Monday, December 18, place to the third day of the European Film Festival of Les Arcs. And on the program for the writing: a masterclass by Noémie Lvovsky and two feature films in official competition.
2pm: masterclass of the Lab "Women of Cinema" with Noémie Lvovsky
The Lab "Femmes de Cinéma", born as part of the festival as an extension of the Focus on "New Women of Cinema" of 2016, is back in residence for this ninth edition. With the aim of reflecting together on the theme, it organizes 4 workshops per year (three in Paris and one at the festival), as well as two masterclasses.
At the Coeur d'Or cinema in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, director, actress and screenwriter Noémie Lvovsky inaugurated the first masterclass on Monday afternoon, December 18.
In front of a mostly young audience (four classes of high school students were present), she talked about her beginnings and her experience as a director , as well as an actress, her anecdotes of filming, her vision of cinema and the place of women in it. Supported by the screening of several excerpts from her films, the exchange was marked by the modesty, spontaneity and naturalness of the award-winning director.
Detailing her career (baccalaureate, preparatory classes, Faculty of Letters), she expressed her dismay at the time at the idea of not being made for any profession. His entry into IDHEC (the former FEMIS) marks a revelation. Other significant upheavals : her first discovery of a film set, during which she falls truly in love with the universe, and her meeting with Arnaud Desplechin, as well as other leading figures of the seventh art (Alain Sarde…).
When she directed Oublie-moi at the age of 28, her first film, success was at the rendezvous. On the cover of Cahiers du Cinéma, the feature film will be catalogued by critics as a work with a "woman's gaze". The opportunity for Noémie Lvovsky to address one of the attractions of the seventh art: "Cinema is liberating because it allows us to be different from what we are assigned to in reality". Hence in particular his choice to film female and male characters outside the canons and stereotypes present in a large part of the seventh art.
The masterclass ends in style with the intervention of a spectator: "If we had to define your cinema only through one word, it would be originality, as your films differ from what we are used to seeing".
6pm: Screening of Arrhythmia, by Boris Khlebnikov
Russian 
feature film in official competition, Arrhythmia is a captivating, surprising and anxiety-provoking work. Following the daily life of two characters (Oleg, nurse and Katya, doctor) plagued by difficulties within their couple, he makes a dismaying inventory of the changes underway in the medical, hospital and emergency system of Russia.
The film proves effective in what it intends to denounce: an increasingly advanced pace for medical teams, to the detriment of the human factor. Venturing into hyperrealism, the feature film, raw, cold, spares neither the human weaknesses nor the heroisms of these emergency professionals.
With alcohol in the background (omnipresent), it is a constant struggle between the two protagonists to exercise their profession and keep their couple afloat. Irina Gorbacheva, star instragramer in Russia who plays Katya, and Alexander Yatsenko in the role of Oleg, are impressive realism.
Arrhythmia is therefore a film that makes a lasting impression. Only reproach : a work too long…
9pm: Screening of Lean on Pete, by Andrew Haigh
Another film in official competition, Lean on Pete is an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Willy Vaultin. Directed by Andrew Haigh (Greek Pete, Weekend), it tells the story of fifteen-year-old Charley on his journey through several American states to find a home and a place in society.
The film, quite contemplative, plunges the viewer into this quest, where the best rubs shoulders with the worst. In the end, Lean on Pete is a work aesthetically very beautiful, but black and at times difficult to apprehend. Nevertheless, the message at the end of the film illuminates the work…
Trailers:
