MACADAM STORIES 6th September 2019

Macadam Stories

Rating: M

Length: 100 mins

Cast: Gustave Kervern, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Isabelle Huppert, Michael Pitt

Director and author Samuel Benchetrit brings much of his autobiographical book Asphalt Chronicles to the screen as Macadam Stories, a series of interconnected vignettes set in a public housing complex on the outskirts of Paris.

With a focus on six characters, we meet the penny-pinching loaner Sternkowitz (Gustave Kervern from In The Courtyard – Festival 2015), who forges an unlikely relationship with a night nurse (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi). In another thread, inquisitive adolescent Charly (the director’s son Jules Benchetrit) and Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert), an ageing movie star, form a bond that changes them both for the better. In the final instalment, American astronaut, John McKenzie (Michael Pitt) accidentally lands on the apartment of a migrant, Mrs Hamida, and the pair communicate through fractured French while NASA busily stages a cover up.

Deadpan and often droll, the film recalls the entertaining style of Jim Jarmusch, with an undercurrent of quirky and satisfying sight gags.  from Alliance Francaise Film Festival