Movie Review Pro
  • Movies
  • TV Shows
  • Anime
  • Articles

Type and hit Enter to search

Movie Review Pro
  • Movies
  • TV Shows
  • Anime
  • Articles
don juan 2022
Movies

Don Juan 2022 Movie Review

RichardMarshall
RichardMarshall
December 6, 2022 4 Mins Read
98 Views
0 Comments

Theater actor Laurent (Takhar Rahim) marries his colleague Julie (Virginie Efira). But the bride does not appear at the altar, breaking the groom’s heart. Now Laurent sees Julie in everyone she meets. To cope with grief and immerse himself in work, the artist agrees to play the role of Don Juan in a production based on Molière in the Norman town of Granville. Rehearsals with the actress playing the role of Elvira (Louise Ribière) are not going well. And the director of the performance invites Julie, who has already appeared on stage more than once with Laurent.

Tahar Rahim as Lauren in a still from Don Juan
Tahar Rahim as Lauren in a still from Don Juan

Don Juan was directed by director, film critic, cinephile and actor Serge Bozon. The screenplay was written with constant collaborator Axel Roper. Bozon’s previous film was Mrs. Hyde, a loose and modernized adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Don Juan is even more interesting: the actors rehearse Moliere’s Don Juan, or the Stone Feast, but there are no direct plot analogies between the picture and the comedy in five acts. But the type of hero-lover is similar. Over time, the viewer sees more and more clearly that Laurent remains a selfish seducer outside the theater walls.

The film is divided into two parts. The first story is told from the words of Laurent. Julie appears as a villain who at the last moment abandoned her unfortunate lover – a tragic beginning. The actor does not find a place for himself and sees a runaway bride in the girls he meets by chance. All the heroines are played by Virginie Efira, but in different wigs. And at first, you can close your eyes to Laurent’s strangeness in the form of an unhealthy craving for alcohol and a desire to satisfy grief in the arms of another. The actor is very painful, the nature is creative – anything can happen. But the situation changes dramatically with the appearance of Julie at rehearsals. The new optics allows you to truly see the dynamics of a couple’s relationship. The bride left the groom, because even on the day of the wedding, Laurent looked at other girls. Julie knew perfectly well that nothing would change in marriage. Other oddities in the behavior of the performer of the role of Don Juan line up in a clear picture: Laurent does not play, the actor does not need to create an unfamiliar image, but it is enough just to be himself. For the time being, one may get the impression that Bozon is drawing the story of a talented but unhappy actor in love, but in fact this is a story about an artist of one role. And if Laurent can only play Don Juan, then Julie has many faces and is able to become anyone on stage. Therefore, the director needs a play with Virginie Efira in wigs – this is not a deceptive vision of an upset lover, but a statement of fact, the superiority of the actress Julie over the actor Laurent.


Tahar Rahim as Lauren in a still from Don Juan

Tahar Rahim as Lauren in a still from Don Juan

Bozon’s Don Juan continues a new tradition of auteur musicals that can easily leave romance-loving audiences bewildered. The closest analogy is Annette by Leos Carax. The success of “La La Land” returned the musical to a number of topical genres. Bozon admits that he has always been interested in musical films, but only in the last few years the idea of ​​making a musical does not seem crazy to producers. Although the French director confesses his love for classic Broadway productions, Don Juan has nothing to do with the usual musicals. There are numbers in which the characters vocally present experiences, but in a minimal amount. In addition, both Laurent and Julie sing in a detached manner, without unnecessary emotions. This is not a cry from the heart, but a genre convention. There are no memorable compositions, the audience will hardly sing along to the characters. Let Raheem and Efira try, but first of all they are excellent actors.

Virginie Efira as Julie in Don Juan
Virginie Efira as Julie in Don Juan

Roper and Bozon put a classic plot into modern realities and get a flip film. Don Juan still tries to seduce every girl on the street, but Laurent has no victories. Persistent and frontal attempts meet worthy resistance. In the reality of the film, Don Juan is excluded from the game and remains a loner. Perhaps Julie deserved much more attention than the talentless Laurent. If not for the charisma of Tahar Rahim, by the end of the picture the main character would have caused only disgust.

“Don Juan” strays between genres: it is not a very funny comedy, and a rustic melodrama, and a secondary psychological drama. And it cannot be said that Boson succeeds in breaking up the structure of the film into heterogeneous parts. Perhaps the scriptwriters just wanted to talk about toxic relationships using the example of a familiar plot, but even here the French picture does not make any discoveries. Fans of auteur cinema should not miss this year’s film from Cannes, but there are few other reasons to watch Don Juan.

3 1 vote
Movie Rating

Tags:

comedydramamusical

Other Articles

Strange World review
Previous

Strange World Review

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
Next

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol 2022 Review

Next
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
December 6, 2022

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol 2022 Review

Previews
November 23, 2022

Strange World Review

Strange World review
Login
Please login to comment
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Latest Reviews

‘Tetris’: The fast-paced world of distribution rights

March 31, 2023

’65’: Adam Driver hunts dinosaurs in a simple but forceful science fiction

March 24, 2023

‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ is that kind of light-hearted adventure that you always want

March 20, 2023

‘My Sunny Maad’: Living in an Afghan family

March 18, 2023
  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • About Us

MovieReview.Pro © 2023. All Rights Reserved.

wpDiscuz
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}