Spirit of Ecstasy movie storyline. Jeanne (Claire Pommet) is 24 years old and she lives with her family in the suburbs. Her father is a police officer and she often has to take care of her brother and sister. The young woman would like to change social class by making a success of her life in the world of finance. During an internship, she is noticed by her boss Farès. The latter decides to put her to the test by entrusting her with a delicate mandate. At the moment when her dream comes true, Jeanne sees Augustin again, a soldier from her past, who continues to trouble her.
Spirit of Ecstasy (French: La Vénus d’Argent) is a French drama film directed by Héléna Klotz and starring Claire Pommet, Niels Schneider, Sofiane Zermani, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Irina Lellouche Klotz, Gabriel Merz Chammah, Mathieu Amalric, Paul Beaurepaire and Maxime Gleizes. The screenplay was written by Emily Barnett, Noé Debré and Héléna Klotz.
Film Review for Spirit of Ecstasy
New proposal from Héléna Klotz, an independent film, with independent values, with an independent actress… it’s heavy! With a strong opposition between authority and capitalism, the director demonstrates her desire to narrate the mechanisms governing our society. In my opinion, the challenge has been met, and on all levels: substance AND form.
Ah, but I told myself that it reminded me of something. The trigger took place about ten minutes from the end in my subconscious and the credits came to provide confirmation. Helena Klotz is the daughter of Nicolas Klotz, the director of The Human Question, one of the worst films I have had the opportunity to see in a little over 46 years of existence.
Although I obviously have nothing against these people, I must say that this very particular way of watching oneself being filmed and of listening to one’s own characters speaking throughout the film had visibly remained in the mysteries of my cinephile memory.
But what is this Silver Venus about otherwise? It’s the story of a police officer’s daughter who absolutely wants to work in finance. Funny choice, but we just want to understand after all. The problem is that we are never really allowed to understand anything and no more at the end than at the beginning. For 1h30 we have the strange impression that everything we see on the screen comes from another film which is located upstream and which obviously has not been shown to us. The Silver Venus seems to be crossed by a sort of perpetual unsaid, shown in a vaguely dreamlike manner.
The subject of the film, as recounted above, is not necessarily unrealistic or uninteresting, as long as it is supported by a real story or at least something dramatically constructed. Instead the director aligns pretty images, characters and dialogues that ring strangely false and silences supposed to say a lot. It’s stylized to the extreme, not necessarily poorly filmed, but hollow and without emotion.
The heroine is cold, not very expressive, quite hermetic and not even particularly likeable. We never gain access to her psychology, which is still quite problematic when she is truly the subject of the film and present in all its shots. The whole thing ends up giving the impression of a film completely above ground, a kind of vaguely artistic construction whose subject and goal seem ill-defined.
I personally hate all these easy clichés evoking “intellectual and pretentious French auteur cinema”, but unfortunately it is against this type of film that they will undoubtedly continue to be used. Next to Klotz, Arnaud Desplechin is Luc Besson.
Spirit of Ecstasy (2023)
La Vénus d’Argent
Directed by: Héléna Klotz
Starring: Claire Pommet, Niels Schneider, Sofiane Zermani, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Irina Lellouche Klotz, Gabriel Merz Chammah, Mathieu Amalric, Paul Beaurepaire, Maxime Gleizes
Screenplay by: Emily Barnett, Noé Debré, Héléna Klotz
Production Design by: Olivier Lellouche
Cinematography by: Victor Seguin
Film Editing by: Julien Lacheray
Costume Design by: Judith de Luze
Art Direction by: Natacha-Katy Castelbou
Music by: Ulysse Klotz
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Pyramide Distribution (France), K Films Amerique (Canada)
Release Date: September 9, 2023 (Canada), November 22, 2023 (France)
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