20 March 2026
LES RAYONS ET LES OMBRES ***1/2 (vo French and German) – a study of French collaboration
Here is a thorough study of the eternal question of what it is to be a collaborator. In this true story of journalist Jean Luchaire and his actress daughter Corinne, who were known as notorious French collaborators with the Nazis during WWII, director Xavier Giannoli (of the sublime “Illusions Perdues” and “Marguerite”) lays bare the earnest beginnings of a peace movement between German and French intellectuals Otto Abetz and Luchaire in the 1930s that evolves into a corrosive partnership as the ongoing war corrupts all their principles and ideals.
Jean Dujardin plays the journalist Luchaire as a fervent French believer in his youthful peace movement, while the outstanding German actor August Diehl (who has portrayed such key characters as Marx, Mengele and a Gestapo major in Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds”) plays his idealistic Teutonic counterpart who ends up as the German Ambassador in Paris during the Nazi occupation of the capital. They had remained friends from their young years before the war, and continued to help and support each other during the war.
But as life has it, power, prestige and possessions prove too intoxicating for both of them, changing their integrity into blind beliefs in both the controlled media of the times and their personal advancement. Despite the many favors the Ambassador does for his old journalist friend, the waters become muddied, dark and corrupt between them in an almost uncontrolled, hypnotic trance. Director Giannoli portrays their fall from grace with great pathos and conviction in the style of a Greek tragedy. It takes the 3h15m length of the film to fully convey the three characters’ fatal trajectory.
PROJECT HAIL MARY (Projet dernière chance) ***
We haven’t seen such a warm-hearted relationship between a human and an alien since E.T.! For me that is the kernel of the story. But this science fiction tale based on the 2021 best seller by Andy Weir is also an adventurous tale, with a great deal of technical jargon. Ryan Gosling plays a science teacher who wakes up in a spaceship with no recollection of how or why he got there. It takes him a while before he can begin to get his act together.
In the meantime he encounters a sort of a huge ship in the vast universe in which he is traveling, and therefore comes upon a strange creature that seems to be a living, stone-like thing that moves like a stiff crab. He then begins to remember how he was recruited by an insistent mission leader (the talented German actress, Sandra Hüller, from “Anatomy of a Fall”) to save the world from a shrinking sun. It’s a last ditch effort that’s called a ‘Hail Mary’ – a hopeless, desperate one….
This stoney crab named Rocky ends up being a very smart and helpful friend, who slowly learns to speak the scientist’s language. And this is when the fun and warmth begins, the two of them trying to defy the ‘Hail Mary’ syndrome. Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have created a sweet tale of cooperation and camaraderie within an intricate scientific story of survival, both of the individual and of the world. Intriguing.
PALESTINE 36 **1/2 (Arabic and English)
This is another necessary eye-opener on the tragic destiny of the Palestinian people. From Annemarie Jacir, the Christian Palestinian director of such fine films as “When I Saw You” and “Wajib”, it recounts the beginnings of the 1936 Palestinian uprising against the cruel and arbitrary partition of their country by the British.
In her 2017 “Wajib”, director Jacir created a beautifully intimate story between a father and a son with opposing ideals. In this film, which has expanded to tell of the vast history of injustice and its many characters, she somehow loses perspective and strength of vision. It’s a pity, for it is not as moving or as powerful in its message as were similar recent Palestinian films such as “All that’s Left of You” or “The Voice of Hind Rajab”.
It is an earnest work, nevertheless.
POLICE FLASH 80 * (vo French)
This tiresome and vulgar French movie is a police story set in the 1980s about an incompetent, corrupt cop trying to hunt down his partner’s killers. There are drug dealers and all sorts of crooked setups that he is trying to avoid, as a new, honest assistant has come to help with the investigation. Making a supposed comedy out of a corrupt fool feels like a mirror of our times today. Don’t waste your time or money.
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
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