Like a moat had a discreet passage through the cinemas. However, Caroline Glorion's film screened in theaters last September is well worth a look. His recent physical release finally makes catching up possible. In short, the ideal opportunity to get into the mouth of the moat and talk about this very recent feature film...
Precarious mother
Lili (Mathilde La Musse26 years old, raising his children alone in more than precarious conditions. A misunderstanding surrounding the bruises in the face of one of his children packs an administrative machine that will remove his right to care for his offspring. A dirty blow for the young woman, but she will not put her down: she is determined to do everything to get them back.
Caroline Glorion is best known for his work as a documentary and journalist. And if Like a moat is her first fictional film, it is not to the extent that she will completely abandon her documentary vein, on the contrary. Indeed, the feature film features all its oripeaux: a scenario drawn from a true story, filming camera with shoulder sticking to its characters, inscription in a strong social carcan...
And it's probably the most interesting part of Like a moat To provide a political and social picture of the judicialization of child protection measures. A blind and deaf administrative machine? Not really... Rather a bourgeois caste, perhaps far too human to have the height of sight that one would like to impose on him, and especially pressed by a pile of time-consuming business. A criticism of partial justice, judging in fact and unwilling to take the time, that's what points to the point Like a moat. A criticism at all points similar to that deployed in the recent book of Joy Sorman : The Witness, which thus gives the film an exciting echo. A bit of the podcast analysis of this book The Genius Caused is moreover to listen below...
Fiction of fiction
And if this facet of the work that is being discussed today is passionate, its inscription in pure fiction (contrary to Sorman's book that sticks much more to the facts encountered by the writer squatting the courtrooms, fiction being only a pretext for bringing together a multitude of fragments of stories) brings with it the different checkspoints inherent in the scripting order: the creation of a tension between the characters, the ruptures/approximations that result from it, passage through the forced scenes (lacrymous violons, the flying scene rhythmized by music, etc.), the addition of several superfluous narrative overlayers...
Another downside is the unequal play of actors that sometimes feel lost in their often flowery, crazy replicas. The tongue of the street, so natural when you hear it, sometimes hard to get out, sounds false, hollow, and it's all the more a pity that the character who comes out the best (the awesome Sarah Suco Incarnate the lawyer) is also found to be the most artificial character of the story. Are we really going to meet this kind of lawyer, motivated at this point, when we are lost in a court and without money? Doubt is widely allowed...
In short, Like a moat est passionnant par la lumière qu’il apporte sur le système judiciaire, bien moins pour sa peinture grossière et plutôt malhabile de son sujet. Peut-être trop manichéen, assurément trop ancré dans ses rouages scénaristiques, le long-métrage ne parvient pas à transcender son seul discours et finit par se perdre en chemin. Restent de beaux instants (notamment les échanges entre la mère et ses enfants), une Mathilde La Musse souvent éblouissante et l’envie de creuser un peu plus le sujet ô combien émotionnel et complexe qu’est la protection de l’enfance. Un film qui vaut le coup d’œil et dont le rattrapage est permis par une toute récente sortie sur support physique…
Data sheet
DVD Zone B (France)
Publisher: Blaq Out
Duration: 95 min
Release date: February 20, 2024
Video format : 576p/25 – 1.66
Soundtrack : French Dolby Digital 5.1 (and 2.0)
Subtitles French
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