratives of emotion. Both follow plant manager Philippe Lemesle with one avenue, showcasing his spiralling charm of having to cut jobs in the wake of big business and American capitalism, and the other showcasing the trauma of his dissolving family falling through his fingertips.
The intertwined narratives work exceptionally well together, with the feature perfectly, crafting a rhythm of cause and effect that bubbles up and begins to haunt the main character. Kudos to Brizé and editor Anne Klotz, who craft a perfect beat and decadence to proceedings, allowing the film to breathe in areas of reflection and jump back into dissonance with brevity and gravitas, which is equally as forceful and poignant in its aims of political and social unrest within France.
Granted, while these elements are strong and powerful overtones, they never outweigh or grow beyond the capability of the screenplay or performances. First and foremost, the central performance from Lindon is terrific. It is stoic, but the internal anguish that broods underneath the surface is successful and almost traumatising to see witness with the balance of depth provided deeply immersive.
Nevertheless, while Lindon has much of the story and ultimately emotional weight on his shoulders, the character’s internal anguish often leads the film to feel somewhat cold contextually. It is his wife, played by Sandrine Kiberlain, that caters to more the visual, emotional pull of the events that surround the film, but she is sadly missing throughout a substantial portion of the feature to keep that nature of stoicism present. While the feature suffices, the talents of Kiberlain off-screen is evident for all to see. That being said, Stéphane Brizés' feature is wonderfully upheld throughout with a solid central performance and angelic operatic score from composer Camille Rocailleux that provides a stunning piece of brooding emotive discourse to the already emotionally poignant feature.
