In this engrossing French drama, writer-director Alice Winocour stages a Bataclan-style terrorist attack in a Paris cafe from the perspective of translator and journalist Mia (an excellent Virginie Efira).
She sees the welcoming lights and stops to take shelter from a storm while riding home on her motorcycle. She’s sipping wine and people-watching when she hears the first gunshot.
As bodies fall, she hides under a table and begins to crawl along the floor. Then the screen goes black.
Three months later, Mia is recovering from a leg wound and desperately trying to remember what happened next. Like many survivors, she’s suffering from trauma-induced amnesia.
When she discovers a support group, an angry survivor accuses her of hiding in a toilet and refusing to help the other victims. Mia can’t believe this so launches an investigation into her own actions. She then begins to view the city, and herself, with fresh eyes.
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Efira has to do plenty of acting with her eyes too. There are long stretches where Mia says very little but Efira shows us what this traumatised woman is feeling.
The so-called Barbenheimer effect – the box office boost from Barbie and Oppenheimer – has led to a scramble for multiplex seats.
This touching character study makes a trip to a quiet art-house cinema feel doubly satisfying.
Paris Memories, Cert 15, In cinemas now
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