19/02/2024 - BERLINALE 2024: Isabelle Huppert’s charisma isn’t enough to elevate André Téchiné’s new film, which tries to erase the boundaries between seemingly irreconcilable worlds

Hafsia Herzi, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Isabelle Huppert in My New Friends

"No-one’s forcing us to spend time together, we’re not from the same worlds” – “We could make an effort." Over the course of his lengthy career (spanning 28 feature films), André Téchiné has always endeavoured to portray wider societal issues within the intimate context of characters who are building relationships together (sometimes to the point of transgression) with relative ease. As time has gone by, the filmmaker has also tried his hand at different approaches, and his new opus, My New Friends, unveiled in the 74th Berlinale’s Panorama section, sees him venturing into narrative substraction. It’s a portrait which has been sketched-out in order to simplify the whole, but not even the rhythm or charisma of Téchiné’s lead actress (Isabelle Huppert) can mask the film’s fundamental lack of depth.

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"I don’t have any family other than the police." Following the suicide of her partner Slimane who was a police officer just like her, and a stint in a psychiatric hospital which ended eight months ago, Lucie (Huppert) is clinging onto her job as a technician despite the doubts experienced by her superiors, which aren’t entirely misplaced given that Lucie is secretly living with Slimane’s ghost ("he’s always by my side, but no-one can see him"). It’s a lonely existence, broken up by jogs in her residential neighbourhood, until the day when she randomly makes the acquaintance of her neighbours: a couple formed of teacher Julia (Hafsia Herzi) and graphic artist Yann (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), and their small daughter Rose. Striking up a friendship with them and slowly coming back to life ("we had fun, I liked their sense of imagination"), Lucie quickly learns that Yann is a Black bloc activist. Despite lying about her job and closing her eyes to it all ("I’d rather know as little as possible about Yann’s past"), Lucie does, nonetheless, learn more and more about it, notably by way of Julia ("having a father in the police’s sights doesn’t set a good example"), and the time finally comes when she has to choose…

Despite being driven by clear and laudable intentions - namely advocating human connection, above and beyond supposedly opposed ideological camps, valuing an open mind to other cultures (Slimane was of African origin) and even to other beliefs (the boundary between the living and the dead, , experiencing a "personality split when reality was becoming too hard "), and showing that there are always two sides to idealism (both positive and negative), André Téchiné’s story ultimately lacks credibility. The characters of Yann and Julia are mere sketches, the introduction of Slimane’s twin (who is also a police officer) unconvincing, the inclusion of a narrating voice-over is far too literary, and the ending is somewhat improbable. Clearly, we still have Isabelle Huppert, who carries the entire film squarely on her shoulders, not to mention a highly effective editing approach, but, sadly, it isn’t enough to elevate My New Friends to the great heights of Téchiné’s sophisticated ambitions.

Produced by Les Films du Worso in co-production with France 2 Cinéma, Same Player, Ciné Nominé, SRAB Films and Les Films du Camélia, My New Friends is sold worldwide by Pyramide International.

(Translated from French)