Simon Riaux and Nicolas Martin were invited to the microphone in October 2024 at the launch of the Bad Tours Festival. Let it hold! For the 2025 edition, this dear trio was found for a whole new selection around the cinemas of the imagination.
It was the next session!
Mag.7 is a podcast, produced and distributed by the association blésoise The Next Meeting. The principle is simple: in collaboration with libraries of Agglopolys In the town of Blois, the host Étienne invites people to walk through the music-cinema service and video games of the places and to choose DVDs there. More specifically, seven films, series, documentaries or concerts – seven corresponding to the borrowing capacity proposed by the library – then evoke their selection to the microphone. A monthly program based on the sharing and passion of the 7th art, and seeking to highlight the quality and quantity of films available in public libraries, all accessible for modest amounts, if not totally free in some communities.
To play a Bad Tours
From 16 to 19 October last held Bad tricks, the festival of imaginary cinemas. And for the second year in a row, Etienne went there, to meet the two instigators of the event, namely journalists Simon Riaux and Nicolas Martin. Once again, our guests lent themselves to the game of Mag.7 to offer you a selection based on genre cinema, all at random from the catalogue of libraries of Agglopolys. As the moment turned out to be fun, the two contenders did not stop at seven films but rather at ten, greedy as they are!
Malevil (1980)
Nationality : France – Gender : Drama, Science fiction – Director : Christian de Chalonge – Distribution : Michel Serrault, Jacques Dutronc, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Villeret, Robert Dhéry...
DVD Edition France | Tamasa Distribution | 04 June 2024 - Blu-ray Edition France | Tamasa Distribution | 04 June 2024 - Dissemination platforms : Canal VOD, FILMO and Orange
The pitch: As summer ends, the mayor and a few elected representatives of a small village survive nuclear explosions that have ravaged the region or even the country. Then begins a new life of isolation, self-help and violence for them...
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Sebastian): To say that French-style cinema finally takes off is a mistake. Of course, we have had some titles in recent years that have had some esteem in the eyes of critics and the public – notably 2023 with The Animal Kingdom, Vermins, Acid or Black gulls. And it is true that the films in this cinema have had a hard time making themselves known for decades, encouraging talented filmmakers to go elsewhere (such as Alexandre Aja). But no, French-style films are clearly not new, and Malevil proves it. For here, we are talking about a post-apocalyptic work not dating back yesterday (early 1980s), with actors at the opposite ends of their respective careers (Michel Serrault, Jacques Dutronc, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Villeret...) and having managed to gather more than 1.4 million spectators at his release... making Malevil The perfect counter-argument!
Free adaptation of Robert Merle's novel, Malevil is an extremely ambitious film, in which director Christian de Chalonge manages to put in place a tangible and oppressive apocalypse. And this, without any special effect, generally ubiquitous in this kind of proposal. Here, everything is just working on costumes, scenery and sound, to plunge us into a most realistic hell. The first part, where the characters discover the disaster, is also the most striking. The second, more human and social, is a little less because of less originality. This does not prevent the whole from shining with its rigor and mastery, making Malevil a real rarity in the French film landscape.
Triangle (2009)
Nationality: United Kingdom, Australia – Type: Horror – Director : Christopher Smith – Distribution : Melissa George, Joshua McIvor, Michael Dorman, Liam Hemsworth, Rachael Carpani...
DVD editing: France | CTV International | 14 June 2011 - Blu-ray Edition France | CTV International | 14 June 2011 - Dissemination platforms: Orange
The pitch: Adrift following a terrible storm, a group of friends found refuge on a ship that seemed to be abandoned and where time seemed to stop. Yet, each member experiences a strange feeling of already-seen and realizes very quickly that something is hosting them...
Opinion of MaG (Celeste wolf): Triangle It's not scary to be sold, but a psychological maze where each detour adds a new facet to the mystery. Melissa George shines there as a landmark in the middle of this temporal maze, while the writers trace scriptual loops as precise as they are disturbing. By scrambling the tracks, they lead us into a fascinating vicious circle, until a vertiginous end that closes the loop with brilliance. A work as ingenious as it is implacable, where the geometry of suspense emerges on the millimetre.
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Aurélie): TriangleChristopher Smith offers us a short walk at sea with a group of friends in the heart of the Bermuda triangle. It's not surprising that the trip quickly turns into a nightmare. Sheltered on a ghost boat in the company of a mysterious masked killer and stuck in a time loop, surviving seems to be an impossible mission. Quickly, the murders go on and the corpses pile up.
Despite some slowness, the film does not lose sight of its objective, the slasher turns into a psychological nightmare, leading to an icy and striking truth. It is in the quality of writing and development of the character of Jess that the genius of this film is fully revealed, to take us beyond the classic of the genre.
Blood oranges (2021)
Nationality: France – Type: Comedy, Horror, Drama – Director : Jean-Christophe Meurisse – Distribution : Alexandre Steiger, Christophe Paou, Lilith Grasmug, Olivier Saladin, Lorella Cravotta...
DVD editing: France | ESC Editions | 06 April 2022 - Blu-ray Edition: France | ESC Editions | 06 April 2022 - Dissemination platforms: Canal VOD, Pathé Home and UniverseCiné
The pitch: At the same time in France, a couple of over-indebted pensioners are trying to win a rock contest, a minister is suspected of tax fraud, a young teenager encounters a sexual deranged. A long night will then begin...
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Aurélie): Oranges Sanguines It's a bad but funny movie. Although tasty on some passages, it leaves a taste too little. The film begins with a biting social satire, along with a variety of characters ranging from ado to a politician. Then we project without transition into the chaos of madness and free wickedness.
By multiplying the protagonists, Jean-Christophe Meurisse spreads without deepening the psychology of his characters. What can be a problem when the subject of the film is to show us that we are all equal in the face of hazards, and that it is enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time for everything to flip.
The Invasion of Desecrators (1978)
Title V : Invasion of the Body Snatchers – Nationality: United States – Type: Science fiction, Horror – Director : Philip Kaufman – Distribution: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy...
DVD editing: France | Rimini Editions | 21 July 2021 - Blu-ray Edition: France | Rimini Editions | 21 July 2021 - Dissemination platforms: Prime Video, Canal VOD and Orange
The pitch: Following the advent of strange spatial particles, humanity seems to be the victim of a strange epidemic. Gradually, people claim that they no longer recognize their loved ones, the latter being "replaced" by doubles who take their place...
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Etienne): Second adaptation of Jack Finney's novel of the same name (The Body Snatchers in VO) after Don Siegel's in 1956, Invasion of desecrators by Philip Kaufman is one of the great paranoid films of the 1970s, including Klute and Don't turn around., also Donald Sutherland in his best roles away from his somnolent sealations at the Hunger Games. So much the first version was an allegory of the Cold War and Maccarthysm, as much as it denounces rather the rise in power of what will later be called neo-liberalism, that is, a dominant bourgeoisie ready to do anything to maintain its dominant positions.
So in addition to being a horror/SF film that is particularly well-losed and interpreted, which has generated images that have become iconic, Invasion of desecrators tells a story of the United States, a country that becomes populated by people, completely under control and with uniform behaviors, replacing as the population and its natural diversity gradually and gradually taking control of the country. This metaphor of setting up a fascist state is particularly cold in the back, at the present time when the extreme right-wing cohorts really have too much wind in their stern. A great film, a very large film, where the genre is not a series of codes to reproduce ad nauseam to entertain the people, but rather the support of a speech and a vision of the world.
Brazil (1985)
Nationality : Great Britain – Type: Comedy, Science fiction – Director : Terry Gilliam – Distribution : Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmund...
DVD editing: France | 20th Century Fox | 14 May 2003 - Blu-ray Edition France | 20th Century Fox | 1 June 2012 - Dissemination platforms: MUBI, Orange, Viva and Pathé Home
The pitch: In an undetermined future, a computer disruption is leading an official into a delusional adventure. In pursuit of the woman of her dreams, chased by the authorities, assisted by a sympathetic criminal, this man will experience a strange and nightmare...
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Sébastien): Anyone who knows Terry Gilliam's cinema must expect completely crazy and barred works. Far from the Monty Python troupe of which he was a member, the filmmaker launched himself solo in a career composed of films all as atypical as each other. Proposing strange and delusional universes. But if they can appear in a constant freewheel – not to say under the influence of illegal substances – they are above all evidence of a certain mastery and intelligence on the part of Gilliam. And the most telling example to illustrate this is undoubtedly his fourth feature film, namely Brazil.
For yes, the film seems at first sight to go in every direction at a frantic pace. But by doing this generosity of images and special effects, Terry Gilliam delivers above all a satire of incredible thematic richness. For while the world of administration is clearly the main target of its realization, it points to many other subjects: the exploitation of raw materials and employees, the struggle of classes, the loss of humanity in a society governed by rules, cosmetic surgery... Everything passes here at the mill to form a work as energetic as it is, which at the same time offers scenes remaining in memory – this « visit » offices, under the air of mythical music The Office arranged by Michael Kamen. But rather than continuing to talk to you about the film, at the risk of spending a lot of time there, I will have only one thing to say: discover it or relive it, and let yourself be carried by the artistic madness of a cult author of the seventh art!
Lady Vengeance (2005)
Title V: (Chinjeolhan geumjassi) – Nationality: South Korea – Type: Drama, Thriller – Director : Park Chan-wook – Distribution : Lee Yeong-ae, Choi Min-sik, Kim Shi-hoo, Kwon Yea-young, Go Su-hee...
DVD editing: France | HK Video | 11 April 2018 - Blu-ray Edition France | Metropolitan Video | 06 December 2024 - 4K Ultra HD Edition France | Metropolitan Video | 11 October 2024 (the test) – Dissemination platforms: Canal VOD, UniverseCine and Orange
The pitch: Sent to prison for the abduction and murder of a child she did not commit, a young woman will devote her 13 years of confinement to the meticulous preparation of her revenge towards the real culprit...
Opinion of MaG (Celeste wolf) : Sublime tragedy in search of a lost humanity, the final strand of The Trilogy of Vengeance, with the ever-renewed emotional power and baroque staging, desires to atone for his sins once the angel of anger has passed. But in the end, linked to his own guilt, the quest for (Revenge) remission of Lee Geum-ja, (eaten) animated by many feelings, shows that redemption cannot be reached by a personal vendetta.
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Sebastian): Personally, Lady Vengeance is the least good of Park Chan-wook trilogy, which also includes Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and, above all, the inevitable Old Boy. Especially because of its first part, that I find an anarchic hair in its setting. Indeed, the first part of the film, which follows Lee Geum-ja's course in prison, offers a freewheel writing and editing that struggle to catch attention. It is only when the title deigns to focus on this notion of revenge and « doing justice yourself » that the whole takes on a completely different dimension.
When the main character comes out of his long and unjust incarceration, Lady Vengeance literally takes its flight, while soothing its rhythm and energy. A controlled paradox that allows the whole to gain in cruelty, bringing on very dark terrains of human nature. Just as the characters who follow a slow but certain dehumanization, the notion of justice loses its radiance, its purity. Staged with a lot of know-how, Lady Vengeance, despite a clumsy beginning, remains a notable work, which concludes the famous Vengeance Trilogy very convincingly.
The Innocents (2021)
Title V: From uskyldige – Nationality: Norway, Sweden, Denmark – Gender : Horror, Drama, Fantastic – Director : Eskil Vogt – Distribution: Rakel Lenora Fløttum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim, Sam Ashraf, Ellen Dorrit Petersen...
DVD editing: France | Kinovista | 07 September 2022 - Blu-ray Edition France | Kinovista | 07 September 2022 - Dissemination platforms: Canal VOD, VIVA and Cinemasalademand
The pitch: One summer, four children discover themselves amazing powers and play to test their limits, far from the eyes of adults. But what seemed to be a game of children, gradually takes a disturbing turn...
Opinion of MaG (Celeste wolf): Between intimate chronicle and psychological thriller, The Innocents impose as a hypnotic supernatural fable that explores the shadow zones of childhood. Young actors, deceptive candour, are impressed by their intensity. Denying all spectacular, the film favours a sensitive approach where tension is placed in silences and eyes. Anxiety, insidious, settles crescendo until turning innocence into icy revelation. A black jewel, fragile and implacable.
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Aurélie): What's more icy than a horror movie played by kids? For yes, this is the proposal of The Innocents, a horror film whose children are the actors and not the victims. The perception of good and evil is built with experiences and learnings. Eskil Vogt explores the amorality of this age through a group of 4 children who discover psychic powers.
We will emphasize the quality of the game of these young actors, who, through their games, their experiences, to slide towards revenge, will gradually inflict the worst cruelty. The anxiety climate is accentuated by the control of the environment: an island of empty buildings during school holidays, cold colours, stairwells, forests, are the playground of these children.
Malice (2011)
Title V: Mientras duermes – Nationality: Spain – Gender : Thriller, Horror – Director : Jaume Balagueró – Distribution: Luis Tosar, Marta Etura, Alberto San Juan, Petra Martínez, Iris Almeida...
DVD Edition France | Wild Side Video | 06 June 2012 - Blu-ray Edition France | Wild Side Video | 06 June 2012 - Dissemination platforms: Premium Video, UniversCine, Canal VOD, VIVA and Orange
The pitch: A dive into the daily life of a building keeper, efficient and discreet. But who is too much in the intimacy of people, to the point of knowing them by heart. And to cultivate an unhealthy obsession, as with a happy and carefree young woman...
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Etienne): In this film we follow Caesar, guardian of the building well in all respects. Except that we are dealing with a narcissistic pervert, who takes advantage of the absence of the inhabitants of the building to enter their apartment and give free rein to its darkest inclinations. Jaume Balagueró delivers us here a small film under tension, not recommended to all phobics of intrusion, where the malaise is very often palpable. The main performer Luis Tosar is particularly remarkable, and the staging reflects very well the Herculean efforts that our concierge is putting into action to protect his double life, as well as the consequences of his harm on the tenants of the building.
The Spanish cinema again produces a good little thriller (domestic this time), very well conducted. But be careful, some scenes are not to be put in front of all eyes, especially for people who are sensitive to the themes of rape, chemical and sexual submission.
What happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Title V : What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? – Nationality : United States – Gender : Thriller, Drama, Horror – Director : Robert Aldrich – Distribution : Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono, Wesley Addy, Marjorie Bennett...
DVD Edition France | Warner Bros. | 13 August 2008 - Blu-ray Edition France | Warner Bros. | 08 November 2016 Dissemination platforms : Canal VOD, VIVA and LaCinetek
The pitch: After a mysterious accident that made him infirm, a great star is forced to be treated by her sister, a former silent movie star transformed into a sadistic nurse who multiplies the abuse...
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Etienne) : Le grand classique de 1962, certes en noir et blanc, mais d’une modernité, d’un rythme et d’une audace qui en font toujours un film incroyable à regarder aujourd’hui. On y retrouve Bette Davis (Baby Jane) et Joan Crawford (Blanche), qui interprètent deux sœurs actrices vivant ensemble dans la même maison. Baby Jane est une ancienne enfant star qui a vu sa carrière totalement décliner après l’adolescence, au contraire de sa sœur qui est devenue une actrice reconnue à l’âge adulte. Un accident cloue Blanche sur une chaise roulante et c’est Baby Jane, pleine de rancœur et de jalousie suite à son déclin, qui s’occupe d’elle dans leur grande maison à l’automne de leurs vies.
Le film oscille habilement entre drame psychologique et film d’horreur, avec deux actrices en état de grâce, et décrit l’emprise, la dépendance et le déclin lié à l’âge ou à la maladie (particulièrement pour les femmes dans le milieu du Show-business), sans fard ni retenue. Cela raisonne particulièrement avec la carrière des deux actrices, qui arrivaient à l’âge de la cinquantaine à l’époque, et qui avaient du mal à trouver des rôles. Elles se sont lancées à corps perdu, et avec Robert Aldrich, le réalisateur dans la production de ce film, avec très peu de soutien des studios hollywoodiens. Il en résulte un classique indémodable, qui franchit allègrement l’épreuve des années. Et il y a Bette Davis, un effet spécial à elle seule !
Le Géant de fer (1999)
Title V : The Iron Giant – Nationality : United States – Gender : Animation, Science-fiction, Drame – Director : Brad Bird – Distribution : Eli Marienthal, Vin Diesel, Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Cloris Leachman…
DVD Edition : France | Warner Bros. | 08 juin 2005 – Blu-ray Edition : France | Warner Bros. | 05 avril 2017 Dissemination platforms : Canal VOD, UniversCiné et Pathé Home
The pitch: Venu des étoiles, un mystérieux géant métallique est sauvé par un courageux gamin de 8 ans. Leur amitié, leur joie de vivre et leur curiosité mutuelle seront-elles plus fortes que la bêtise des hommes obsédés par la guerre, qui refusent le simple droit à la différence ?
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Sébastien) : Avant que Brad Bird ne connaisse la notoriété en passant par la case Pixar (il réalisera pour le studio Les Indestructibles and Ratatouille), le cinéaste possédait déjà à son actif un premier long-métrage qui entra dans les mémoires au fil de temps. Car, il faut bien le dire, Le Géant de fer n’a pas été un succès comme nous pourrions l’entendre. Avec plus de 23 millions de dollars au box-office mondial pour un budget avoisinant les 50 millions, le titre s’est clairement avéré être un échec commercial. Mais le temps a fait son œuvre sur le film, devenant un bonbon cher à nos cœurs, au point de prendre une place importante dans la pop culture (au hasard, Ready Player One). Et qui mériterait ô combien une réédition en support physique, à bon entendeur !
Le Géant de fer, c’est un film d’animation digne des productions Amblin. À savoir une histoire d’amitié entre un petit garçon solitaire et un robot extra-terrestre de 30 mètres. Classique sur le papier, mais le titre parvient à sortir du lot par l’émotion qui se dégage de chaque seconde de son visionnage. Avec Le Géant de fer, Brad Bird livre un film d’animation d’une justesse et d’une sensibilité à toute épreuve. Sans pour autant oublier sa profondeur thématique, notamment dans ce traitement des personnages esseulés de par leurs différences (un artiste beatnik se joint aussi au duo). Il suffit de voir dans quel cadre se place l’intrigue, à savoir en pleine Guerre froide, pour nous offrir une petite touche d’espionnage mais surtout un final des plus bouleversants. Outre son animation impeccable (notamment pour une production hors Disney and DreamWorks), Le Géant de fer fait partie de ses œuvres qu’il est impossible d’oublier. Et qui se doit d’être revue, ne serait-ce que pour redonner du baume au cœur.
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