La bataille de Solférino
Director: Justine Triet
Writer: Justine Triet
Cast: Laetitia Dosch, Vincent Macaigne, Arthur Harari, Virgil Vernier, Marc-Antoine Vaugeois, Jeane Arra-Bellanger, Liv Harari, Émilie Brisavoine, Vatsana Sedone
Seen on: 10.11.2024

Plot:
May 2012: Laetitia (Laetitia Dosch) hands over her kids to her babysitter Marc (Marc-Antoine Vaugeois) to cover the presidential elections as a reporter. While she is gone, her ex Vincent (Vincent Macaigne), father to her daughter, wants to come for his visitation, but Laetitia left Marc with strict instructions not to let him enter the apartment. Vincent is not willing to let this stand. Between protests and celebrations, live TV and stressed children, their custody battle rages into the night.

Age of Panic is Triet’s first feature film and it is often very obviously a debut. But it is filled with energy and fantastic, albeit exhausting performances. Coupled with the setting (filmed partly during the actual election events), it is worth paying it some attention.

Custody battles are exhausting, a strain on pretty much everybody involved and often tinged with sanctimonity from everybody, especially both parents. While I am happy to say that I was never involved in a custody battle (neither as a child, nor as a parent), I am certain that Triet manages to capture the raw nerves that dominate the situation perfectly.

The drawback is that as a viewer of the film, your nerves get treated none too kindly in the process. In addition to the tension that permeates the film due to its political setting in an important election (captured almost documentary style), watching it felt a lot like sensory overload to me. There was so much screaming and often I was just hoping for a single quiet moment to catch my breath.

Triet does give us those moments every once in a while, but the pacing of the film, the balance between drama and humor isn’t quite right – yet. In later films Triet has a much better handle on things, showing how much she has grown as a filmmaker since this debut.

The cast is really good, hitting their notes in demanding performances. But this too just contributed to my feeling of everything being a little too much. Still, it is worth giving the film a try – especially if you watch it at home and are free to hit the pause button yourself.

Summarizing: whew.