Overview
- The film premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival this week and has generated early international reviews.
- Critics across outlets praised Swann Arlaud’s performance as Henri Marre and called it the film’s most compelling element.
- Marre grounds the film in real family correspondence, using Paulette’s letters as voiceover while employing grainy handheld cinematography, flash-lit black‑and‑white inserts, and 1980s pop cues to collapse past and present.
- Multiple reviewers criticized the film’s slow pacing and long runtime, reported between roughly 148 and 155 minutes, as a factor that blunts its moral inquiry.
- Some coverage reported that Marre encouraged on‑set improvisation, and the film’s intimate, family-rooted approach is likely to shape festival buzz and influence subsequent distribution discussions.