Julie (en 12 chapitres)

Au premier abord, juste une histoire romantique de plus avec une conclusion prévisible tel un yaourt hollywoodien cliché. Mais la première chose à laquelle j'ai pensé le lendemain matin, et cela intensément comme si je les connaissais personnellement, c'était LUI et ELLE. Et à leur histoire, à ce qu'ils se sont mutuellement donné. La scène du coucher de soleil me fait encore mal. Quand avons-nous vu pour la dernière fois un film sur le couple aussi précis et sincère ? Joachim Trier est un psychologue attentif doté d'un sens unique pour dresser les portraits détaillés des personnages, qu'il sait en plus embellir par de charmantes idées cinématographiques - arrêt du temps au moment de tomber amoureux ou représentation animée succincte d'un trip sous champignons, influencé par le poids des pensées sur la vie actuelle. Un duo d'acteurs exceptionnel comprenant Renate Reinsve et Anders Danielsen Lie. (17/03/2022)

There's no question that The Worst Person in the World has cinematic value. At certain parts, I even felt like I was watching something so amazing that I wasn’t even sure I could fully grasp it in the moment. The deft use of music, sound, and silence was just perfect. So was the cinematography and the visuals of the film. Some of the conversations, the moments – my God – are so incredibly good and pleasantly uninhibited. The choice of actors fantastically complements the visuals I mentioned. And yet there were so many times I was wishing it was over already. I wish the chapters had gone by faster, and that they would never lose their original freshness. So they wouldn't sink into suffocation. I was literally craving even the smallest joke so I could drop the weight from my shoulders for a bit. A film in which I can see fragments of genius, but also feel an almost torturous lack of comprehension. (09/04/2022)

An interesting, skillfully made attempt at a generational film, the acceptance or rejection of which largely depends on whether you are, or consider yourself to be, part of the generation that is the subject of the director's interest. Speaking of Joachim Trier, it is of course speculation on my part, but I would bet that he put a large part of himself into the character Axel. The unfortunate Axel is the character that I relate to the most in terms of age and life attitudes, and he is also the most sympathetic character. I consider his media battle with the assertive feminist to be the most entertaining and intellectually valuable moment of the film. The pleasant Renate Reinsve plays (for me) an unpleasant Julia because she is scattered and emotionally unstable, constantly searching for herself until the final credits. She represents a growing group of people who delay important life decisions for as long as possible, mainly because life on the increasingly economically suffocating but still damn rich West seems to offer (seemingly) endless opportunities and risk-free experimentation. Few people realize that this world and the life strategies that stem from it are irreversibly ending due to the ecological crisis and the unprecedentedly rapid transfer of wealth to emerging East Asia. The variety of topics that Joachim Trier presents in his film gives every viewer a chance to find "their own thing" among them. Overall impression: 75%. (05/09/2021)

Julie (en 12 chapitres) est un drame romantique chaleureux et conciliant sur la quête de son chemin de vie, de soi-même et de tout ce qui tourne autour. Au début, j’étais préoccupé par la longueur du métrage, mais, en fin de compte, les deux heures en présence des personnages sympathiques dépeints ici se sont écoulées plutôt agréablement. J’aurais seulement souhaité que le final me bouscule plus que ça. [KVIFF 2021] (14/09/2021)

Discours sur le prologue, les douze chapitres et l'épilogue de la vie de Julie, bientôt 30 ans, qui cherche sa place dans la vie et cherche à se comprendre elle-même, ses émotions et ses relations amoureuses. Une tentative relativement réussie de témoignage générationnel, qui tente également d'aborder plusieurs autres sujets sérieux et qui séduit grâce aux performances naturelles des trois personnages principaux ainsi que par une mise en scène électrisante et un humour sympathique. Les dialogues intelligemment écrits sont parfois légèrement prétentieux et le récit se décompose un peu, non seulement en raison de la division en chapitres, mais aussi en raison d'un trop grand va-et-vient entre les différents thèmes, en particulier vers la fin. Le film est donc le plus fort dans quelques détails et passages très impressionnants et marquants, tels qu'un flirt innocent au bord de l'infidélité lors d'une fête, le passe-temps avec l'amour de sa vie lors d'une journée dans une ville temporairement à l'arrêt, ou encore la prise des champignons hallucinogènes. Bien que l'émotion attendue à la fin ne se produise pas et que les deux heures soient peut-être un peu trop longues en raison du rythme lent et qui ralentit progressivement, il s'agit tout de même d'un moment très agréable et enrichissant. (28/08/2021)

Considering how Aerofilms is cramming this film through every orifice (I've seen its trailer a good fifteen times) and is clearly trying to patch up two years of COVID losses with it, I automatically went to see it already in an oppositional mindset. And thus began our fantastic mutual war that lasted until the very end. One of my first attacks was the accusation that it’s all well and good to build up an independent and idiosyncratic heroine when the film assigns her to such an idiotic and one-dimensional male character. Except that when it lets the characters talk about something other than relationships for a while, suddenly they're not so dumb and they actually drop some pretty interesting details. But what if these passages too are describing some classic male cliché, which I don't realize because I AM the cliché? And then there were those moments when I resisted jumping in on any of the suggested topics because I feared I was walking into a trap. A couple of times this proved justified, and yet I still occasionally fell for the traditional audience feel-good cliché "She's literally me!" (definitely in the scene where the heroine wanders around town, squeezing herself into someone else's party, where she’s advising others "from a medical position" on how to raise their children with two semesters of medicine under her belt), only to laugh at the film afterwards about how it has to help itself with a cancer plot. But that is suddenly the strongest passage, with a real palpable presence of finality, and it made me think of Verhoeven's Turkish Delight. By the end of the battle, I had almost acknowledged my full surrender before the film finally couldn't help itself and had to demonstrate that theme of female independence through the dilemma of having/not having a child and I was terribly annoyed by the last shot because who the fuck puts a monitor right next to the stove?! So the win goes to Trier, however in boardgame terms he didn't make it to Major Victory in the end but only to Minor. But I worked up a sweat. (21/03/2022)

SPOILER. Après Luckiest Girl Alive (American Girl), que pouvait-on regarder d'autre que The Worst Person in the World (ce film) ? :-D Atypique quant au genre, il me serait difficile de le classer correctement. Chaque tiers est complètement différent et, contrairement à ce que j’ai lu dans pas mal d’autres critiques, c’est le dernier tiers qui m’a le moins plu – sauf que dans mon cas, c'est pour des raisons personnelles. Je ne veux pas et ça me dérange de voir des intrigues sur le cancer dans les films, qui plus est sur le pancréas. C'est une triste réalité de nos vies et la pire maladie de civilisation, mais elle ne devrait pas être aussi présente dans les films, surtout quand, comme c’est le cas ici, le film aborde les relations, la sexualité, l'infidélité et les instincts avec originalité – un aspect que j’ai par contre beaucoup aimé. Joachim Trier sait captiver son public ; il l'avait déjà démontré avec Thelma. (09/01/2023)

So, what did I just watch? A romance or more of a psychological portrait of the main character? Probably a mix of both, but the truth is, after the first fifteen minutes, I was tempted to call it quits because I found myself somewhat bored. However, I stuck with it, and to my surprise, the film remained watchable despite its consistently slow pace. It didn't blow me away, but it wasn't dumb either, and I can comfortably agree with many of the ideas it presented. The overly drawn-out runtime is a major drawback, though, so I'll settle on a generous three stars. / Lesson learned: Take a moment to think before you judge someone. (15/05/2022)

The relationship between the distracted Julie and the internally balanced Aksel reflects all possible problems and vices of the contemporary world, with which we are willingly rushing to meet our doom. I find it quite strange that during the free fall, happy moments flash by, moments that have the power to pull the viewer into joyful euphoria. And that's exactly what happened to me a couple of times while watching the movie. (85%) (17/04/2023)