A director falls for his own creation while Paris burns — reality is the first casualty.
In Paris, the student protests of December 1986. Alice Lazard is having her own revolution, expressing herself and trying to confront a world whose aggression and hatred ignite her fierce will to live and her madness. Or so we imagine. Swept away by her colorful language, her youth, her vivacity, her humor, we remain fascinated, and yet she expresses so much despair in the slow destruction of her relationship with a man... Romain, the creator of this character, is overwhelmed by her. He projects himself into another woman, Alice Lazard, brunette, warm, and aggressive. She comes to present herself to Romain for a role in his next film, but she doesn't understand his reactions at all. All of this unfolds under the sometimes amused, sometimes irritated gaze of Jean, the film's editor.
Direction
Benattar weaponizes ambiguity — every frame doubts itself.
Writing
Dialogue that weaponizes intellectual seduction.
Acting
Consigny's dual performance destroys the fourth wall.
Director
Gabriel Benattar
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Benattar shot during actual 1986 protest anniversaries, blurring documentary and fiction deliberately. The 'real' Alice Lazard never existed.
This is post-Rivette, pre-Irma Vep: French cinema eating its own meta-obsessions while pretending it's about politics.
FR
