Nine months ago, just outside Ebbing, Missouri, Angela Hayes was raped and murdered. The investigation revealed nothing. The criminal still prowls unhindered; the memory of the young victim remains without justice. Her mother, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), cannot accept this. Especially since the police seem more concerned with discriminating against blacks or walking around with a proud face. Mildred gathers her few savings to rent three huge signs on the road to the disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00abViol\u00e9e pendant qu\u2019elle agonisait\u00bb, affiche le premier, en lettres capitales sur fond orange agressif. Les deux autres interpellent le manque de s\u00e9rieux de la police en visant directement le sh\u00e9rif Willoughby (Woody Harrelson). Ce dernier, tr\u00e8s respect\u00e9 de tous ses concitoyens, accueille mal l\u2019attaque \u00e0 son \u00e9gard. Il est d\u2019ailleurs en phase terminale de son cancer. La situation aussi d\u00e9licate que passionnelle attire \u00e0 Mildred l\u2019inimiti\u00e9 des diff\u00e9rentes autorit\u00e9s de la ville. Tout sp\u00e9cialement celle de l\u2019officier Dixon (Sam Rockwell), qui prend l\u2019attaque \u00e0 c\u0153ur et veut faire de la vie de la m\u00e8re vengeresse un cauchemar. Mais il s’affronte \u00e0 une dure \u00e0 cuire, pr\u00eate \u00e0 la riposte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The film by the equally talented and macabre director Martin McDonagh gets off to a promising start in terms of style. Still shots follow one another in slow succession. One by one, the three dilapidated panels announce a piercing, dark tone. Interposed with these shots are those of the gray sky, the close-up image of the baby on one of the panels, and the green but painful fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shortly afterwards, a moving car is filmed from above by a camera mounted on its roof. The technique is original. It also suggests a focus on the main character, Mildred. However, while these early sequences are full of good taste, the work is not continued in the rest of the film. That's certainly disappointing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The director manages, however, to maintain throughout the film an amazing atmosphere of western<\/em>. With shots of the heroine's defiant eyes and shots from behind, the quintessential American genre receives a worthy tribute in Three Billboards: The Panels of Vengeance<\/em>. The overwhelming red skies of Missouri elegantly nurture a movement close to the neo-western<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the theme, it seems at first sight to be an interesting set-up for a sober, captivating story. In the first part of the film, however, it lays the groundwork for some disturbing clich\u00e9s. Racism, homophobia and corruption are not the hallmarks of the southern states, even though they are rooted in reality. Yet this is what the viewer might be led to believe when he sees that Mildred, a feminist figure, indirectly complains about the fate of blacks in her town; or that Dixon spends his time teasing a dwarf, insulting homosexuals and even defenestrating one; or, finally, that the only city authority who looks brave and clean is of African-American origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the contrary, the Manichean caricature comes to a screeching halt in the second half of the film. In the end, each character reveals his or her infinite complexity and infected wounds. Human beings are shown in their clumsy quest for happiness, with guilty bitterness and innocent desires for vengeance. In the words of writer Philippe Claudel, Three Billboards: The Panels of Vengeance<\/em> paints a picture of \u2019gray souls\u00ab - no one being all black and white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n - Dixon, are you sure you want to kill this guy? Il y a neuf mois, tout pr\u00e8s de la ville d\u2019Ebbing, dans le Missouri, Angela Hayes a \u00e9t\u00e9 viol\u00e9e puis…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":509532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[644355829],"tags":[62048,252838,3977334,35499,26297,1591361,11880],"class_list":["post-14103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-enquete","tag-homophobie","tag-martin-mcdonagh","tag-noirs","tag-racisme","tag-viol","tag-western"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGrey souls<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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- Not really.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"