L'origine du Monde

"About seven years ago, I saw Sébastien Thiéry's play. I rarely laughed at the show, but I laughed out loud. Once out of the theater, a second, more serious level of reading began to make its way into my mind: the weight of secrecy in the family, how one emancipates oneself when one has grown up in a lie... These themes touch me intimately. This story has been so ingrained in me, I dreamed about it so much that I didn't want to write anything else for my first film. I proposed to Sébastien Thiéry to buy the rights, he accepted, then I moved on to something else for almost two years because I was working a lot and I didn't have time to think about the adaptation. In fact, the film was slowly maturing in my head: when I started writing, everything went very fast. » - Laurent Lafitte

Theater and cinema are intrinsically linked in the sense that both tell a story and above all rely for their success not only on an excellent script (or text) but also on a quality interpretation. Many films have tried, with varying degrees of success, to regain the full force and symbolism of certain plays by adapting them to the cinema and often falling into the trap of a static and hardly original staging. As a result, the charm that surrounded the play disappeared and gave way to less successful films. However, as was the case with the films Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), Le diner de cons (1998) or more recently Le prénom (2012), films managed to find the perfect approach to capture the essence of the play and make it a lively, compelling and successful film. To this list, we must now add the excellent first film directed and performed by Laurent Lafitte, among others. By taking up the text of the play by Sébastien Thiéry and by bringing it a real added value through an invested direction and a perfect casting, L'Origine du Monde easily imposes itself as one of the best comedies of this year.

We thus discover Jean-Louis Bordier (Laurent Lafitte) who lives with his wife Valérie Bordier (Karine Viard) and whose life seems to have been successful, a beautiful apartment, an important job but his life has become too routine and a certain weariness has set in. Yet when one evening after passing by his gym, he realizes that his heart is no longer beating, it will take more than the help of his best veterinary friend Michel Verdoux (Vincent Macaigne) and his wife to find the true origin of his illness. The intervention of his wife's life coach, Margaux (Nicole Garcia) will then explain to him that in order to make his heart beat again, he must brave the forbidden and obtain a rather special photo related to his mother. Many twists and turns will follow, scenes that are likely to become a cult, as they successfully provoke the audience's attention and much laughter.

It has long been known that Laurent Lafitte was an excellent actor who was as comfortable in comedy as he was in dramatic films. Examples include Ne le dis à personne (2006), Les Petits Mouchoirs (2010), Papa ou maman (2015) and Au revoir là-haut (2017). However, we didn't yet know that he was as good a director as he was an actor, and his first film easily attests to this. His sense of rhythm, framing, direction of the actors and especially his approach to a play that at first sight impressed her makes his first film one of the must-see films of this end of year. Not only does he revisit the play at the origin of the film but also adds a preamble, a social dimension in which his character has cut himself off from his mother to succeed in his professional life. Laurent Lafitte brings to each of his characters a real dramatic and psychological dimension. We will thus appreciate to find the excellent Vincent Macaigne who never ceases to surprise us and to be present in different films and often not very popular but always with the same investment to remain perfect even in films that are not. His character worthy of the tragic heroes of literature gives this film an undeniable added value. The same goes for the actresses Karin Viard, Hélène Vincent and Nicole Garcia who seem to take a real communicative pleasure in giving life to their characters.

While most French actors remain in the politically correct, L'Origine du Monde does not hesitate at any time to release dialogues quite raw worthy of Michel Audiard's films. By showing the shortcomings of our society and above all by showing that appearances are often misleading, L'Origine du Monde breaks free from the straitjacket of a simple popular dramatic comedy and gives way to a true auteur film. The only real and light feature of the film is its overly hasty ending, which would have benefited from being slightly difficult. Despite everything, L'Origine du Monde is one of the must-see French films of this year and we can only advise you to discover this film at the cinema.

The Origin of the World
Directed by Laurent Lafitte
Produced by Alain Attal
Based on the play by Sébastien Thiéry
Starring Laurent Lafitte, Karin Viard, Vincent Macaigne, Hélène Vincent, Nicole Garcia, Pauline Clément, Grégory Gaule
Cinematography: Axel COSNEFROY
Edited by Stephan Couturier
Production companies: Trésor Films, 2L Productions
Distributed by StudioCanal (France)
Release date: November 4, 2020
Running time: 90 minutes

Seen on September 30, 2020 at Gaumont Disney Village, Room 3 seat A18

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