“Great Expectations”: Sylvain Desclus portrays a couple tested by a political ideal

The meaning of “the world” – should not be missed

Exactly one year ago, we discovered Sylvain Descluse’s excellent documentary in the cinema. French campaign. We followed there, in particular, among the three lists, a hellish and terrifying team consisting of the young Mathieu – tall shy, without etiquette, inclined towards social utopia and “yellow vest” – and the old veteran Guy – a socialist with a coupe Mercedes. -, started with all speed to capture the town hall of Preilly-sur-Claz (Indre-et-Loire). A heartwarming, funny, humane, engaging film, attentive to local political issues to better reveal the political challenge of loyalty to an ideal as the universal sources of ancient human comedy.

with high expectations, a Dickensian title, we move from documentary to fiction and from local to national all at once. A new tandem takes center stage. There, Madeleine (Rebecca Marder) and Antoine (Benjamin Lavernay) form an ambitious young couple who want to serve their country at the highest level and work for a more just society there. As the film opens, Madeleine, from very humble origins, motherless, abandoned by her retired father, is preparing for an ENA oral at a magnificent holiday home overlooking her father’s Corsican beach. “Antoine, a rich lawyer. The three will gather for dinner, as well as Antoine’s family friend Gabriel (Emmanuel Bercot), a Socialist Party hierarch and former Secretary of State.

The conversational turn sets the film on the tracks it’s destined to leave. The couple, with their youthful eagerness to change the system from within, their faith in the future, contrasts with Antoine’s father’s cynicism and resignation, as well as Gabriel’s seasoned pragmatism. However, this logic of generational conflict will be violently replaced by another, even more irreconcilable arrangement: loyalty to social class. A tragic event that occurred on the island the next morning, involving two young people, will change their lives and introduce a secret that will eventually consume the couple.

Without divulging its nature, suffice it to say that the two young men’s respective reactions to the violence of the event itself testify to the dividing line that has since widened between them. Madeleine’s bravery and Antoine’s cowardice. Madeleine’s sense of honor and Antoine’s fear. Madeleine’s risk and Antoine’s defense of her reputation. two worlds One has nothing to lose, the other has everything to lose. After returning to Paris, the two lovers, still bound by the most terrible secret, will not be separated for long. It is Antoine, the big kid, the weak heir, who takes the initiative and abandons Madeleine without further ado.