"Slalom" analyzes the relationship of a young high-level skier with her trainer.
Noée Arbita and Jérémie Renier are amazing in this successful and award-winning first film.
This work freely inspired by the life of the director is militant but not Manichean.
As we can imagine, top-level sport requires sacrifices.
But in
Charlène Favier's
Slalom
, 15-year-old Lyz (fabulous Noée Arbita), has to do a lot to succeed in ski study class.
And his coach (Jérémie Renier, astonishingly poisonous) wants more, always more and soon too much.
The young actress, discovered in
Ava
by Léa Mysius, and the seasoned actor, recently admired in
The Order of Physicians
by David Roux, form a fascinating cinema couple to denounce harassment in the world of sport in general and skiing in particular. .
Autobio but not too much
The director drew on her own sports experience for
Slalom
: she practiced skiing at a high level until she was 15 years old.
She denies having signed an autobiographical work.
“I have known this relationship between coach and coach, she confides to
20 Minutes
.
I have also been able to experience the abuse and control in my own life and not just in the world of sport.
”Her film tackles these subjects in a militant way to denounce the slippages, but she never falls into Manichaeism as her characters turn out to be complex.
The sound is good
“I wanted to be as close as possible to Lyz whatever the experiences she is going through, insists Charlène Favier.
I really tried to show it from his point of view.
The mountains, an overwhelming presence, dominate the heroine who struggles to regain control of her life as she glides at full speed down snowy slopes.
The very elaborate soundtrack also makes it possible to feel the suffocation of the young woman, her heartbeats, her environment, enough to make her anguish palpable for a spectator who takes his side all the more.
Perseverance rewarded
Charlène Favier had a hard time financing her film.
“When I wrote the screenplay in 2015, the producers were very cautious, because the subject was scary.
The advent of #MeToo was a game-changer, ”she recalls.
Feature films like
Les Chatouilles
by Andréa Bescond and Eric Métayer have helped to release a voice that allows victims to share their pain.
Slalom
plunges into the world of skiing, but above all speaks of resilience, a theme so universal and so well treated that the film collects deserved awards such as the Cannes 2020 label, the Lumière female revelation of the year for Noée Arbita and the Ornano-Valenti prize from Deauville.
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Sport
Bullying
Ski
Cinema