The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Show reviews
    • Interviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Cannes
      • Sundance London
      • Venice
      • London
  • Music
    • Live music
    • Album reviews
    • Interviews
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
    • Fringe
    • Vault Festival
    • Interviews
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Interviews
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join the team
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Film festivals Cannes Film Festival 2022

November (Novembre)

Cannes Film Festival 2022: November (Novembre) | Review
23rd May 2022
Avatar photo
Selina Sondermann
Avatar
Selina Sondermann
23 May 2022

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

November (Novembre)

★★★★★

Special event

Cannes Film Festival 2022

16th to 28th May 2022

There seems to be a general consensus that seven is the magic number of years to pass before a calamity can be appraised through film. In 2018, both Berlin and Venice had films about the 2011 Norway attacks in their respective main competitions. Earlier this year the drama about the Bataclan massacre One Year, One Night premiered at the Berlinale, where it was nominated for a Golden Bear. Now another film about Paris’s tragic night of November 13th 2015 is invited into Cannes’s line-up, where it is screened out of competition.

Whereas One Year, One Night’s approach was about overcoming, November is a fast-paced police procedural about the ensuing investigation by France’s National Intelligence and the infamous shootout of the Saint-Denis raid.

November is filled with high-calibre French talent: Academy Award-winner Jean Dujardin, Sandrine Kiberlain and Anaïs Demoustier make up the counter-terrorist unit’s most vital players. But even smaller members of the team are played by familiar faces such as Call Me by Your Name’s Victoire Du Bois and Raphaël Quenard, who seems to have the Midas touch: all of his latest feature films have made it into the festival this year (Final Cut and Smoking Causes Coughing being the other two). Unfortunately with its focus on exposition, this is not the type of film that allows its actors to truly display their range.

The audience is with the off-duty agents when they receive the news of the attacks, either while they are jogging, or out drinking and watching the international friendly against German that famously transmitted the sound of the bombs going off at the stadium to television viewers across Europe. This sequence at the beginning of the film, set to a David Bowie song, gives a somewhat misleading personal touch to the feature and its characters, which is absent for most of what follows. Their task is to find the two perpetrators who did not die at the scene of the attacks, and the film’s plot renders itself entirely subservient to the manhunt, until a civilian becomes a vital informant. At this point the humanity returns to the characters and their interactions, but it may come too late for viewers to relate.

Director Cédric Jimenez delivers on suspense and action, but falls short on emotional engagement.

★★★★★

Selina Sondermann

November (Novembre) does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival 2022 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.

Related Itemscannes film festivalfilm festivalreview

More in Cannes

Hypnotic

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Perfect Days

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Close Your Eyes (Cerrar los Ojos)

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Kennedy

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

The Nature of Love (Simple comme Sylvain)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

The Pot-au-Feu (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Fallen Leaves

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

“It felt natural to show the life that all women live”: Maxime Rappaz and Jeanne Balibar on Let Me Go

Selina Sondermann
Read More

The Mother of All Lies

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

November (Novembre)

★★★★★

Special event

Cannes Film Festival 2022

16th to 28th May 2022

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Candy Cane Lane
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Your Christmas or Mine 2
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Homecoming at the Young Vic
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Sophie Ellis-Bextor at Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Nutcracker at the Turbine Theatre
    Theatre
  • The Nutcracker at the Turbine Theatre
    Theatre
  • Sophie Ellis-Bextor at Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Homecoming at the Young Vic
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Your Christmas or Mine 2
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wonka
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Homecoming at the Young Vic
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Sophie Ellis-Bextor at Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Nutcracker at the Turbine Theatre
    Theatre
  • Wonka
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Your Christmas or Mine 2
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
The Upcoming
  • Contact us
  • Join the team
  • Subscribe to the mailing list
  • Support us
  • Writing for The Upcoming

Copyright © 2011-2023 FL Media