«Alice and the Mayor: stimulating without being breathtaking

Cinema Wednesdays - Lauriane Pipoz

Alice is a young woman fresh out of her philosophy studies. Coming from a brilliant background, she dreams of a successful career. However, when she moves to Lyon for a professional opportunity and is told that her job has been abolished, the opposite happens. She is then assigned to one of those perfectly useless functions: giving ideas to the mayor, who no longer possesses a single one after thirty years in politics. Only superficially useless: Alice will stimulate the mayor's mind. But beyond what's necessary for Lyon's political equilibrium.

The theme of’Alice and the Mayor quickly becomes clear: it's about the conflict between the political and the intellectual. While criticism of the political system is at the heart of this film, it's not a question of criticizing one system in particular: Nicolas Pariser's film targets the way it works as a whole. The subject is approached with a great deal of class: it is shown through concrete situations, well-constructed dialogues, and never pointed out insistently. One could almost see an underlying question: is it healthy for a lover of ideas and language to embark on a path where words are used as a mere means?

For the object of criticism here seems to be the lack of spirit in politics. If politics seems to call for people who like to think and look for solutions, it's really a question of knowing how to present them, and at the right time. Politics as shown here is a smokescreen, serving to hide the fact that it's more important to scrape the bellies of the wealthy for funding than to seek a fairer system.

The findings are harsh, and the collateral victims numerous. But we're talking about a well-made French film, with a good cast: irony is almost one of the film's central themes, consisting of fine dialogue skilfully contrasted with ellipses, but above all fine characters contrasted with stereotypical ones. I'll limit myself here to one example, which speaks for itself: that of a student explaining how difficult the situation is psychologically for students. While the author of this article is hardly in a position to disagree with this idea, she knows as well as many others that this recurring victimization, presented here in an extremely caricatured way, is nevertheless sadly realistic.

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But let's qualify all this praise. While the theme is well approached, it's a little bland: we could have wished for a little more bite and a little more action. In terms of direction, a few clichés and unnecessary explanations could have been avoided to make the film fully satisfying. All the same, it's an interesting film that raises a number of thought-provoking questions: stimulating, without being breathtaking.

Write to the author: lauriane.pipoz@leregardlibre.com

Photo credits: © Agora Films