The western is surely the genre that has seen the birth of the most works since the invention of cinema. Constantly reinvented by the greatest, from John Ford to Clint Eastwood to Sergio Leone, cowboys have been confronting Indians and bandits for years in the masterful landscapes of the Wild West. It was therefore logically the turn of Jacques Audiard (Dheepan, Un Prophète) to tackle the genre with The Sisters Brothers, in a deconstruction of the genre and a reconstruction of the characters. A great and tenderly ardent success.
Audiard reverses the genre and reverses his genre: first western, first American film of the director, new challenge in a common universe and yet so far from his filmography. But the paw is there, strongly marked by the brotherly relationship of the two main characters, Charlie and Eli Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly). Between bankers, gold diggers, alchemists and mercenaries, they are only there to kill and they are good at it. Paternal genome or corrupting world, make no mistake, violence is very present among the Sisters siblings. But under this veneer of the Wild West is played a much greater novel, that of tenderness and fraternal conflicts in this hostile environment.
The Sisters Brothers is full of discreet but significant details that make us discover little by little the personality of the two brothers. Through their journey, which will take them both to the depths of the Wild West and to the big cities that are gradually beginning to modernize (which gives rise to a lively humor on the arrival of simple hygiene objects, such as the toothbrush), we discover these two characters so different but so complementary, in a tenderness sometimes hard, sometimes touching. Audiard transforms the mud of animal forests and power relations into intimate, hesitant and delicate gold, like the alchemist of cinema that he manages to be. The relationship of Charlie and Eli takes on its full meaning in the complementarity of the two characters, in the personal deepening of each of them. Their characters complement each other, confront each other,observe and protect each other, often unconsciously, in a beautiful fraternal epic.
We owe much to Benoît Debie and his image work: Gaspar Noé's favourite cinematographer (who photographed Enter The Void and the recent Climax), among others, gives us a very intimate vision of the western, where the emphasis is on the characters and not on the landscapes. Here, the grand canyons, majestic mountains and gold-filled rivers are no longer the main actors, but rather the pretext for something much bigger and much more universal, an intimate story but told in such a way that it becomes a tale.The tale of men who no longer all dream of profits and violence, but also perhaps of an innocently lost paradise.
The ingredients of this great film are obviously much more numerous than those we have mentioned: the presence and charisma of the actors (Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly who form an almost perfect duo, not to mention Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed who deliver a discreet but sure interpretation), the magnificent lighting and the excellent soundtrack signed Alexandre Desplat make the Sisters Brothers a major work of Franco-American cinema, in line with those that transform genres.
A utopian vision of the Wild West or a dark family tragedy, alchemist Audiard reverses genres to create a unique and powerful work, served by a more than convincing cast. A success on all points, which makes us rediscover the western under a new eye.
