``A Hold Me Tight'' Her melody, a nostalgia you don't know yet

Hyperrealism/Imitation of Life

A room decorated with Robert Bechtel's paintings. Robert Bechtel is known for his hyper-realism and photorealism paintings, which are made by taking photographs of the lives and landscapes of middle-class Americans and tracing them in detail. A reality that is more real than reality. A documentary about Robert Bechtel shows the process of him copying the photographs with precise brushstrokes, ruler in hand. And it is surprising how the look of the footage in "A Hold Me Tight" is quite similar to the look of some of Robert Bechtel's paintings.

Mathieu Amalric and Vicky Krieps are trying to get closer to a reality beyond reality by tracing Robert Bechtel's paintings. A girl traces her mother's portrait with her finger on a Robert Bechtel painting hanging in her room. Right now, the girl is getting closer to something. It could be a nostalgia she already knows, or it could be a nostalgia she doesn't know yet.

"A Hold Me Tight" (c)Charles Paulicevich - 2021 LES FILMS DU POISSON - GAUMONT - ARTE FRANCE CINEMA - LUPA FILM

Mathieu Amalric teamed up with Jeanne Balibar again in " Barbara, Black Rose of the Seine " (2017), taking and inserting perfectly copied shots of the great chanson singer Barbara's archive footage. Jeanne Balibar, who meticulously imitates Barbara's movements, is filled with the magic of acting. Mathieu Amalric must have sought a reality beyond reality by precisely tracing the archive footage. It was also a question of playing a real person, and even of acting itself. Each of Jeanne Balibar's gestures is filled with magic, like the notes that make up a melody. The same can be said about Vicky Krieps' performance in "Hold Me Tight."

When Mathieu Amalric was shooting "A Hold Me Tight," he suggested cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne to use Francis Ford Coppola's "A Girl in the Rain" (1969) as a reference. Like Barbara Loden's " Wanda " (1970), this work depicts the wanderings of a woman who abandons her family, and is also important when considering feminist films today. The brown jacket worn by Clarice in "A Hold Me Tight" references the image of the heroine in "A Girl in the Rain." Even in the dimension of reference, the theme of rewriting what is recorded resonates with the image of Clarice spinning a new story from Polaroid photographs of her memories.

chase after memory