CUSTODY (JUSQU'A LA GARDE) |
CREST THEATRE -
CLOSING FILM In French with English subtitles. AWARDS - TVE Otra Mirada Award & Audience Prize, San Sebastian International Film Festival, 2017. REVIEWS A thriller that keeps you nailed to your seat. Télérama Razor-sharp... An impressive feature debut. Justin Chang - LA Times French cinema may have found a new auteur. Andy Lea - The Daily Express For all its stripped-bare economy and unsentimentality, this is one of the most emotionally devastating cinema experiences of the past year. Wendy Ide - The Observer Custody starts quietly but by the end you will be holding your breath and perched on the very edge of your seat. Allan Hunter - The Daily Express The film could hardly be more timely or disconcerting. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh - Metro With Custody, [Director Xavier] Legrand has created a family drama that plays out as social realism, but it is as intense as a thriller and, with no generic get outs, far more terrifying than Kubrick's "The Shining". John Bleasdale - CineVue This is the arrival of a major talent, and a hell of a movie. Norman Wilner - NOW Toronto We will be seeing much more of this filmmaker in the years to come. Legrand operates in the raw social realist tradition of such auteurs as Maurice Pialat and the Dardenne brothers, stripping away sentimentality in favor of direct, observational filmmaking. Peter Debruge - Variety An almost unbearably-tense, no-holds-barred drive through the nightmare of domestic terrorism, Custody is a can't-look-away hybrid of grueling reality and heightened cinematic technique.
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After the shock created by his powerful Oscar-nominated short, Just Before Losing Everything (SFFF 2013), Xavier Legrand's first feature Custody was one of the most awaited films of 2018. And it didn't disappoint! We are proud to close the 17th Sacramento French Film Festival with Legrand's masterpiece of suspense and tension. Miriam (Léa Drucker) and Antoine Besson (Denis Ménochet) are divorcing. They have two children: an 18-year old daughter, Joséphine, who refuses to see her dad, and a younger son, Julien (fantastic 11-year old newcomer Thomas Gioria). To protect him from a father she claims to be violent, Miriam is seeking sole custody of Julien. Antoine pleads his case as a scorned dad and despite Julien's testimony, the appointed judge rules in favor of joint custody... This riveting domestic thriller tells the harrowing story of the post-divorce battle between an abused woman and her violent ex-husband. Taken hostage by the escalating conflict between his parents, Julien is being shuttled between his fearful mother and abusive father who uses the boy as a pawn to manipulate his ex-wife, creating a volatile situation that pushes everyone to the breaking point. Expanding on his short film, director Xavier Legrand displays a distinctive touch that imbues each frame with quivering tension, masterfully using a hyper realistic style completely devoid of music. Drucker and Ménochet reprise the roles they played in Legrand's short with great complexity and nuance. It is always an exciting feeling to witness the birth of a new talent and we hope you'll be as blown away as we were by Legrand's Custody. Shown with ONE NIGHT (Une nuit) by
Guillaume Caramelle. CREST THEATRE -
CLOSING FILM |
