My Second Film From the Venice Film Festival

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MOVIE REVIEW
Beating Sun (Tant que le soleil frappe)
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Genre: Drama
Year Released: 2022
Runtime: 1h 25m
Director(s): Philippe Petit
Writer(s): Philippe Petit, Laurette Polmanss (collaborating writer,) Mathieu Robin (collaborating writer)
Cast: Sarah Adler, Swann Arlaud, Grégoire Oestermann, Djibril Cissé, Marc Robert, Lee Fortuné-Petit
Where To Watch: Premieres 9/3 at the Venice Film Festival, in cinemas on February 08, 2023

Premiering in the 37th International Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival. This is my second film of the year from the festival I’ve had the honor of screening. This film had a hard time living up to my previous watch, and it’s not that it wasn’t good; it just didn’t quite compare to the explosive start I had. I felt I needed to share that thought because I may be slightly biased, which is unfair, but at the same time, I have to report back how I feel.

“Max doesn’t dream of making green walls for five-star hotels. Tenacious landscaper, committed but cornered, he fights to create a wild garden, without fence, in the heart of downtown Marseille: a plant area open to all. After years of rejection, his project reached the final stage of an architecture competition. For Max, this is the last chance to offer oxygen to the people who are suffocating in an urban hell, under the beating sun.” While this is a translated synopsis, I felt it would do a better job than I could at giving the basic rundown of the film.

I will admit that the film itself was a beautiful experience; it wasn’t so much the cinematography as it was the “feeling” of the scenes. I don’t think that any explanation I give of the feeling I have will do it justice, but it’s just the all-encompassing view of the film. The part that stuck out to me the most was how simple the story was but how complex the film itself was. We had a pretty straightforward narrative but with everything going on around it, it felt like the story had become much more profound than what you were getting.

The acting in the film felt a little hit or miss; occasionally, I was utterly lost in their dialogue, and then other times, it shoved me to the outside looking in, sometimes even within the same scene. Maybe this experience was more about my state of mind and less about the film itself. I’ve always found it nearly impossible to separate the two. So many people will argue that a film review isn’t a subjective experience, but it is. There are objective aspects, but in general, much of what you think of a film comes from your state of mind while watching it.

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