Chambre 212
Christophe Honoré, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, 2019o
The childless Parisian couple Maria and Richard, married for 20 years and slightly tired of living together, review their love life for one night after Maria's adventures with young men have been uncovered: Richard in their chic shared apartment, Maria in room 212 of the hotel across the street. He is visited by his unforgotten love when he was a young man, she by her husband in younger years. Companions from the past and the future as well as the great string-puller Monsieur Volonté join the quartet and set in motion a dreamily playful tragicomedy about the fleetingness and persistence of feelings, remorse and reconciliation.
French cinema as it lives and breathes: formally virtuoso and unashamedly self-indulgent. But here (the longer the better), the trick which in cinema is often only done with tricks works: the suspension of space and time, reality in the form of possibility. Although Christophe Honoré is serious about the subject, he stages it as a cheerful dream play. In the beginning, Parisian cold-heartedness reigns, then, self-doubt and quiet cluelessness undermine the strenuously asserted sovereignty: has one done anything halfway right in love, caused irreparable damage or missed something decisive? How can one ever trust the emotional roller coaster? Chambre 212 asks big questions in rhetorically sparkling, airy form. In French: "Une réussite"!
Andreas Furler
Die Zahl im Titel bezieht sich auf den entsprechenden Abschnitt des französischen Code Civil, der besagt, dass sich Eheleute respektieren sollen. Der Film ist aber keine juristische Abhandlung, sondern eine luftige Etüde: oft laut, dann wieder leise, manchmal zu verspielt, aber immer très français. Chiara Mastroianni und Benjamin Biolay waren mal wirklich verheiratet.
Matthias LerfAvant d’être une œuvre brillante pour l’excellence de son quartette d’acteurs (Mastroianni-Biolay-Cottin-Lacoste), Chambre 212 est un film splendide sur les tumultes de l’amour. Assurément l’une des mises en scène les plus diaboliques d’efficacité de Christophe Honoré.
Alexandre JourdainAvec une insolente légèreté et une distribution idéale, Christophe Honoré s’amuse de l’usure du couple et de l’adultère. Une comédie irrésistible.
Guillemette OdicinoGalleryo
