02/08/2023 - The iconic and poetic duo composed of Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel present their fifth feature film, a dancing fantasy and colourful film noir

Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel are back with The Falling Star [+see also:
trailer
interview: Dominique Abel & Fiona Gordon
film profile], enchanting the audiences of the Locarno Film Festival - where the movie opened the Piazza Grande line-up - with their unique and poetic approach which they have now applied to film noir, returning to the exploration of slapstick cinema while allowing the world’s anger to sound out in the distance.

Having left them in 2016 with Pierre Richard and Emmanuelle Riva jiving at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Lost in Paris [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
film profile], we now link back up with them 7 years later on the cobbled streets of Brussels, which lend the first few minutes of the film a recycled-detective-story air.

Melancholy barman Boris is haunted by his violent past. He lives with Kayoko who, thankfully, seems more than capable of taking care of their fate as well as their day-to-day life. But when a victim of an attack gone wrong rocks up, intent on taking revenge for the past, Boris finds himself backed into a corner. So it’s perfect timing when a look-alike who’s as depressed as he is unexpectedly turns up. Dom becomes Boris, and Boris becomes Dom. Except that, in the background, Dom’s ex-wife Fiona, who’s an old school private detective equipped with a typewriter, waterproof sealant and a notorious alcohol addiction, slowly traces his disappearance back to The Falling Star, a shady bar where a killer hindered by an uncooperative arm is running riot.

The Falling Star has all the ingredients which have previously ensured the success of the incredibly creative duo composed of Abel & Gordon: a “homemade” aesthetic enhanced by their taste for all things artisanal (they’re the authors as well as the directors, producers and actors of their projects), a symphony of primary colours, scenes composed as if paintings, bodies which speak louder than words, dances which suddenly possess the various characters, and irresistible visual ingeniousness (only they could find such sublimity in toilet paper). It’s a singular universe which requires the viewer to accept its slapstick aspect from the get-go and to let themselves go with the flow.

But this time, the duo’s universe seems contaminated by brand-new elements, ranging from light grey to dark or even incredibly dark grey: the duo’s sublime and highly melancholic music borrowing the chords of Birds on a Wire, agitated dreams, not so latent bouts of depression a crazed killer, an attack, parental mourning and, in the distance, social protest. It’s a balancing act, carried by the duo’s troupe which includes former collaborators Bruno Romy and Philippe Martz, and “unearths” dancer and choreographer Kaori Ito, whose little Japanese gymnast character dressed in red with expressive feet lends surprising energy to the story as a whole, although the comparatively slender role allocated to Fiona’s character is a shame, to say the least.

The Falling Star is produced by the duo themselves for their Belgian firm Courage Mon Amour and by France’s Moteur S’il Vous Plaît Production. The film enjoys support from RTBF, Proximus, VOO and the Tax Shelter initiative. International sales are entrusted to MK2 and the movie’s release in France will be steered by Potemkino, while its Belgian release, announced for 20 December, falls to Cinéart.

(Translated from French)