Les roches rouges

A gang of small-town kids on quadbikes races down familiar roads, defying danger. A love story reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet reveals class rivalries. Untrained actors’ tics and accents are embraced with deadpan humour. Is Bruno Dumont revisiting LA VIE DE JÉSUS (1997)? If so, LES ROCHES ROUGES is akin to a miniature version of that earlier film, carried by fidgety five-year-olds. It is with apprehension mixed with unbridled joy that we watch them hop onto their mini-ATVs in the middle of traffic; climb down jagged cliffs in jelly shoes to repeatedly plunge into the blue, choppy waters of the Mediterranean from ever-greater heights; or simply hold hands and show their affection for one another. Dumont has never been the social realist that some saw in him and has radically distanced himself from that label to explore other landscapes and genres, playfully stretching suspension of disbelief here to help us rediscover a feeling of boundless freedom. Filmed just a few kilometres from Cannes along the train route that brings festivalgoers there, the film serves as a timely reminder of the value of the risks which industry constraints so often keep cinema from taking, showing what can happen when someone does indeed take the plunge. (Antoine Thirion)

In the presence of Bruno Dumont.

Bruno Dumont: LA VIE DE JÉSUS (1997), L’HUMANITÉ (1999), TWENTYNINE PALMS (2003), FLANDRES (2006), HADEWIJCH (2009), HORS SATAN (2011), CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1915 (2013), MA LOUTE (2016), JEANNETTE, L’ENFANCE DE JEANNE D’ARC (2017), JEANNE (2019), FRANCE (2021), L’EMPIRE (2024)