À son image

"Á Son Image" was screened at the Director's Fortnight in Cannes. It is based on a book about the political tensions that existed in Corsica in the past.

Monsieur de Peretti is a seasoned director who brings a certain authority to the craft. The film is difficult to label as it merges various genres: the film feels slightly political, slightly relational, slightly cultural, slightly personal, overall: very human.

De Peretti shows the audience the activism of young adults where passion, ideas, and living with a certain abandon is a life well lived even if it means imprisonment, conflicts with pragmatic parents, and a feeling of lacking power over situations that can sometimes act as a driver and motivator for change.

Debates between characters engage the audience with important questions such as the best approach to making an impact (politically or otherwise). Could one make an impact by the way they raise their family? Is direct involvement in political movements the only way to produce change?

De Peretti respects the audience, never hitting us over the head with his own ideology. He keeps things open-ended for the audience to interpret, but also provides enough information and context for the audience to stay connected to the story and characters.

Beautiful cinematography along with poignant images that his lead protagonist captures, which is revealed primarily at the end.

I'm warning you, I'm going to be very harsh. However, I do like the director of this film. I have always defended him. For instance I wrote a positive review about his previous film called "Une Vie Violente" which was also about the fate of the independentist struggle in Corsica. Maybe that is why I was so disappointed this time.

Thierry De Perretti falls into several shortcomings during that film and it does not help his goal which is I think to reveal the history of the independentist's struggle. First and foremost, the main drawback of this film is that it is disembodied. Its main character is cruelly lacking in charisma and coherence. The actress delivers a very poor performance. She appears detached from her character, as if she was waiting for the script to give her a reason to take her destiny into her own hands. The character of Antonia, a young Corsican who dreams of being a reporter keeps doing unexplained choices throughout the film. We never understand if she has a relevant political opinion nor if she approves or disapproves the independentist struggle. The same questions happen when it comes to her personal life choices: Why does she remain faithfull to her first love ? Why does she decide to go to Yougoslavia all of a sudden ? Why does she keep seeing friends that she does not seem to get along with? She is also forced to stage extremely poor, unrealistic dialogue, which does not help. She seems to have no charisma at all which does not help to like the story which is being told.

Secondly, the director delivers muddled explanations of the independentist conflict. We just don't understand the main stages of the struggle, who are those men who decide to kill, to kidnap and to struggle. We barely see their face ,we barely understand their motivations.

It seems to me that the director wanted to adapt a book which was complex and probably better pictured than his film. We clearly don't appreciate the photography of this film (not very well shot either !), nor its scenario, as we really don't understand the principle motivations of the main charachter (who she loves, what are her main goals) and it's the same for the Corsican struggle which is never clearly explained . Such a pity and such a bore for us, spectators of a disembodied fail.