Mona Cholet: “Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi did not analyze the power relations in Les Amandiers”

almond trees, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi’s film, and the controversy surrounding it, seem to be shaping a generational conflict in film and theater. The director recreates his experience as a student at the school founded in the 1980s at the Amandier Theater in Nanterre by directors Patrice Chérault and Pierre Romance. Nadia Tereskevic plays Stella, the film director’s doppelgänger, while Sofiane Benasser plays Etienne, inspired by Thierry Ravel, Bruni-Tedeschi’s former companion and also a student at the school who died of an overdose in 1991.

November 22, Parisian revealed that Sofian Benasser was charged in October with “spousal rape and abuse” following complaints from four women.

We can read shortly after the shooting starts release November 25 production almond trees She had already learned that a rape complaint had been filed against her co-star, but the director insisted on working with her. Bruni-Tedeschi continues to defend the man who has meanwhile become his companion by calling “presumption of innocence” And it is about A “media lynching”.

Beyond the case itself, the allegations against the comedian, and Bruni-Tedeschi’s response to them, heighten some of the questions raised in the film. Endowed with undeniable charm and vitality, almond trees Shows the theatrical utopia that was this school, the students’ euphoria at being chosen, the friendships and loves that are born, their enthusiasm, their imagination, their admiration, their admiration for their mentors, the disturbing and sometimes childish it. We smile, we laugh a lot.

But every now and then the scene jumps. We see Chero (Louis Garrel) force a student to kiss him one evening when they are the last ones in the building. We also see his cruelty towards Anais (Lena Garrel), whom he publicly humiliates by telling her that he never wanted her at school.

forced kiss

The character of Anais is probably inspired by Agnes Jaoui. In 2018, a review of the epic of almond trees, St the world On August 3, Clement Gis wrote: “Machismo reigns and they [les apprenties actrices] Monument soaps are received in case of late or forgotten answers. When it comes to thoughts about the physical. Soon, Agnes Jaoui can’t take it anymore and, hurt by Chereau’s restraint, she thinks about leaving the school. »