Sibyl (2019)

Sibyl (2019) Ahhhh…. How difficult it is for me to watch French films!

Apart from comedies, I really struggle. And as soon as it starts, I can’t wait for it to end.

This film is classified under Drama, under Thriller and some consider it a Comedy. For my part, what I found most dramatic was the lack of quality and the boredom it created. At no point is there any tension. And there’s nothing funny about the film.

Those who are in love with Virginie Efira are likely to find something to their liking. For my part, I’ve never seen her do a single thing that another actress couldn’t do. If you want to see her from every angle, this film is ideal! In every sense of the word! Because not only does she have trouble keeping her clothes on, so we get to see her whole body, but we also see her as a singer, writer, psychoanalyst, film-maker, alcoholic, lover, etc! It’s great! Very sophisticated, in any case…

These scenes of sex and masturbation are becoming recurrent in her films. It’s sad.

Otherwise, the script is not credible and uninteresting, and the same goes for the characters, since you don’t get the impression that they’re in the same film. Adèle Exarchopoulos and Virginie are quite incompatible, I think. Efira plays herself. I’ve never felt her relate to the others and I’d even say it’s incredible to miss a film to that extent!

Unfortunately, it’s too hard to believe in Virginie as a psychoanalyst, especially with such a poor script.

I came across this review: ‘What’s with this new French cinema with non-stop sex scenes? Can’t they attract any more viewers without it? Virginie Efira now only plays in films like these, where she’s vulgar, smokes all the time and now takes her clothes off. What a waste of her talent.’

That’s almost exactly what I wrote! So… at least I’m not alone in thinking this way. That’s reassuring. Except… as far as I’m concerned, French films have always been like that. Let me remind you that Les Valseuses dates from 1974!

Apart from one small warning, this film is… FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC? Honestly??? It’s a good thing I didn’t go with a 12-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter. Yes, because that obviously happened! And to prove my point, I’ll show you another review I read: ‘Beware of children or young teenagers! My 14-year-old daughter wanted to see the film for Gaspard Ulliel and she was very shocked. I bit my fingers, I didn’t know we were going to see V. Efira lose all dignity in such trashy pornographic scenes. What a shame!’

Ahhh! What some mums wouldn’t do to take their daughter to see the darkly handsome Gaspard Ulliel ! And to think that he played Hannibal Lecter in the fourth and final instalment of the quadrilogy, Hannibal Rising (2007). No, he’s nothing like a young Anthony Hopkins!

Adèle Exarchopoulos is already a great actress, very active, and always worth watching. That said, I can understand why people find her unbearable. Especially as she whines throughout the film. Really annoying! But to each his own. I was much happier to see her than Virginie! Efira as a drunken shrink doesn’t do it at all and it’s almost laughable because it’s so conventional.

Let’s just say that the story is more psychological than real. Well… just to try and find some positives. Let’s just say that I particularly enjoyed Mrs Huller’s horrible dive into the water, too!

No, but the right word is ‘distressing’. A very pretentious and contrived web of psychobabble clichés, dialogue that rings hollow and farcical situations. A narcissistic, talentless mush. The cast has made another mess of things. And when I read the reviews in the cahiers, major French newspapers and the like, I wonder even more about the petty arrangements between friends that might justify them! Otherwise, I just don’t get it.

A real turnip every now and then can’t hurt, but the problem is that there’s just too much of it!

A tortured film, unnecessary sex, desperate people…It’s so sad! I felt no logic, no pretty feelings. I thought I’d be relaxing in front of a fresh comedy, comforting and full of beautiful emotions… but it’s just a profound bore. And what a bore! This long, monotonous film isn’t really credible and I quickly tired of this script, which shines only in its staggering emptiness, and I’m astonished that some people felt any emotion at all.

The grandiloquent music tries to create a ‘dramatic’ atmosphere, but it’s almost funny because it’s such a failure.

In a nutshell! I’ll summarise. In conclusion and in summary: A bedtime story. Depressed characters who cry, drink and talk for hours about nothing. I’ve heard it called intellectual masturbation, but whatever. This film is a pure turnip. The sex scenes are too frequent, too long, too crude and frankly embarrassing. At no point is there any talk of love in this film. Not a single emotion made my heart beat. Yes, perfectly! The screenplay, too, is a crying shame, with a story that goes round in circles and is under-fuelled by butt stories between actors during a shoot led by a hysterical director. Sibyl is a shrink called in to help, has to keep the whole crew from falling apart psychologically and screwing up the shoot. It’s hollow, empty, humourless, tiresome and boring. A lot of viewers had to fight not to leave the cinema after 30 minutes, I suppose. They must have thought something like, ‘There are just so many pointless scenes and at the end we’re waiting for the cinema to come back on for at least fifteen minutes before the director agrees to let us go home!’ A purge! A shabby (if not interminable), pretentious little film! It’s a good thing I didn’t go to the cinema to see it…