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Alex and Noémie love each other and think more and more of starting a family. A news that Suzanne (Jo Deseure), Alex’s mother, welcomes with joy and even exuberance, determined to spoil and support her son in this new key stage in his life.
However, over the purchases and meetings, Alex (Jean Le Peltier) begins to wonder. Her mother, an enthusiastic and trendy gallery owner, has always been an original, but this time things are taking on unprecedented proportions and even seem to be getting out of hand. After astonishment comes the time for worry: why is Suzanne acting so strangely?
Another look at mental illness
For their first feature film, after two very remarkable shorts (Wrestling in 2014 et With Thelma, Magritte for best short film in 2018), Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni tackle an apparently dark and delicate subject: the illness of a loved one. On this heavy theme, the two directors manage to imagine a chronicle both tender and creaking of the daily life of a couple confronted with the mental illness of one of his ancestors.
Deeply affected, Alex (Jean Le Peltier) is overwhelmed by the news and the consequences it entails, thinking only of the storms to be crossed and the measures to be put in place to avoid the inevitable catastrophes.
For her part, Noémie (Lucie Debay) takes things with more gentleness and distance, managing to put things into perspective and smile. A difference in attitude that confuses Alex instead of reassuring him …
This elegant Belgian tragicomedy asks essential questions about the way we look at the other, about the expectations that we keep silent or that we admit. On how life challenges us and tests us. On the limits that we cross or that we also impose. A story that shakes us up and makes us feel good …
Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni had already unveiled their whimsical and burlesque universe in their previous films. With Crazy life, they take a daring but successful turn towards a darker subject, even if the chosen treatment remains unexpected and original.
Some European prices
The icing on the cake: their film allows itself some pretty visual delusions. We will not say more, not to spoil the effect of surprise, but we love the touch of chromatic creativity that slips into the decor and the costumes, the colorful madness that sprinkles the daily life of this couple in their thirties overwhelmed by events, shaken up by the spirit of Suzanne who slowly goes adrift …
Much applause during its opening screening of the Namur International Francophone Film Festival (Fiff) in 2020, Mad Life has been able to travel a bit in Europe and has collected awards in Spain, Italy, Norway and Ukraine, it will be released in France next November.
Crazy life Love and phantasmagoria By Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni Screenplay Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni With Jo Deseure, Jean Le Peltier, Lucie Debay, Gilles Remiche Duration 1h27.
