9 May 2025.
EILEEN GRAY ET LA MAISON EN BORD DE MER ***1/2 (vo English and French)
If you’re interested in architecture, this excellent docufiction is for you. And even if you’re not, it’s still an intriguing study of a talented woman ahead of her times.
With well-cast actors who play the roles of Gray, Le Corbusier and Jean Badovici, the film retraces the life and work of the Irish designer/architect who built an innovative house on the Côte d’Azur in 1929. The shots of its ingenious interiors and secluded seafront exterior – with its sleek, clear lines – are entrancing, especially as they chronicle the passing of the years.
Conceived by Swiss directors Beatrice Minger and Christoph Schaub, this is the passionate, almost mysterious story of a woman who co-constructed an avant-garde refuge for herself in the south of France, and then lost it to the renowned Le Corbusier who decided to cover her serene white walls with his own modernistic murals.
Beautifully narrated both in English and French, it creates a hypnotic atmosphere of the exciting era of modernism with sublime music and cinematography, winning awards in various film festivals.
It’s especially touching when at the end of the film it shows the real Eileen Gray, now in her mid-90s, still talking about new projects in furniture design, which was her specialty and for which she became famous. This multi-layered work is a timely tribute to an unjustly disregarded talent. (Showing at the Bio, Carouge)
LES MUSICIENS ***1/2 (vo French)
This French film by Grégory Magne continues the idea of creation, in the realm of music.
A daughter wishes to honour her recently deceased father with a concert featuring his collection of Stradivarius violins and a newly acquired Stradivarius cello. Obviously she and her brother are at the head of a wealthy conglomerate. But that is not the point. The point of this fascinating film is the difficulty of bringing together top musicians who have never before worked together. She wants to create a harmonious quartet in a triple tribute to the precious instruments, to a new composition by a reclusive composer, and to her father’s memory. A daunting project as the four musicians are not getting along, and they are under a time limit.
Director Magne succeeds by treating the story with much respect for all its elements, including the various protagonists, each with their own characters and hangups, and the choice of his main actors – the delicate Valérie Donzelli as the daughter and the charismatic Frédéric Pierrot as the composer – the two parentheses of the whole scheme.
There is tension, there are emotions, and there is noble music and surroundings, but above all there is the synergy of human relations culminating in the creation of a sublime moment. Splendid!
UN MONDE MERVEILLEUX **1/2 (vo French)
This is a strange, bittersweet film. There’s a woman (the wonderfully expressive Blanche Gardin), a depressed, jobless chain-smoker who is not the best of mothers, as she teaches her little daughter to lie and steal. But then the film is also about the near future where robots are daily companions to us humans.
It’s this tender, humorous aspect of it that makes this film by Giulio Callegari a special one – the up-and-down connection with the robot that she and her daughter have stolen from an old folk’s home to sell its spare parts. That doesn’t work, so she’s stuck with it, for better or for worse. And the robot turns out to be a fine teacher, especially when she loses her daughter to the social services. This social satire is actually quite a wacky, entertaining premise for first-time feature director, Callegari.
(Showing at the Bio, Carouge)
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
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