{"id":523553,"date":"2024-05-19T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-19T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=523553"},"modified":"2025-12-04T22:22:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:22:38","slug":"lacte-misses-from-director-anne-fontaine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/cinema\/films\/lacte-misses-from-director-anne-fontaine\/","title":{"rendered":"Director Anne Fontaine's missed act"},"content":{"rendered":"

His latest film immerses us in the creative process of the famous Bolero<\/em> by Maurice Ravel. Unfortunately, she relegates Misia Sert, nicknamed the Queen of Paris, to the role of muse. A disappointing performance that tarnishes this biopic.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Famous for its simple, repetitive melody, a dance movement with an invariable tempo, the melody of this work is uniform and repetitive for 17 minutes. Its revolution lies in the variations in orchestration alone: a gradual, revolutionary crescendo in E major. If this description evokes nothing on reading, listening to the first notes is enough to hum an internationally successful tune, the Bolero<\/em> by Maurice Ravel, first performed in 1928.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maurice Ravel, a composer of genius, was not always unanimously acclaimed. Anne Fontaine's film opens with the young pianist repeatedly failing to win the Prix de Rome, despite the fame of his compositions. Fortunately, these rejections don't stop the brilliant man, reassured by his mother (Anne Alvaro): \u00abthe juries will miss him\u00bb, she says. We're in the 1920s. It's the artistic avant-garde, and Paris is teeming with composers as talented as Stravinsky, Debussy and Satie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An authentic role<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Played brilliantly by Rapha\u00ebl Personnaz, himself an amateur musician, Ravel shyly navigates his way through the mundanities of Paris, and we feel his mysterious, endearing personality. Ida Rubinstein, superbly played by actress Jeanne Balibar, is the star dancer of the moment, the queen of Russian ballet. One evening, she sets her sights on Ravel, whom she believes in fiercely, and asks him to compose her next ballet. He accepts, delighted, but terrified of failing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne Fontaine subtly plunges us into the intricacies of composition, rendering us helpless in the face of Ravel's blank page. We anguish for him, following him in his doubts and the vicious circles of procrastination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spectator accompanies Ravel in his gentle idleness, between Belle Epoque Paris and charmingly landscaped secondary villas, his stomach in knots as he approaches the rendering of this ballet, under pressure from the impatient Ida Rubinstein. However, despite his best efforts, the page remained blank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A smiling muse<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, from time to time, he has a woman at his side, and not just any woman: the patron of the arts, pianist and intellectual Misia Sert. She supported him, listened to him, tried to seduce him; she was for him a muse, a friend, as she was for the most important artists of the time, including Mallarm\u00e9, Cocteau, Renoir, Vuillard, Vallotton and Diaghilev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We understand that her husband at the time, Alfred Edwards, holds the fortune and cheats on her constantly. She claims to be free and independent, but this character finds no depth in the performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n