Revoir Paris movie storyline. French director Alice Winocour follows the aftermath of a Bataclan-style massacre from the perspective of one survivor suffering memory loss. It’s a sensitive, careful film with real emotional intelligence, but no less gripping for swerving dramatic fireworks in favour of quieter, more observational moments.
That survivor, Mia (Benedetta’s Virginie Efira), is a forty-something Parisian translator who we meet happy in her work and, seemingly, in her relationship with a workaholic doctor. And it’s his demanding job that sets in motion a fateful night that sees her caught up in a terrorist attack. He’s called away midway through a dinner date and she spontaneously decides to grab a drink in a nearby bistro. She makes eye contact with a handsome stranger (The Piano Teacher’s Benoît Magimel) celebrating his birthday on an adjacent table, then gunfire breaks out and the rest is a blank.
Paris Memories (French: Revoir Paris) is a 2022 French drama film written and directed by Alice Winocour. The film stars Virginie Efira as Mia, a woman who is struggling with the lingering mental health effects of having survived a terrorist attack in Paris months earlier.
The film’s cast also includes Benoît Magimel, Grégoire Colin, Maya Sansa, Amadou Mbow, Nastya Golubeva, Anne-Lise Heimburger, Sofia Lesaffre and Clarisse Makundul. The film premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight program of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It is had its North American premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released theatrically in France on 7 September 2022 by Pathé.
Film Review for Revoir Paris
This year has produced several films about terrorist attacks in France. One Year and One Night by Isaki Lacuesta (which premiered in Berlin this year) and November by Cedric Jimenez which is being shown out of competition at Cannes, and Alice Winocour’s deeply personal Paris Memories (Revoir Paris) which was inspired by Winocour’s own brother who was in the midst of the November 2015 attacks at Bataclan. The film follows a woman’s journey to recovery after surviving a mass shooting.
Mia (Virginie Efira) walks through Paris aimlessly trying to put the pieces of her life after the incident. She’s looking for someone, anyone that was there that day whom she can connect with and help recall her dissociated memories of that day. Her mind is fractured and can’t seem to move on from post-traumatic stress. Before the incident, she worked as a translator. It seemed like an average day when she stopped at a local bistro and her life changed forever.
There is a small group of survivors Mia often visits at the scene of the crime. It’s the closest thing she has to a community—a group of people who understand what she’s been through. Her guilt gets the best of her when she starts seeing apparitions of dead people who haunt her in the subway, and on the streets. Nothing can be the same for Mia now as she sees the city she loves through a fresh perspective, and the life she lives post attack has a new purpose.
Sometimes we can live in a place so long we take it for granted and Winocour’s goal with Paris Memories is to reintroduce the city to its own inhabitants. Her grandiose shots of the city at night and during the day display the landscape in all its splendor. The Bataclan incident is a stain on French history, but the city continued to persist due to the resilience of Parisians.
The director’s stories always deal with a form of emotional turmoil that’s connected to the feminine psyche. And of all the films about these terrorist attacks at the festival, Winocour’s is the only one that gets inside the head of survivors and digs deep into their personal healing process. Actress Virginie Efria is invested in Mia’s journey, and by the finale there is a satisfaction and a completeness to the character’s arc.
There are moments that should have been rawer in execution as the movie can be saccharine at times. In addition, the romantic subplots are the least interesting part of the movie, but Winocour knows how to hit an audience right in the feels. She gives her leading actresses exactly what is needed so they can execute her vision. Paris Memories made me want to rediscover the city I was born in, and call my loved ones to make sure they’re ok.
Revoir Paris (2023)
Paris Memories
Directed by: Alice Winocour
Starring: Virginie Efira, Benoît Magimel, Grégoire Colin, Maya Sansa, Amadou Mbow, Nastya Golubeva, Anne-Lise Heimburger, Sofia Lesaffre, Clarisse Makundul, Zakariya Gouram, Dolores Chaplin
Screenplay by: Alice Winocour
Production Design by: Margaux Remaury, Florian Sanson
Cinematography by: Stéphane Fontaine
Film Editing by: Julien Lacheray
Costume Design by: Caroline Spieth
Art Direction by: Gérard David
Music by: Anna von Hausswolff
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Pathé (France), Music Box Films (United States)
Release Date: May 21, 2022 (Cannes), September 7, 2022 (France), June 23, 2023 (United States)
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