“The five devils”: days of a future past

One of the most attractive figures of the current generation of French directors is Léa Mysius. At 33 he is a screenwriter of projects by famous directors such as Arnaud Desplechin (with ‘The ghosts of Ismaël’ and ‘Roubaix, une lumière’), Jacques Audiard (‘Paris, 13th arrondissement’), Stefano Savona (“La Samuni family” ) or Claire Denis (“Stars at Noon”). Add to this his projects which he put in behind the scenes. After his first feature film, the indecipherable ‘Ava’, returns with a story with supernatural overtones, “The Five Devils”, presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at the 75th Cannes Film Festival and in the Official Section of the 55th Sitges Festival.

“The five devils” has the challenge of turning everyday reality into a story with some touches of magical realism and supernatural powers. which are never explained. The starting point is little Vicky Soler, daughter of a married couple who lives in a small town in Isère, in the north-easternmost part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, who He has a gift that allows him to reproduce any aroma he likes and, moreover, to return to the point of taking him back to a moment in the past that evokes said smell. The girl collects most of the essences in the bottle, which has led her to be classified as a freak by her schoolmates, who mistreat her.

this gift, Mysius takes the opportunity to supernaturally describe the child’s emotional ties. First he does it with his mother, Joanne, whom the girl adores madly; but then she does it with her aunt, Julia, who breaks into family life, upsetting the fragile balance that marriage has built and awakening a series of memories that the girl will reproduce thanks to her ability to capture the scents of the past. A premise with shades of fantastic cinema that Mysius, who wrote the screenplay for his film together with Paul Guilhaume, introduces with a fascinating naturalness.

The way Mysius has to combine costume drama with fantastic overtones it could very well reproduce the style of Japanese screenwriter Reiko Yoshida, recognized for her works such as ‘Love is in the water’ or the recent ‘The Haunted House on the Cape’. However, Mysius takes him into his camp, starring a girl who is on the verge of puberty, evoking his debut film, ‘Ava’, as well as one of his most recognized shorts, ‘The ile jaune ‘. he does it with a charming little protagonist, played by a newcomer, a very young Sally Draméwhich will have to be considered for future films.

A fascinating and explosive story

Little Vicky shows incredible ambiguity. On the one hand, she is a shrewd, intelligent and kind-hearted girl. However, she also has a dark, possessive and irresponsible side, oblivious to the consequences of having a gift such as traveling into the past through fragrances. Mysius draws an extremely realistic and human protagonist childshowing the most beautiful and naive of childhood, but also his most cruel and ruthless face.

Really, Vicky’s story is the cornerstone of “The Five Devils”, as her adult story could very well be a French reinterpretation of “Eliana, sister-in-law”, one of the most successful episodes of the Argentine unitary series “Mujeres. assassinas “, which shows how social impositions cause true love to disintegrate; just as Mysius also introduces some subtle factors, such as the xenophobia that grows with respect to the stranger when he makes a mistake; or how cities become prisons for the different. There is also a certain racial issue, as Vicky’s parents are a mixed marriage of a young woman from the area and an attractive Senegalese firefighter, but, in reality, Mysius sublimates this theme to show that, in essence, human beings know how to find different ways of discriminating.

‘The Five Devils’ is a difficult experience to describe, which invites the viewer to experience its story without any pre-established prejudice. It has a luxury cast, because the discovery of little Sally Dramé is joined, in particular, by Adèle Exarchopoulos, who seems to want to bring a certain spirit of bitterness that she exhibited in the controversial ‘La vida de Adèle’, as if ‘The five devils was his supernatural response. Mysius confirms himself as one of the most interesting directors of the current Gallic scene, with a proposal that invites you to let yourself be carried away by a story of ghosts and torments from the past and how these return or tend to repeat themselves if not corrected. On the other hand, it is a call for a balanced affection, which includes the different ways of loving a person. An accumulation of layers that make this film one of the most hypnotic of the current billboard.

Note: 8

The best: It has a certain atmosphere of mystery that keeps the viewer waiting for a good portion of the footage. The discovery of little Sally Dramé.

Worse: There are some moments where the film is too cryptic and, in other scenes, it’s the other way around, being predictable.