«Toute ressemblance...», a great film despite what the media says

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

Le Monde and Télérama had a field day. Michel Denisot's first film would be heavy-handed, piling on the clichés and saying nothing of substance. Faced with the excellence of Any resemblance..., we think that the French "bobo" press is perhaps jealous of a journalist who has made his career at Canal+ and TF1 and who has the courage - or quite simply the pleasure - to try his hand at cinema one fine day, with a simple, popular and devilishly successful formula.

It's the story of a television star who became a household name when he took over as presenter of the 8:00 news program during the 2001 terrorist attacks. A man who burns with ambition, tactics and, above all, charm, and whom nothing and no-one - especially not the channel's boss - will be able to get rid of, because he's got them by the scruff of the neck. Visit star makes ratings, lots of ratings. Unfortunately for him, money is the beginning of all possibilities: a little plastic surgery to maintain his image in the literal sense, a little drugs to have fun in his buddy's gay clubs with the Minister of Culture, and a little drugs to drown the fish and show his wife a clean bill of health. The result is a power struggle and, above all, a dramatic family crisis, set against the backdrop of the show business.

Have we all seen the same film?

So, yes, Any resemblance... has its beaufair side. First of all, the title, which immediately places the film on the resemblance of its protagonist to someone, or perhaps a few... Then, its lead actor: Franck Dubosc, who embodies the essence of popular, even populist cinema. A Télérama, journalist Marie Sauvion immediately clarified in her ridiculous video that Franck Dubosc, normally, she adores, but there, no, he doesn't shine. How it must have hurt her mouth to say that Dubosc usually finds favor in her eyes. Among nice people, it's not done to praise the man in the slibard. But bobos, like human beings, have their paradoxes. Renaud sang it so well fifteen years ago - an eternity ago, as it were:

Except that, once you've got past these first elements, which are already flaws for only a fraction of the critics and opinion, it's hard to understand how you can't like the film in its own right. After all, it's a great film. The voice-over, which we follow like a red thread, gives this work a very interesting narrative dimension, echoing a phenomenon well known to men «who want it»: eternal self-reflection. For ambitious men are often melancholic. «They analyze their lives more than they live them», as Baudelaire wrote somewhere in the prose of his Spleen of Paris. How hard it is, let's face it, to live one's life. Such is the first flash of Any resemblance...

«I recognized happiness by the sound it made when it left.»

In addition to the presence of some excellent actors, including Denis Podalydès, the simple spectacle offered by this film is to be commended. After all, Parisian high life can be a dream come true. Yes, its dangers are frightening - and the film reminds us of this often enough. Yes, its fauna is often ridiculous - and the film reminds us of this often enough. Yes, perhaps happiness lies in a simpler existence, in a kind of balance between love of grandeur and care for the basics, between professional adventure and family life, somewhere between glory and humility. But we human animals need dreams. And that's what movies like this are for, as silly as it may sound. But what's the point of appearing stupid to stupid people?

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

Photo credit: © JMH Distributions