A Prince [Un Prince] *** (2023, Mathieu Amalric, Antoine Pirotte, Françoise Lebrun, Maxime Savouray, Chiman Dangi) – Classic Movie Review 12,830

Ah the joys of the French countryside! Director Pierre Creton’s 2023 French drama film A Prince [Un Prince] is a very strange story, very strangely told, most hippy dippy, most arty, very French.

The synopsis makes it sound like it has an actual story, but that’s not at all how this is. It runs virtually without dialogue from the main cast, just with voiceover narrated by actors Mathieu Amalric, Françoise Lebrun and Grégory Gadebois. It has a Derek Jarman feel and appeal about it. It feels very personal, very strongly felt. It moves slowly with static shots, despite covering 40 years and running only 82 minutes. Patience is required, though, at least partly, rewarded. It is bold and rare enough to admire anyway, certainly unique, so one is quite enough.

Pierre-Joseph (played by Antoine Pirotte in youth and by Creton himself in adulthood) is 16 years old when he joins a Normandy training centre to become a gardener, taking a job as an apprentice under the tutelage of his employer Adrien (Pierre Barray) and his botany teacher Alberto (Vincent Barré), with the three men later becoming lovers in a ménage à trois.

As well as Alberto and Adrien, Pierre-Joseph meets the director Françoise Brown, all three decisive in his apprenticeship and the discovery of his sexuality. Then 40 years later, Françoise Brown’s adopted child Kutta, whom he has always heard about, arrives. Kutta, now the owner of the strange castle of Antiville, seems to be looking for more than a simple gardener.

Creton’s previous films blended documentary and fiction. He described the film as the first time he ‘tuned into a wholly fictional voice’. This really is niche film-making par excellence.

Gardeners at work, 1607 painting by Flemish painter Abel Grimmer.

The film premiered on 18 May 2023 in the Directors’ Fortnight stream at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and was named the winner of the SACD award for Best French Film. It was ranked tenth on Cahiers du Cinéma’s top 10 films of 2023 list. And it was number two on John Waters’s top ten list of favourite movies of 2023.

Released: 2023-10-18. Genre: Drama.

Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Antoine Pirotte, Françoise Lebrun, Grégory Gadebois, Maxime Savouray, Chiman Dangi, Pierre Barray and Vincent Barré.

Duration: 82 minutes. Country: France. Production: Andolfi.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,830

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com