A Normandy-set cop movie with far more on its mind than simply solving the case, Xavier Beauvois’ Berlinale competition entry “Drift Away” examines the toll that law enforcement takes on an earnest sergeant (Jérémie Renier), and also how the locals react to intrusions by authority figures. Though not necessarily intended as such, it’s a nuanced rebuttal to recent anti-police protests in France and abroad, since it humanizes the role of an officer even as it hinges on the outcome of an armed confrontation between two gendarmes and a desperate farmer. Still, social-justice advocates may find it too convenient, and they wouldn’t be wrong.
Such cases are rarely cut and dried, and while this one duly upsets a community where gun violence is all but unheard of, the situation wears hardest on Renier’s character, Laurent Sandrail, who already is having a tough time separating work stress from his private life.
Such cases are rarely cut and dried, and while this one duly upsets a community where gun violence is all but unheard of, the situation wears hardest on Renier’s character, Laurent Sandrail, who already is having a tough time separating work stress from his private life.
- 3/2/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Xavier Beauvois’s tenderly drawn film sees a French policeman abandon all his certainties after a tragic misjudgment
Xavier Beauvois is the actor-turned-director whose Of Gods and Men in 2010 is one of the great French movies of the 21st century; he also has the honour of a cameo, as himself, in the final series of the Netflix comedy Call My Agent. His new film is really intriguing, a film deeply rooted in a close-knit community, with excellent performances, a sophisticated control of narrative tempo and – at least initially – a tragic force that could almost be compared with Elia Kazan. Yet I have to say that this power is dissipated by a disappointing ending in which the film, as its English title warns us, drifts away.
Jérémie Renier plays Laurent, a small-town cop in Normandy in northern France, devoted to his partner, Marie, played by Marie-Julie Maille – Beauvois’s own partner...
Xavier Beauvois is the actor-turned-director whose Of Gods and Men in 2010 is one of the great French movies of the 21st century; he also has the honour of a cameo, as himself, in the final series of the Netflix comedy Call My Agent. His new film is really intriguing, a film deeply rooted in a close-knit community, with excellent performances, a sophisticated control of narrative tempo and – at least initially – a tragic force that could almost be compared with Elia Kazan. Yet I have to say that this power is dissipated by a disappointing ending in which the film, as its English title warns us, drifts away.
Jérémie Renier plays Laurent, a small-town cop in Normandy in northern France, devoted to his partner, Marie, played by Marie-Julie Maille – Beauvois’s own partner...
- 3/2/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Albatros
Director Xavier Beauvois will be ready with his eighth feature, Albatros in 2021. Produced by Sylvie Pialat and Benoit Quainon via Les Films du Worso, this stars stars Jérémie Renier, Victor Belmondo, Olivier Pequery, Madeleine Beauvois, and a pair from his 2017 The Guardians cast, Marie Julie Maille and Iris Bry. Beauvois received a Cesar nomination for his 1993 debut Nord, he went straight to the Cannes competition in 1995 with Don’t Forget You’re Going to Die, which received the Jury Prize. He returned to Cannes competition in 2010 with Of Gods and Men, which took home the Grand Prize and won the Cesar for Best Film.…...
Director Xavier Beauvois will be ready with his eighth feature, Albatros in 2021. Produced by Sylvie Pialat and Benoit Quainon via Les Films du Worso, this stars stars Jérémie Renier, Victor Belmondo, Olivier Pequery, Madeleine Beauvois, and a pair from his 2017 The Guardians cast, Marie Julie Maille and Iris Bry. Beauvois received a Cesar nomination for his 1993 debut Nord, he went straight to the Cannes competition in 1995 with Don’t Forget You’re Going to Die, which received the Jury Prize. He returned to Cannes competition in 2010 with Of Gods and Men, which took home the Grand Prize and won the Cesar for Best Film.…...
- 1/5/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Un petit-fils
Director Xavier Beauvois will be ready with his eighth feature, Un petit-fils (A Grandson) in 2020. Sylvie Pialat (we featured the producer as part of our The Conversation series) and Benoit Quainon are producing through Les Films du Worso and the project is being shot by Julien Hirsch. Beauvois’ latest starts Jeremie Renier, Victor Belmondo, Olivier Pequery, Madeleine Beauvois, and a pair from his 2017 The Guardians cast, Marie Julie Maille and Iris Bry. Beauvois also scripted with his Guardians writers Maille and Frederique Moreau.…...
Director Xavier Beauvois will be ready with his eighth feature, Un petit-fils (A Grandson) in 2020. Sylvie Pialat (we featured the producer as part of our The Conversation series) and Benoit Quainon are producing through Les Films du Worso and the project is being shot by Julien Hirsch. Beauvois’ latest starts Jeremie Renier, Victor Belmondo, Olivier Pequery, Madeleine Beauvois, and a pair from his 2017 The Guardians cast, Marie Julie Maille and Iris Bry. Beauvois also scripted with his Guardians writers Maille and Frederique Moreau.…...
- 1/2/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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