‘The Safe House’ review: Cluttered 1960s Paris-set chamber piece

Dir: Lionel Baier. Switzerland/Luxembourg/France. 2025. 92mins

As the scholar protests of Might 1968 tear via the streets of Paris, an eight-year-old boy (Ethan Chimienti) is delighted to gap up together with his grandparents, his two uncles and his larger-than-life Odessa-born Jewish great-grandmother of their Bohemian and decidedly down-at-heel mansion within the metropolis’s upscale Rue-de-Grenelle. Then the reassuring however insular eccentricity of the household is disrupted by an sudden customer pleading for shelter. The newest from Swiss filmmaker Lionel Baier is tailored from the 2015 Prix Femina-winning memoir La Cache, written by Christophe Botanski (who was the kid within the story). Just like the household dwelling, the movie is cluttered and self-consciously quirky, however followers of the e book might join with the atmospheric chaos of the storytelling.

Cluttered and self-consciously quirky

This is the primary look in Berlin’s fundamental competitors for Baier, whose most up-to-date options, Continental Drift (South) and Self-importance, each premiered in Cannes. Rambling, verbose and maybe somewhat self-satisfied, his newest image will join most efficiently with French audiences; significantly these conversant in Botanski’s supply materials and with the creator’s uncle, the famend conceptual artist Christian Botanski, who’s depicted on the very begin of his profession in this movie. Elsewhere, the reception is more likely to be muted for all however essentially the most avid Francophiles.

A narration, seemingly attributable to the creator of the movie moderately than the creator of the story, units the scene by acknowledging that the image we’re about to see relies on a e book, which relies on a childhood. He then goes on to attract a big query mark over the credibility of the story, adopting a form of Schrodinger’s cat strategy to information. “If you happen to imagine me,” the voice dissembles, “I’ll inform the reality.” Having cleared that up (or not, relying whether or not you may convey your self to place your religion within the storytelling), the movie, accompanied by a skittering jazz rating, introduces the important thing characters.

The kid’s dad and mom – not one of the characters are named, other than the great-grandmother (Liliane Rovère), who’s referred to inside the household as ’Hinterland’ – are background gamers within the story. Caught up within the revolutionary fervour of the second, they offload their little one onto his grandparents. It’s a curious arrange. Grandpapa (Michel Blanc) is a revered physician who, based on his household, is overdue recognition by the governing medical physique. Grandpapa, nevertheless, is a timid creature who finally ends up cowering below the desk and coated in meat juices throughout a lunch together with his esteemed colleagues.

In distinction, Grandmama (Dominique Reymond) is resourceful and dynamic; she’s not about to let the actual fact of her incapacity (she has partial paralysis in her leg) get in the way in which of battling on behalf of her household. She negotiates the sale of her youthful son’s work from the security of the household automobile; years earlier than, she devised an ingenious scheme to guard her Jewish husband from the occupying Nazi forces. Then there’s Hinterland, who’s a fan of vodka and dependable to Odessa above all different locations, even Paris.

It’s a supportive, close-knit household atmosphere, and one which isn’t totally wholesome. The 2 uncles, Nice-Uncle (William Lebghil) and Little-Uncle (Aurélien Gabrielli), appear half-formed as adults, moderately too snug within the home nest to strike out on their very own. And who can blame them? Véronique Sacrez’s dense, detailed manufacturing design captures the idiosyncratic persona of the house all of them share, an opulent however moderately grubby maze of rooms, piled excessive with books and artwork; reverberating with confidently voiced opinions and, in Hinterland’s quarters, classical music by Russian composers performed at ear-splitting volumes.

Baier nods to the interval during which the movie is ready with a smattering of playful New Wave prospers. However in the end the movie, just like the inhabitants of the Rue-de-Grenelle mansion, doesn’t actually go anyplace.