Bluebird, elegant thriller with customary narration

Scheduled for the dawn of 2021, the highly anticipated Sons of Philadelphia, presented in the official selection at the Deauville Festival, will be released in our cinemas when they reopen. In recent years, the young French director Jérémie Guez has continued to climb the ladder and take his place in the French and international film landscape. The filmmaker will have begun to make his mark as an author of detective novels, he will even sell the rights to adapt some of his works for French cinema. During the 2010s, Jérémie Guez wrote many successful screenplays credited as co-writer of the popular Yves Saint Laurent by Jalil Lespert in 2014 or the highly acclaimed La Nuit a dévoré le monde by Dominique Rocher in 2018. That same year, his first film, Bluebird, premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin. First planned in theaters, the film will finally be released on VOD. Always providing exemplary work, The Jokers will release the film on Blu-ray and DVD. Bluebird is now available everywhere.

A neat and remarkable cast

Bluebird / The Jokers Film, Cheyenne 2017 ©

Bluebird is the adaptation of Dannie M. Martin's The Diving Man known for having chronicled the American prison world through articles in the San Francisco Chronicle. A Bluebird in My Heart, from its original title, takes place in Belgium and plunges us into the skin of Danny, a prisoner on parole who will take affection for his host and mother of a young atypical teenager plagued by doubt and loneliness who will go through a difficult and humiliating ordeal , This will have the effect of awakening evil in this ex-prisoner. Above all, Bluebird shines with an impeccable and memorable cast. It is the filmmaker himself who will have the idea to go find Roland Møller for the title role of the film. A Danish second knife with singular charisma seen in particular in Atomic Blonde or Papillon. This one delivers a salient performance under the direction of Jérémie Guez. The filmmaker also surrounds himself with surprising actresses with Veerle Baetens, formidable in Alabama Monroe by Felix Van Groeningen, and the prolific Lubna Azabal, author of an underestimated and stunning performance in Denis Villeneuve's Fires, which we regret being underexploited here. But the filmmaker's first film proves to be above all a perfect introduction for the young Lola Le Hann who, in the manner of the director, carries with it many promises.

A strong aesthetic despite an agreed narrative

Bluebird / The Jokers Film, Cheyenne 2017 ©

Subsequently, Bluebird 's aesthetic is particularly successful. From the opening scene, and for a good part of the film, we are surprised to be immersed in a stylized, contemplative and thematic staging helped by a photographic work, delivered by Dimitri Karakatsanis, delicate and generous oscillating between multiple and singular tones and colors to explore very characteristic atmospheres at the service of the performers. We will remember a sound design and a soundtrack just as worked by Séverin Favriau who has worked on many ambitious and captivating feature films such as A Prayer Before Dawn by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire or Grave by Julia Ducournau. Jérémie Guez gives us a surprising work of mastery for a first film, particularly on the technical and organic level playing with the material and textures of bodies, elements and environments to immerse us in the psychology of the characters. The filmmaker particularly succeeds in bringing to life the key moments of his film during the unfolding of his story. We will remain particularly marked by the shower scene in what it exudes by its humanity and sensitivity. These highlights will be appreciable far from the habits of the noir thriller , despite the repetitions and pitfalls of the genre that the filmmaker does not always manage to avoid, his narrative scheme remaining quite simplistic. Indeed, we will deplore in particular an expeditious outcome and rehearsals at the crossroads of an evolution towards the genre rather poorly polished, often schematic holding more of the recital, despite the desire to bypass the structure and themes of the revenge movie. Bluebird is still a beautiful stylistic and thematic proposal despite its uneven scenario. A promising director whose career we can't wait to discover as soon as cinemas reopen. For the moment, Bluebird is available on VOD and on physical support for all fans of the genre.