When the rappers from “La Rumeur” try their hand at the cinema again, it turns out to be a failure Rue des Dames, in theaters tomorrow. And why not go see the new Ladj Ly, too?
There is a very annoying thing in a certain current French cinema: two thirds of the dialogue remains inaudible. Is the fault in the poor sound recording? To the faulty interpretation? To erratic direction of actors? Probably a bit of all of that. This is more than ever the case in the second feature film produced and directed by the duo Hamé and Ekoué, from the hip-hop collective called La Rumeur. You have to listen carefully to catch what is being said on screen, always in this accelerated flow which, among a certain number of young actors, wants to pass for natural. Added to this technical inadequacy is the cliché of a hand-held camera overusing close-ups, and even ultra-tight shots on faces: as if Rue des Dames was designed from the outset to be viewed on smartphones. Filmed at the end of the pandemic, the film follows K Opposite (2019), with Sandrine Bonnaire. Let’s be fair, the handsome and talented Sandor Funtek, who had the leading role, now plays an exaggeratedly impulsive young undercover cop – but he, at least, knows how to articulate his lines. He’s the only one in this disconcerting cast including the indescribable Béatrice Dalle, unconditional fan of Hamé and Ekoué (“I know everything they do, it’s them who interest me “), is the surprise guest star for a half-minute shot, she who ” never read a script » [sic]. Too bad for her.
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In terms of storyline, a rather confusing opening scene brings together the future sidekicks in a VIP party on a roof top of the Champs-Elysées with a view of the Arc de Triomphe (we will have recognized the terrace of the Publicis building). We soon understand that young Mia (Garance Marillier), a manicurist accidentally knocked up by her ex and forced to give up the apartment for which she could no longer pay the rent, has taken up residence in a hotel in the 18th arrondissement (a three-star, all the same), that she sells her clothes to settle the house, etc. Decidedly in dire straits, she ends up demanding a ransom of €3,000 to convince a friend, pregnant with the works of a young football star, to give up her pregnancy. What a kind euphemism calls the survival instinct contaminates all the companions of this ode to marginality, to resourcefulness or even to pure and simple villainy, in the gentrified/variegated Paris of 2023, where it is so complicated to stay on the right path, isn’t it?
You should know that the La Rumeur label is for social peace. In 2012, the album called Everything is already burning laid the groundwork: “ I will always have an arm long enough to force whoever the president is to put his bitch face in his excrement », he poeticized. From hip hop to 7th art, the social elevator in any case works wonderfully for the duo Hamé and Ekoué.
Rue des Dames. Film by Hamé & Ekoué. France, 2023. Duration 1h44. In theaters December 13, 2023.
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