MILAN – For us of Hot Corn Nicolas Bedos, since the time of A love beyond the lines, has always been a great promise of French cinema. For the moment, he is not disappointing the expectations of the many stars from beyond the Alps who are relying on him to be directed. And for his latest film, Masquerade – Thieves of lovenow in theaters after being presented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Bedos brings together a stellar cast ranging from Pierre Niney to François Cluzet via Marine Vacht and Laura Morante.
The story is that of Adrien (Niney) an attractive dancer who, following an accident, had to leave the dance and now lives in a sumptuous villa on the French Riviera maintained by Martha (Isabelle Adjani), an old film glory. His existence will undergo a jolt starting from the meeting with Margot (Vacht), a femme fatale who will soon convince him to set up a scam against the rich entrepreneur Simon (François Cluzet). Two other women will be involved in this whirlwind of ambitions and lies: Simon’s wife (Emmanuelle Devos) and an old friend of Adrien’s (Laura Morante).
Ça va sans dire, it is on the cast that Nicolas Bedos places all his cards for this film always suspended between comedy and thriller. We find Pierre Niney in a role not unlike the one in lovers by Nicole Garcia, while risking, precisely for this reason, the effect déjà vu. Marine Vacht is no longer alone young and beautiful, as in the title of his best-known film, but has become simply irresistible and unattainable in its dangerous charm. François Cluzet is enjoying a golden age after starring in A shadow on the truth and Yes Chef, La Brigade. Isabelle Adjani plays a bit of parody of herself and outlines a figure who, in many ways, reminds us of the wonderful and decadent Swanson’s Norma Desmond in Avenue of the Sunset. Laura Morante gives yet another confirmation of her exceptional nature by playing a very cynical role and quite different from what she has accustomed us to.
And then there’s Nice, the overflowing marvel of the Côte d’Azur – “A sunny place for shady people” -, as well as the opulence and idleness of a social class eager to cling to a bygone era, but extremely pathetic in its sterile ostentation. Masquerade it is evidently a very ambitious film in terms of cast, cinephile homages, location, furnishings, budget, but above all for a narrative structure that intersects the events of the various characters several times in its 140-minute duration. In this film about deception, farce and ambition, nothing is quite as it seems.
Bedos signs a fresco on the squalor of a society so firm in its positions and privileges that it is bewitched, even with exaggerated naivety, by the youth that no longer belongs to it. And in a liquid game of perspective reversals and general antipathy towards all the characters, he finds it hard to decide who to bargain for as everyone, without distinction of any kind, operates in an unavoidably corrupt system.
Too bad Bedos doesn’t have the biting power of his promising debut here A love beyond the linesnor the writing and directing brilliance of his masterpiece The belle époque. This Masquerade it is at times an interesting exercise in style which, however, risks imploding in its perhaps excessively vain premises. Although the plot holds up as well as its narrative mechanism, the feeling of a film that is not fully successful and with a mannered writing prevailing over substantial originality remains. It must be reiterated, however, that Bedos remains one of the most interesting signatures of today’s French film scene and we are confident that the precious creative substance of which the early cinema is imbued will soon re-emerge.
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Below you can see one clip of Masquerade – Thieves of love:
Masquerade – Thieves of love: the review of the film by Nicolas Bedos