‘Finally’: Venice Review

Dir: Claude Lelouch. France. 2024. 129mins

A profitable man who has misplaced his capacity to lie embarks on an unlikely street journey throughout France in Lastly, the most recent work from French maestro Claude Lelouch. Premiering out of competitors in Venice, this jocular musical comedy-drama is one thing of a treasure trove for Lelouch followers, containing not solely specific in addition to extra easter-egg-like references to most of the director’s earlier 50 options, but in addition a sprawling forged composed of acquainted faces. Certainly, there’s a powerful sense that Lelouch is making an attempt to create a sort of synthesis of his work for one final outing on the massive display. Although this, in addition to a few of France’s most picturesque backdrops, ought to present potential advertising hooks, particularly for older arthouse patrons, the ultimate end result isn’t fairly a house run.

One thing of a treasure trove for Lelouch followers

Although Lastly virtually overflows with actors who’ve labored with Lelouch over the many years, comic Kad Merad (Welcome To The Sticks), who performs the movie’s protagonist, is a contemporary face in Lelouch’s filmography (which incorporates the 1967 Palme d’Or and Oscar-winning A Man And A Lady). Merad performs a middle-aged man referred to as Lino Massaro, who seems to be the son of Lino Ventura’s character of the identical identify from 1972’s Cash Cash Cash (a important flop-turned-cult merchandise with a really adventurous plot certainly). Lelouch additionally splices in uncredited materials from his 1973 movie Glad New 12 months, during which Ventura co-starred alongside Françoise Fabian – who in Lastly stars as Merad’s character’s mom. Sandrine Bonnaire, on her third movie with the director, seems right here because the daughter of Nicole Courcel’s character in Cash Cash Cash, who’s the half-sister of Lino.

If all this sounds difficult, Lastly – credited to a few screenwriters alongside Lelouch – is advised very fluidly and would pose no downside for somebody who’s not accustomed to the director’s work (even when the movie is probably to enchantment to his followers). What’s extra, Lelouch appears to take an virtually perverse pleasure in not instantly revealing what sort of protagonist we’re actually coping with, well and humorously drawing parallels between the efficiency elements of attorneys in court docket, individuals in actual life and, in fact, actors in his motion pictures. 

It units a gently playful tone that’s bolstered by the chosen style, which the movie itself pronounces from the outset is a “musical fable dropped at life by Claude Lelouch.” That stated, the time period is used fairly loosely, as this fable’s morals are laborious to pin down precisely and, ultimately, there are simply 5 jazzy songs — the trumpet performs a key supporting function within the story as effectively — over the course of a beneficiant, two-hour-plus operating time, throughout which Lino, who can converse nothing however the reality, leaves every little thing behind to embark on an unfiltered journey throughout France. 

The sheer filmmaking pleasure and mastery of Lelouch behind the digital camera is very evident within the first hour or so, with Stephane Mazalaigue’s enhancing deserving a particular point out for the way it retains all the completely different narrative layers laid out so clearly. However the plot’s necessity to construct to some sort of logical finale with more and more greater stakes causes an initially smooth-running practice to more and more splutter.  

Non-French audiences is perhaps shocked by how a movie, in 2024, appears to wish to defend prostitution as an answer for lonely males (by no means ladies). What’s even stranger is the way it then seemingly tries however by no means fairly succeeds in equating that with the actions of married males who take an curiosity in ladies who’re already married to another person (which, in fact, shouldn’t make their cuckolded husbands jealous). This requires a stage of psychological gymnastics that even one of many nice chroniclers of the love lives of the French can not convincingly pull off.

Visually in addition to when it comes to its soundtrack, credited to trumpet participant/composer Ibrahim Maalouf and lyricist Didier Barbelivien, Lelouch’s newest is shiny and was clearly made on a snug price range. However whereas we are able to admire his ambition to create what the French would possibly name a ‘film-testament’, the ultimate result’s much less the glowing apotheosis of a lifetime of filmmaking than a piece that feels extra like a greatest-hits album – extra of a postscript than the actual deal.