Chronicle of a fleeting affair: Mouret extremely romantic! [critique]

Emmanuel Mouret once again examines the fragility of the couple, through the story of an adulterer put to the test of his supposed transience. A romantic comedy of great intelligence.

Released in September 2022 in cinemas, Chronicle of a fleeting affair will be broadcast this evening on Arte, for the first time in the clear. First advises you. Here is our review.

After the bushy The things we say, the things we do who intelligently dared the choral narrative, the apparent simplicity of this Chronicle of a fleeting affair (a man, a woman) suggested a small escape. It is also appropriate to consider it in this way, to see only in its isolated narrative blocks, the story of an adulterous passion condemned by essence to be nothing more than ” passenger “. Emmanuel Mouret, champion of a romanticism put to the test of the contemporary as well as the past (Mademoiselle de Jonquières), here probes the mysteries that govern the impulses of the heart. All around the lovers (Sandrine Kiberlain, Vincent Macaigne, perfect), the world only exists if it returns the appropriate and therefore exclusive signs. For Mouret, the paintings in a museum or the decoration of a bedroom thus add a commentary to the romantic discourse. As for speech, it struggles to be synchronous with actions and gestures. But the bodies present can deny what had been defined and promised orally (cf. Rohmer). And when a third body comes into play (Georgia Scalliet, astonishing), the already precarious balance finds itself called into question. From then on, the chronicle leaves the shores of false lightness to enter seriousness. The time blocks that had seen the clandestine lovers kept away from the progress of the world are broken and force the protagonists to integrate a daily life that has suddenly become dizzying. Emmanuel Mouret proves once again that he is the undisputed king of romantic comedy.

The things we say, the things we do: Emmanuel Mouret deciphers his cinema