‘Hold me tight’: Fragments of an emotional farewell

In his latest feature films as a director, French actor Mathieu Amalric has taken a completely different look at his female characters. After making an avant-garde biopic (which didn’t exist at the time) of the famous Barbara, now the interpreter adapts the comedy ‘Je reviens de loin’ by Claudine Galéa, with the film ‘Hold me tight’, nominated for two César Awards at the latest 47th French Academy Awards.

Amalric is constantly playing with the audience, with a fragmented story that combines scenes that belong to a precise narrative of the film and others that play at being dreams, turning its protagonist into an unreliable narrator and making the film show the threads of that great trompe l’oeil that is the seventh art. What is reality and what is not when it comes to fiction? Under that question the feature film is moving, apparently recounting the escape of a woman who seems tired of her married and family life and leaves her husband to care for the couple’s two children alone.

But Amalric, who also wrote the screenplay for this film adaptation, He is leaving some details that put the public on alert, keeping them in constant bewilderment. A risky decision which, on the other hand, allows you to see the differences in a couple from a certain distance and how daily actions must be taken care of to achieve marital well-being. these moments, Amalric fills them with everyday situations that he combines with dramatic moments that apparently narrate the protagonist’s sentimental breakup.

It’s halfway through the story when Amalric starts showing his true cards, turning the first part into an uncertain game of cat and mouse with the audience, to which it will not be clear whether what they see is real or fictitious. Far from being something negative, the director knows how to straighten out the story by revealing the true nature of what he is telling, making it clear that what the fragments of a woman’s mourning are counted. It is there that the director shows his ability to narrate pain and despair of a protagonist who conquers thanks to the talent of Vicky Krieps.

Formidable Vicky Krieps

The Luxembourgian already aspires to be one of the great European stars, also thanks to her polyglot skills which led him to star in productions shot in English, French and German. Furthermore, in ‘Hold me tight’ you can see him combining the tongues of Molière and Goethe in a natural and spontaneous way. The personal duel that his character experiences is disconcerting at first, but then creates a huge feeling of empathy. Here Amalric’s hand is seen creating a story where nothing is as it seems. On the other hand, it is appreciated that the director has not opted for the resources of the horror film (despite the fact that the premise lends it), betting on the drama, so that the attitude of his protagonist is better understood.

Krieps is not alone, she has a Wonderful Arieh Worthalter. The Belgian actor conveys a lot of humanity in the role of the abandoned husband and a father who has to take care of his children alone. Galéa’s work has already reversed these roles and Amalric knows how to transfer them to the screen. Presumably, she’s the one leaving the family home, a shift in perspective that allows us to see the male lead in a much more human way.

“Hold me tight” is an engaging exercise in pain and self-improvement, with a splendid protagonist, who conveys that ambivalent feeling between impotence, desolation and the desire to overcome the duel. Descriptive title on the absence of that warmth that a caress gives. Amalric signs his most human feature film, with an exceptional leading actress, who fascinates and offers a delicate description of how the mind fragments to digest pain. A formidable cinematic exercise.

Note: 8

The best: The dedicated performance of Vicky Krieps and the chemistry she has with Arieh Worthalter.

Worse: Its beginning is very puzzling and can go out of story at certain moments.