Les Héros ne Meurent Jamais (2019)
Trailer [EN subtitles] at https://youtu.be/Y8lUcoPKTbg
(Trailer also available at https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/cinema/les-heros-ne-meurent-jamais-un-drame-qui-deroute-29-09-2020-8393958.php. Film available on GooglePlay.)
English Title
Heroes Don’t Die
Year
2019
Director
Aude Léa Rapin
Synopsis
In a street in Paris, a stranger thinks he recognizes Joachim as a soldier who died in Bosnia on August 21, 1983. However, August 21, 1983 is the very day of Joachim's birth! Troubled by the possibility of being the reincarnation of this man, he decides to leave for Sarajevo with his friends Alice and Virginia. In this country haunted by the ghosts of war, they set off body and soul in the footsteps of Joachim's previous life.
Honours/Awards
· Award for Best Actress: Adèle Haenel, FIFF (Belgium, 2019)
· Selection, International Critics’ Week at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
· Selection, Sarajevo Film Festival, 2019
· Selection, FIFF, Belgium 2019
· Selection, Mostra-Sao Paolo International Film Festival, Brazil 2019
· Selection, MyFrenchFilm Festival
Adèle’s role
Alice, a journalist and friend of Joachim.
Excerpts from reviews
Reviews for this film are not great but, as always, Adèle, is fabulous.
“…the always excellent Adèle Haenel…”
Cineuropa17 May 2019
https://cineuropa.org/fr/newsdetail/372612/
“Aude Léa Rapin finally entrusts Adèle Haenel (perfect) with an important and bubbling monologue, completing this simple work, often harsh, sometimes wobbly, but leaving a vivid and very accurate memory.”
Bande á Part
https://www.bande-a-part.fr/cinema/critique/magazine-de-cinema-les-heros-ne-meurent-jamais/
(Google translated from French)
“Strange, cobbled together, experimental, this puzzling drama, despite a nice ending and the hypnotic presence of Adèle Haenel.”
Le Parisien, 29 September 2020
(Google translated from French)
“Haenel, the film’s moral centre, is capable of both the Clintonian hauteur she showed in Portrait of a Lady on Fire and a gabbling, caffeinated over-seriousness used to fine effect in 2018 French comedy hit En liberté!, but this film leaves her dashing between the two poles.”
The Guardian, 19 January 2021
“The final result is a curio at best, given flashes of human dimension by the ever-reliable Adèle Haenel as the project’s forbearing director.
For Haenel, “Heroes Don’t Die” marks the least substantial of her three leading roles at this year’s Cannes festival, though it does call on both the tender openness and deadpan comic control that she exercises in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fireand Quentin Dupieux’s Deerskin, respectively.”
Variety, 20 May 2019
https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/heroes-dont-die-review-1203221561/
“…, Croisette regular Haenel (appearing in two other Cannes titles this year) shows plenty of conviction as Alice — a girl whose heavy moral consciousness, especially vis-a-vis the Bosnian people, compensates for a film that uses the country’s devastating history as a pretext for something far less powerful.”
The Hollywood Reporter, 17 May 2019
“Presented at Critics' Week atCannes Film Festival in 2019, “The heroes never die” deals above all with the fear of death in a funny, subtle, original way, surfing between fantastic and profound realism. Always just as fair in her interpretation, Adèle Haenel bursts the screen alongside Jonathan Couzinié, the revelation of this film.”
C-News, 29 September 2020
(Google translated from French)
Excerpts from interview with director Aude Léa Rapin
“For LES HÉROS, it was Sylvie (Pialat) who had the first intuition that Adele must have carried this film. I found this choice very obvious too. Adèle read the screenplay, she immediately felt concerned and from there, we started very quickly on the film. Then the funding did not follow, we were going to run with almost nothing. I then asked her if it was still ok for her. She answered me directly that she didn't give a damn about the money and she held that line until end.”
“Adèle Haenel's final tirade is magnificent, and although we start to get to know her quite a bit from cinema, it still surprises us. There was potential for pathos in this scene, especially since I wanted to shoot it in sequence. Adèle was obliged to draw on her painful feelings about mourning and I think it worked well. But I didn't let go and saw her fight so as not to be overwhelmed by very real emotions. This is what I see in this scene and it is beautiful.” (p8)
From the film’s Press Kit
(Google translated from French)
Comments
This is not in my top 10 Adèle’s films but, as always, Adèle shines in this role in this somewhat rambling film. Like many of her ‘smaller’ films Adèle helps those who follow her work expand their exposure to new and upcoming film makers, which is a good thing. From what I can see this film has Adèle working with new friends and her commitment to her work and her art is shown by a major star not only taking part in a small budget film, but when the funding fell through she stayed committed to the project and “didn’t give a damn about the money” (quote from director Aude Léa Rapin in the film’s press kit).
Behind the scenes photos
