Recensione: Saint-Ex – Cineuropa #finsubito prestito immediato

The year is 1930; we’re in the Andes in Argentina, and specifically in the Aéropostale hangars. For Henri Guillaumet (Vincent Cassel) and Antoine Saint-Exupéry (Louis Garrel), delivering the mail while braving the elements up in the mountains is a true calling, which they fully intend to fight for to the bitter end, whatever the cost. This is the almost timeless struggle that Pablo Agüero depicts in Saint-Ex, an adventure movie with dreamlike overtones, selected in competition at the Namur International French-language Film Festival (FIFF).

Having turned heads with Eva Doesn’t Sleep [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], which revolved around the remains of Eva Peron, and more recently Akelarre [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Pablo Agüero
scheda film], a historical drama set in the Basque Country at the start of the 17th century, which was crowned with five Goya Awards, the French-Argentinian filmmaker once again travels back in time but returns to Argentinian soil – and sky. Indeed, the film begins in the air, during a turbulent flight where the pilots are testing the limits of their plane. In these rudimentary machines, where everything is controlled manually, every little movement matters, and the relationship one has with flying is extremely physical. This first scene invites us to bear witness to a true choreography in the cockpit, bathed in an almost surreal light, bringing us as close as possible to the daring feat undertaken by these two men.

It’s also an ode to the mentor, delivered as a voice-over by Saint-Exupéry. Much like the initial scene centring on the two men, the entire film has the feel of a fable, or almost a shadow play, bringing to mind the silhouettes of the planes as they stand out against the sky. Everything hinges on the two men – who have a sort of anachronistic bromance fuelled by admiration and the sheer exhilaration of courage – even though on the ground, helping them out in their battle to save Aéropostale, we find Noëlle Guillaumet (Diane Kruger), Henri’s wife. Because between the heroic flights that evoke those fantastical horse rides in the Old West, the two men stand their ground against big money, which threatens to close the airline, given a run for its money by train services, just as strongly as they resist science itself, stretching their mechanical ingenuity to push the very limits of their aircraft. This technical creativity, combined with their fearlessness, takes them “ever faster, ever further, always together”.

Agüero makes the decision not to contextualise the character of Saint-Exupéry. He digs down to the truth of his deep attachment to Guillaumet, thus paying tribute to his courage and loyalty. As for the artistic decisions (the nigh-on surrealist cinematography, the pared-down sets, the music that plays to signal impending emotions), they contribute to underlining the symbolic side of the story, adorning it with an almost mystical emphasis in some places, which tends towards a certain emotional abstraction.

Saint-Ex was produced by Cheyenne Fédération (France), and co-produced by Single Man Productions (France) and Frakas Productions (Belgium). The international sales are handled by StudioCanal, which will also oversee the distribution in France, where the movie will go on general release on 11 December, while O’Brother Distribution will manage the distribution in Belgium on the same date.