Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2021 8:24 pm 
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NORA MARTIROSYAN: SHOULD THE WIND DROP/SI LE VENT TOMBE (2020) - RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CIINEMA (VIRTUAL) 2021

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GRÉGOIRE COLIN (LEFT) IN SI LE VENT TOMBE

A French inspector visits a closed airport near a war-torn region

Grégoire Colin, the iconic young shirtless hunk in Beau Travail and generally cool dude in many of Claire Denis' other films as well (a total of six counting a new one), 45 now, appears in this new film in a different, neutral role as a man traveling around to a little known country. He's not neutral for the inhabitants, because in the film he is some kind of international inspector, and his decision about reopening an airport, near a no-fire zone dating from the Kosovo war, would put this little country, populated by Armenians, in the public eye, or leave it forever off the radar.

This visit to the disputed landlocked region of Nagorno-Karabakh, between Armenia and Azerbaijan and inhabited by Armenians, is an eight-hour drive from the nearest airport. (Director Nora Martirosyan is, I imagine, Armenian herself.) Alain Degage (Colin) arrives by long-distance taxi with a suitcase, in a rumpled suit. The Stepanakert Airport is an oddly designed, very real place. Also real perhaps is the little boy who walks improperly across the airport runways getting the water he goes around selling drinks of; and the eccentric old shepherd; and the unruly boys who at one point don uniforms and start firing live ammunition. There is also a patriotic airport official, and a pretty woman announcer for the local TV station, who wants to report on Alain's visit before it is proper. A romance does not develop. This is a staid film, and a slow-moving one, though it has some well-placed excitement during the last twenty minutes that changes everything.

I've been a fan of Grégoire Collin since, at age 17, he starred as a boyish con man in Agnieszka Holland's 1992 Olivier Olivier, and his Claire Denis films are not to be missed. There are only a couple of interviews with Grégoire Colin on YouTube. In one of them he is asked why he took on a particular role and film and he answers (in French), that he doesn't get that many job offers so he has to take what he can get. Agreed that being sometime muse of Claire Denis wouldn't guarantee an income, but he has 71 credits, counting TV series as well as a few shorts, so he must get asked to say yes pretty often.

This film may seem of rather specialized interest; but it, like the airport in the story, may bring beneficial attention to an obscure war-torn region. Oddly, Kurt Brokow points out in his Independent review that just this film was about to open last fall at Cannes, Azerbaijan's culture ministry tried to ban it from festival showings both in France and Estonia. But, he says, "neither fest caved, and Should the Wind Drop became the first Armenian film since 1965 shown at Cannes."

Should the Wind Drop/Si le vent tombe, 100 mins., in English, French, Armenian and Russian, was a Cannes 2020 selection. Screened at home online for this review as part of the 2021 virtual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema (Film at Lincoln Center; UniFrance).

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