Killers of the Flower Moon

Encore un film rétro de Scorsese parfaitement mis en scène, avec des anti-héros pourris jusqu’à la moelle par la corruption et le mensonge. Et la tragédie des victimes, filmée avec la distance émotionnelle typique du réalisateur. Sauf dans le cas personnage principal, une femme indienne dont l’élimination ne se résume pas à une scène de quelques secondes impliquant une balle dans la tête. Il faut aimer le style narratif percutant de Scorsese. Moi, j’ai toujours eu un peu de mal avec ça. Robert De Niro prend un plaisir royal à incarner à nouveau un parrain manipulateur, cette fois-ci sous les traits d’un oncle sympathique. DiCaprio s’amuse à décliner toutes ses marques de fabrique en tant qu’acteur dans le rôle d’un personnage idiot et déchiré, à la bouche tirée vers le bas. Et Brendan Fraser brille dans un tout petit rôle. Par son jeu minimaliste et son regard hypnotique, Lily Gladstone est fragile, résignée et confiante. La très grande longueur du film soutient la complexité absolue d’une intrigue aux proportions épiques, mais elle augmente aussi le nombre de personnages et des événements qui les entourent, parmi lesquels j’étais déjà un peu perdu au moment du résumé final. Rythmiquement monotone, mais, grâce à une musique en pulsation constante, vivant et gradué de façon inquiétante, ce récit d’une injustice redoutable est revigoré par la survenue des agents d’un FBI à ses débuts, avec leur rigueur professionnelle. Les bandes de cinglés criminels de l’époque n’étaient pas habitués à de telles tactiques de maintien de l’ordre. Il y a une belle petite apparition surprise dans l’épilogue du film, monté avec solennité. C’est-à-dire, avec une solennité qui vise les nominations aux oscars. [Festival de Cannes] (21/05/2023)

Long, trop long, beaucoup trop long. Un élagage à 45-60 minutes n'aurait pas nui au film, certaines scènes auraient pu être évitées et l'histoire aurait gagné en dynamisme et en rythme. C'est une histoire triste et effrayante, certaines scènes m'ont fait mal à l'âme. Les performances des deux acteurs fétiches de Scorsese sont indiscutables ; Lily Gladstone, inconnue au bataillon, m'a également surpris. John Lithgow et Brendan Fraser, en revanche, auraient pu avoir un peu plus de place, ils l'auraient alors pleinement exploitée. Chapeau bas pour la musique dramatique qui soutient l'ensemble. (19/10/2023)

The Osage nation has found oil in their territory and became rich. But where there is money, there are people who want to get their hands on it, and they will be going over dead bodies. Martin Scorsese delivers a dense drama about human envy, anger and cruelty that is not entirely audience-friendly and forces you to spend three and a half hours in the company of repulsive people. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro give brilliant performances here, but the slow pace and a narrative that doesn't rush anywhere demand more attention and patience from the audience than usual. Scorsese is uncompromising, so be ready to do your fair share of time with his newest film. And he's certainly not going to make it easy. (16/10/2023)

Martin Scorsese and Eric Roth have taken a muddled, mediocre book and turned it into a great American novel in film form. Killers of the Flower Moon is a monumental, multi-voiced and timeless chronicle of the fall of a community whose lust for wealth is stronger than love, even though its members are aware that they are preparing the next generation for the future through their own behaviour. The film is dark and slow and feels longer than The Irishman, for example, but that length is justified, as it makes it possible for us to gradually get into that community and see at first hand how greed and cynicism gradually and inevitably spread to the country, become entrenched and consume the characters. Throughout the film, we find ourselves in close proximity to a confident and seemingly all-powerful, yet essentially banal and sometimes comically obtuse evil whose proper punishment seems rather unlikely, which is exactly as frustrating and exhausting as Scorsese most likely intended it to be. By comparison, the voice of goodness is weakened by sickness and the “medicine” administered, and it is limited to naming the one who died (which is something of a Scorsese trademark). Despite that – and thanks to the dignity that Lily Gladstone radiates – it has a central, evidentiary role in the narrative. Killers is primarily an indictment of the murderers whose existence should ideally have been erased from American history (because many still profit from their crimes to this day) and an emphatic demand to give back a sense of humanity to those whose lives were reduced to a few thousand dollars decades ago; the director’s closing cameo leaves us in no doubt about this. ___ Scorsese directs his lament with the surehandedness of a master. This time, he economises on the spectacular dolly and Steadicam shots, instead relying on the actors and Thelma Schoonmaker’s feel for rhythm. As a message about the substance of American capitalism, his plunge into the darkness could eventually become an equally essential work as Giant (1956), Once Upon a Time in the West, The Godfather and There Will Be Blood. At the same time, the intense hopelessness and the atmosphere of irreversible decline reminded me of Tárr’s films. No, that won’t come easy in the cinemas for this proof that you can still make your magnum opus in your seventies. 90% (19/10/2023)

Fargo 1920. It's not riveting, but it's undeniably excellent. It feels like a miniseries accidentally put on in one piece, two and a half hours of taking its time with everything in style, and in the final hour, after a change of style, it's conversely stilted. One of those films that should have either been considerably shorter (and left out entire lines) or, conversely, considerably longer (and fully committed to each). (20/10/2023)