Love and the Forests: Valérie Donzelli superbly adapts Eric Reinhardt

Director Valérie Donzelli signs a major work on male influence. His most controlled, strongest and most beautiful film to date.

Unveiled as part of the last Cannes Film Festival, Love and the forests will be broadcast this evening on Canal +. Its main actress, Virginie Efirawill therefore be in competition with herself on television, since she will also be from 9:05 p.m. in 20 years aparton TFX.

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It all starts as a romantic comedy. To take her mind off things, Rose takes her twin sister Blanche to an evening where she meets Grégoire, subtle, elegant, charismatic. Immediate love at first sight. Marriage and children will follow. But this melody of happiness quickly makes dissonant notes heard. Here, a look. There, a remark. Because without knowing it, this teacher appreciated by all has just plunged into a toxic relationship which will isolate her from everyone. By bringing to the screen Love and the forests, the book by Eric Reinhardt (in collaboration, writing, with Audrey Diwan), Valerie Donzelli leaves his comfort zone, transforms his staging (usually playful with pop accents) to seize this story, without embellishment, without effect, favoring sequence shots which let the tension rise to an over-cutting which would make you jump .

With impressive mastery, she plunges us into the head of her heroine through a stifling thriller, punctuated by intriguing face-to-face encounters between Blanche and a woman – of whom we do not initially know whether she is a judge, cop or lawyer – who collects his word. Transcending her subject, Donzelli constructs a masterful portrait of a woman, anything but a simple victim since she will find the strength to go to the end of this nightmare to understand its mechanisms and never be trapped. Never breaking open doors, Valérie Donzelli signs her greatest film, carried by major actors. Melvil Poupaud striking in its ability to create terror behind the face of an angel at the head and Virginie Efira impressive for the nuances she brings to the violence experienced by Blanche. A second consecutive Caesar extends his arms to him.