Catherine Corsini’s new film “Le Retour,” or “Homecoming,” opens with a moment of grief. A mother (Aïssatou Diallo Sagna) is nervously traveling with her two young daughters when she gets a phone call. Something terrible has happened and she begins to weep. Though that interaction hangs over the rest of the action, which then jumps ahead 15 years, we don’t find out exactly the circumstances of that pivotal call until well into the running time of this disjointed film. By the time we do, the impact of what has occurred is less traumatic than it is confusing, a product of thin characterization and messy storytelling.
At the same time, Corsini has tapped incredible actors for this sun-drenched saga of familial bonds in Corsica, which is best when it’s relying on their dynamics and worst when it’s going for big revelations.
The woman in those first frames is Khédidja,...
At the same time, Corsini has tapped incredible actors for this sun-drenched saga of familial bonds in Corsica, which is best when it’s relying on their dynamics and worst when it’s going for big revelations.
The woman in those first frames is Khédidja,...
- 5/18/2023
- by Esther Zuckerman
- Indiewire
Catherine Corsini, whose Cannes competition entry “Homecoming” has been at the center of a firestorm due to a sexually suggestive scene between two minors, admitted during the press conference that she will work an intimacy coach and “will be more careful to make actresses more at ease” on future films.
The scandal over the inclusion of Corsini’s film in competition was sparked after news broke of the fact that this scene between the two young actors Esther Gohourou and Harold Orsini had been added without obtaining proper government approval — which prompted the National Film Board to cut all their subsidies for the movie, and the Cannes Film Festival to hold their competition slot for several days while they investigated the matter. After the backlash, Corsini and her producer Elisabeth Perez admitted that they had made a mistake and should have sent the updated scripted to the Commission des Enfants du Spectacle,...
The scandal over the inclusion of Corsini’s film in competition was sparked after news broke of the fact that this scene between the two young actors Esther Gohourou and Harold Orsini had been added without obtaining proper government approval — which prompted the National Film Board to cut all their subsidies for the movie, and the Cannes Film Festival to hold their competition slot for several days while they investigated the matter. After the backlash, Corsini and her producer Elisabeth Perez admitted that they had made a mistake and should have sent the updated scripted to the Commission des Enfants du Spectacle,...
- 5/18/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The second scandal-tinged project to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in as many days, Catherine Corsini’s “Homecoming” is vastly more interesting than that other film maudit, “Jeanne du Barry,” though the pair make for worthy foils.
While Maïwenn’s stuffy historical epic drew protests on the Croisette due to the extracurricular activities of its stars, Corsini’s windswept jaunt very nearly didn’t make the trip – the title was omitted from the competition when news of irresponsible on-set practices broke just before the selection was announced. That the lack of oversight involved a minor seemed to seal the project’s fate before a subsequent investigation and the absence of any formal complaints put the title back on track.
Still, the damage was substantial. Unlike the stars of “Jeanne du Barry,” whose deeds are clear and whose supporters and critics remain galvanized on either side, the general murkiness of...
While Maïwenn’s stuffy historical epic drew protests on the Croisette due to the extracurricular activities of its stars, Corsini’s windswept jaunt very nearly didn’t make the trip – the title was omitted from the competition when news of irresponsible on-set practices broke just before the selection was announced. That the lack of oversight involved a minor seemed to seal the project’s fate before a subsequent investigation and the absence of any formal complaints put the title back on track.
Still, the damage was substantial. Unlike the stars of “Jeanne du Barry,” whose deeds are clear and whose supporters and critics remain galvanized on either side, the general murkiness of...
- 5/17/2023
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
The story template of “Homecoming” is a standard one: Years after an unexplained trauma, a family returns to the place they once called home, where hidden truths come to light and bitter conflicts arise over the course of one seemingly idyllic summer. Yet for all the secrets and lies that shape the narrative of Catherine Corsini’s straightforwardly told but consistently intriguing new film, its most interesting tensions often emerge from things its characters already know, even if they haven’t acknowledged them out loud. For Black single parent Khédidja (Aïssatou Diallo Sagna), arriving at the Corsican birthplace of her children after 15 years away, disinterring a buried past throws her maternal insecurities into sharp relief; for her teenage daughters Jessica (Suzy Bemba) and Farah (Esther Gohourou), what revelations the trip yields only underline their respective senses of not-belonging in their own small family.
This is complex, delicate material, simmering with...
This is complex, delicate material, simmering with...
- 5/17/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
There is the good sister, with A grades, university prospects and a sense of decorum in company. And then there is the younger sister who can’t see a volume button without turning up the music, who is quick to complain or pick an argument, who spots someone else’s drug stash and thinks she could steal it and maybe make some pocket money selling deals on the beach, because what – what – could possibly go wrong with that plan?
And yet Farah (Esther Gohourou) can always make Jessica (Suzy Bemba) laugh. She can even persuade her to climb over a wall to swim in someone else’s pool because, in the end, where’s the harm? They are nothing alike, but they fit together like Legos.
Catherine Corsini’s Cannes competition entry Homecoming (Le Retour) borrows some key elements from the director’s own life. Like the girls in the film,...
And yet Farah (Esther Gohourou) can always make Jessica (Suzy Bemba) laugh. She can even persuade her to climb over a wall to swim in someone else’s pool because, in the end, where’s the harm? They are nothing alike, but they fit together like Legos.
Catherine Corsini’s Cannes competition entry Homecoming (Le Retour) borrows some key elements from the director’s own life. Like the girls in the film,...
- 5/17/2023
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
Despite plenty of incidental action, Corsini’s film about a woman’s painful return to Corsica leaves too many questions unanswered
Despite some warm and sympathetic performances and lovely cinematography, there is something weirdly glib in director and co-writer Catherine Corsini’s new film in which a summer of drama gives us supposedly tragic personal discoveries uneasily coexisting with some almost photo love-style holiday romance.
Khedidja (Aïssatou Diallo Sagna) is a black woman in her 40s living in Paris with her two teen daughters – promising student Jess (Suzy Bemba) and tearaway Farah (Esther Gohourou) – and working as a nanny for a wealthy white couple, Sylvia (Virginie Ledoyen) and Marc (Denis Podalydès), who have little kids. Marc also has a spoilt moody teen daughter (Lomane de Dietrich) from his first marriage. Sylvia and Marc are heading off with their family for the summer to their villa in Calvi, Corsica and they...
Despite some warm and sympathetic performances and lovely cinematography, there is something weirdly glib in director and co-writer Catherine Corsini’s new film in which a summer of drama gives us supposedly tragic personal discoveries uneasily coexisting with some almost photo love-style holiday romance.
Khedidja (Aïssatou Diallo Sagna) is a black woman in her 40s living in Paris with her two teen daughters – promising student Jess (Suzy Bemba) and tearaway Farah (Esther Gohourou) – and working as a nanny for a wealthy white couple, Sylvia (Virginie Ledoyen) and Marc (Denis Podalydès), who have little kids. Marc also has a spoilt moody teen daughter (Lomane de Dietrich) from his first marriage. Sylvia and Marc are heading off with their family for the summer to their villa in Calvi, Corsica and they...
- 5/17/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Paris-based Playtime has unveiled a strong Cannes film market sales slate, which includes competition titles “About Dry Grasses” and “Homecoming.”
“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.
“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...
“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.
“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...
- 5/2/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Casting is complete and cameras are currently rolling on Catherine Corsini‘s Le retour. We recently reported that Aïssatou Diallo Sagna was the first to join the project, and now we learned that Esther Gohourou (breakout in Maïmouna Doucouré’s Cuties) and Suzy Bemba will also topline the film and they’ll be supported by Lomane de Dietrich, Cédric Appietto, Marie-Ange Géronimi, Harold Orsoni, Jean Michelangeli, Virginie Ledoyen and Denis Podalydès. Cineuropa reports that Chaz Productions’ Élisabeth Perez will produce. Corsini reteams with cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie (who has Robin Campillo’s Vazaha to be released next year). Production will last close to two months and a Cannes premiere is entirely possible.…...
- 10/2/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
With the TIFF world premiere The Mad Women’s Ball (Le Bal des folles), Mélanie Laurent proves again to be an equal force in front of and behind the camera. There are the deeply memorable performances in Inglourious Basterds, Le Concert, Beginners, Enemy, and Alexandre Aja’s Oxygen. She also released a lovely album, En t’attendant, in 2011; the title track features one of the most positively glorious screams ever recorded. In the last decade, Laurent has directed six films—2011’s The Adopted, 2014’s Breathe, 2015’s Tomorrow (co-helmed with Cyril Dion), 2017’s Diving, 2018’s Galveston, and now The Mad Women’s Ball. Her latest is without question her most ambitious, finest film.
The Mad Women’s Ball is an inspired spin on a familiar trope—the individual institutionalized against her will. Two elements elevate this material, from a novel by Victoria Mas (about which more here). First is the setting: Paris 1885. The...
The Mad Women’s Ball is an inspired spin on a familiar trope—the individual institutionalized against her will. Two elements elevate this material, from a novel by Victoria Mas (about which more here). First is the setting: Paris 1885. The...
- 9/13/2021
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.