Winner of the Caméra d’Or for Best First Film at Cannes, this Bergman-esque drama entraps the viewer into a claustrophobic debate of fact and fiction when two boys’ parents are called to a meeting at their school.
Reinsve completely commands the screen in the most unexpected and captivating manner.
Screened as part of 2024
Armand 2024
Actress Elizabeth (rising star Renate Reinsve, also at this year’s festival in A Different Man) is summoned to a meeting at her son Armand’s school with his best friend’s parents, who make a severe accusation against Armand. What really happened among the children? And what does this tell us about the parents raising them? Is Elizabeth responsible for Armand’s misbehavior? Just like Anatomy of a Fall, Armand invites audiences to be judges at an unofficial trial, where the thin divide between truth and lies is blurred. But the actress could be playing her game here – and she is ready to lead the seductive dance of manipulation. Once again, Reinsve proves the subtle finesse of her thespian skills, leaving the audience to ponder how much her character’s maternal instinct is served by her well-oiled histrionics. Pulling the strings of this outstanding Bergmanian drama with evocative and elegant camerawork is Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, grandson of Liv Ullman and Ingmar Bergman himself. — Paolo Bertolin
“As much as Reinsve proved herself the ideal vessel to portray millennial angst and ennui in The Worst Person in the World, here she establishes herself as an ultimate portrayer of women on the edge… It’s thrilling to watch her free-fall from the hands of a director impressively carrying his family’s legacy with a vivid, creepy, and uncomfortably funny debut that burrows into the mind.” — Ryan Lattanzio, Indiewire
“Armand is a film that registers on every level: it begins as contained chamber piece with comic touches, suggesting a terse variation on the tropes of courtroom investigative drama. But the film’s more abstract, poetic registers become evident early on… What it ultimately becomes is much harder to define, but the result is resonant and haunting – and should spark plenty of post-screening discussions. Reinsve stands out at the centre of a superb ensemble cast as a character defined by unknowability and an ever-shifting surface – contemptuously brittle one moment, the next melting before our eyes.” — Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily