Revoir Paris (2022) | Dir Alice Winocour
Benoît Magimel and Virginie Efira in REVOIR PARIS. Courtesy of Music Box Films.
Text: Belle McIntyre
This is one of the subtlest, most sensitive examinations of unfathomable life altering events and the ripple effects on the victims and all of those peripherally associated. We are accustomed to this genre in film, theater and literature. Frequently focusing on massive human rights tragedies like war, the holocaust, slavery, genocide, famine, displacement, incarceration, etc. This timely exploration is based on a relatively modest incident, but no less devastating, which has become so commonplace as to numb our senses – a mass shooting in a Paris bistro.
Virginie Efira in REVOIR PARIS. Courtesy of Music Box Films.
Mia (Virginie Efira) has just finished her job as a Russian translator on a radio broadcast station. She dons her helmet and her leather motorcycle jacket and goes to meet her lover Vincent (Gregoire Colin), a doctor, for dinner at a typical Paris bistro. When he gets a call and informs her it is a hospital emergency and abruptly leaves. Mia also leaves just as torrential rains begin which causes her to stop off at another bistro for a glass of wine. There is a birthday being celebrated at a table nearby. She takes notice of some of the other guests and then goes to the ladies’ room when she hears gunshots. When she comes out she encounters a scene of horrific carnage. The shooter has killed nearly everyone in sight.
Cut to three months later with Mia in a doctor’s office having her wound examined. She appears to have no recollection of the details of the night. And she had not returned to work or to the apartment she shared with Vincent until this night. She has a difficult time with re-entry and being her usual self with her friends, who are also having a difficult time knowing how to behave with her. She tries to explain to Vincent how it is for her. He is not at all understanding
Benoît Magimel and Virginie Efira in REVOIR PARIS. Courtesy of Music Box Films.
Her sense of isolation draws her back to the scene of the crime and she discovers that there is an ad-hoc support group of survivors, friends, and relatives being counseled and consoling each other on a regular basis. At last, she finds something she can connect to as she begins trying to piece together the events of that awful night with the help of the others. These people become a real community for each other and the relationships which develop are unexpected and rewarding. The discoveries lead to unlikely associations and urgencies. In particular, there is a new romantic connection for Mia with the charismatic Thomas (Benoit Magimel), as well as one of the chefs, an illegal Somali immigrant who held her hand during the lockdown.
Virginie Efira in REVOIR PARIS. Courtesy of Music Box Films.
The case is compellingly made that such an event can derail one's trajectory in a way that cannot be undone. There is the very real issue of survivor's guilt which might be impossible to express or erase. The new connections between the survivors seem to overshadow the pre-trauma ones. The acting style is so naturalistic and the characters are so believably drawn that the fact of their awakened sensibilities will ultimately make them all into better people is thoroughly convincing and very personal. It is a beautifully realized film.
