Movie theater. Should you go see “The Object of Crime”, the latest film by Agnès Jaoui?

Absent from the big screen since 2018 (Place publique), the director Agnès Jaoui comes back to us by exploring a variation of movement #MeTooopening questions that ignite the debates. Agnès Jaoui has been a long-time opera enthusiast. So it is not surprising that she leads us into a performance, or at least the rehearsals of the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart. We quickly understand that the production team is not that of La Scala in Milan… Amateurism reigns at almost all levels. The casting having been decided, we head to the open-air theater where one of the three masterpieces of the famous Da Ponte trilogy is to be performed.

An accusation that sows trouble

Agnès Jaoui then takes great pleasure in drawing portraits of this entire population going through the throes of an operatic performance: director, stage manager, decorator, costume designer, conductor and of course singers. The latter not being left out in terms of ego… Everything would go more or less well despite some unwelcome thoughts about the black Cherubin…

Things will get worse when an accusation of sexual assault emerges between the young Suzanne (daughter of the patron of the production) and the Count, a baritone traveling the biggest stages on the planet and to whom of course everything is due”. And even more. The tone rises, the journalists want to know a little more, the team is fractured. Agnès Jaoui takes the opportunity to go to the scanner all possible attitudes faced with such an event, she who sings the Countess did not hesitate to adopt an ambiguous position.

A sustained pace

We laugh often, sometimes jolts. It is certain that the choice of the work of Beaumarchais, who, it is said, played his role during the French Revolution, is not insignificant here. Each character in the opera, provided you know them, echoes the character in the film in a finely crafted scenario.

Let us add to the ensuing chaos a future declaration from a great singer who will publish a list of sexual perverts she has encountered, a list in which the conductor of these Weddings is very afraid to appear! If certain “lyrical” scenes may reduce the attention of newbies to the subject, the film unfolds its more than two hours at a sustained pace, faithful to that of this “crazy day” desired as much by Beaumarchais as by Mozart.

Impeccable actors

A handful of actors bring the whole thing to life: Agnès Jaoui (the Countess), Daniel Auteuil (the conductor), Claire Chust (unforgettable debut director), Eye of Hadar (unmissable on the screen at the moment, Cherubin excited and with a gun in his hand), among other things because they are numerous and all particularly well sketched.

Between caustic humor and societal reflection, good entertainment.

Robert PÉNAVAYRE

The Object of the crime. Director: Agnès Jaoui. With: Agnès Jaoui, Daniel Auteuil… Duration: 2h13. Genre: comedy

Personalize your news by adding your favorite cities and media with My News.