«Venice is not in Italy, it's in tenderness

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

Another French comedy-drama on Cinema Wednesdays? What's more, treated very positively by a not-very-critical and somewhat monothematic critic? Yeah, sorry about that. It's just that Venice is not in Italy by Ivan Calbérac is a success on every level.

Emile is a young teenager who lives in a caravan with his two crazy parents. His mother dyes his hair blond «because he wasn't born naturally handsome», his father glorifies their bohemian lifestyle and spends his time talking trash. His brother, on the other hand, has long since left home, no longer able to stand his special parents. One day, the girl Emile is in love with invites him to come and see her in Venice, where her orchestra is giving a concert. Emile's parents are very thrifty, but nonetheless very benevolent. They agreed to let their son go to Italy. But only on one condition: that they come with him. In a caravan, that is.

Venice is not in Italy is first and foremost a novel published in 2015, the first written by Ivan Calbérac, which he decided to release as a film. And how well he did! First of all, in this comedy as in Emmanuel Macron's government, there's an art of the castingBenoît Poelvoorde, Valérie Bonneton, Hélie Thonnat, Eugène Marcuse and Coline D'Inca. If Christianity invented the Trinity (or the Trinity invented Christianity, who knows), Ivan Calbérac invented Quintinité. Dive French dramatic comedy incarnated by five breathtaking actors.

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Yes, their interpretation of the various protagonists is simply breathtaking. They perfectly embody the humanity of the characters. It's silly to say it, but they're fully human, with their vices, their good-naturedness, their love, their beauty, their stupidity, their franchouillardises, their corny songs. Poelvoorde, unsurprisingly, excels in this art as he had already seduced us last year with To the station! and offers some absolutely cult scenes that anyone will want to show all their friends when they buy the DVD at FNAC, after having gone to see the film in the cinema with their girlfriend, grandmother, dog, neighbor and on their own. In song A.I.E. Name. Aïe aïe aïe.

If the film had to be summed up in one word, it would be «tenderness». The story may be very funny, the parents very original, but the fact remains that the viewer leaves the theater with stars in his eyes, marked by the affection of an older brother for his younger son, that of marginal but loving parents, that of the daughter of a moron who is noble only in status. Cleverly exploiting the vein of Romeo and Juliet in a modern but modest style, the teenage passion portrayed by Venice is not in Italy comes straight from the heart of Serge Reggiani, an unforgettable artist.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Frenetic Films