Les Figures de l'ombre

Difficile de dénicher un film plus adéquat pour l’Académie américaine, à part peut-être si on y ajoutait encore une certaine célébration de la participation américaine dans une guerre donnée – bien que la guerre froide s’y trouve effectivement. Ici, on se glorifie de la génialité des États-Unis, de l’intelligence de son peuple, des gens bien éduqués et talentueux parce que, quand même, ceux-ci sont forcément plus intelligents, cultivés et talentueux que ces « méchants Russes » ! Et bien entendu, après l’année dernière, le fait qu’on mette l’accent sur les femmes Noires opprimées et discriminées qui ont plus à offrir que les Blanches mais ne sont pas reconnues, arrange bien tout le monde. Mais ho ! J’en ai vraiment ma claque de tous ces schémas américains classiques typiques du genre ! Je pourrais même prédire les yeux fermés quand une scène va être applaudie. Puis, personnellement, j’apprécie toujours moins un film quand on y parle trop des maths et de la physique que je déteste, ce qui m’a fait mordre sur ma chique à chaque fois qu’on se perdait inutilement dans des détails techniques. Je mets quand même une étoile, et ce pour les prouesses de toutes les actrices principales et secondaires. Je n’avais pas reconnu Jannelle ; elle est sublime dans son rôle. J’ai aimé aussi Kevin Costner, lequel semble manifestement prendre plaisir à tout film qui se rapporte de près ou de loin au personnage de JFK. Et on ne coupera pas à cette réflexion acide : je n’ai pas vu la moindre différence entre la prestation d’Octavia Spencer et celle de Kirsten Dunst. (26/02/2017)

To accuse this slightly cheesy material of being full of clichés is about the same as dwelling on the fact that there is too much action in an action film, so take the opinions of the few nitpickers who will rate it lukewarmly with a grain of salt. In any case, it's exactly the kind of film that will appeal to the masses, not because it's ass-kicking, like some of Ron Howard's earlier pieces, but precisely because the themes and posters look exactly like that and yet it manages to get around it in a fairly sophisticated way. I mean, sure, it's a film full of good personalities and generous gestures, where there can be nothing but a positive outcome at the end, but that's what you expect from the trailer. Where it differs, however, is the intimate, idiosyncratic and incredibly fresh confrontation between black women and white men in a time of oppression and racial segregation. What you don't expect, though, is lots of snappy dialogue and clouds of emotion. Nor do you expect such a great female acting trio, which is complemented by Kevin Costner with his worldly "Man of Steel" type of role, like we all like him. The nominations are understandable, because not once does it slip into excessive sentimentality and yet it is often good to have a handkerchief handy. The only criticism is perhaps the unnecessarily literal script, which makes Hidden Figures just figures in the finale. (26/03/2017)

Wow, the black guy Chris Rock once tells off the Oscar committee and one year later we have a series of Oscar-nominated movies, where Hidden Figures is definitely the best movie the year has to offer. You see it is a heartbreaking story of four clever girls who are working at NASA and at the same time have a problem – they are black. And since it’s the early 1960s and America is at the peak of a cold war against the Soviet Union about who will be the first one to send a man to space, what we have is a fairly racist subtext, which in this movie climaxes with separate toilets for whites and blacks. The story is nice, the execution as well, but those pro-American propagandist scenes where the head of NASA bangs on the sign “WC, Toilets for Coloreds” with twenty white colleagues watching were a bit shallow and I didn’t find them emotionally engaging. It might be because I am absolutely unable to grasp how far Americans managed to get with racism while still claiming it was OK. So here they are and now they have to try and safe face with movies that are supposed to be talked about for the rest of the year… (21/02/2017)

I'll admit that if it weren't for Kirsten Dunst in a supporting role, I would have definitely missed out on Hidden Figures. But Kirsten has good taste, and her name and character are well portrayed, if only in just a few images, which certainly "adorns" this sure bet. Finally, her secondary storyline and that of Jim Parsons represent the most pressing thing the main characters had to contend with. Or racial segregation, NASA, and the American response to Gagarin. It’s worth a recommendation. (26/07/2017)

A film about racial segregation (not only) at NASA and the space races from the US perspective. With regard to the former, they push it too hard, whilst in the case of the latter it kind of only brushes the surface. Moreover, it is done with a number of various inaccuracies and rather harmful simplifications - for example, if I hadn't been interested in the topic before, I would get the impression from Hidden Figures that the computer scientists at NASA were solely black women, and immediately after the closing credits I'd go looking to see if John Glenn's launch was indeed such a thrilling drama or not. Despite all of this, though, the film is nice to watch, it has a beautiful camera and great music, all three protagonists are fine, and I liked seeing Kevin Costner again. (23/11/2020)