The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • 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 us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Cannes Film Festival 2022

November (Novembre)

Cannes Film Festival 2022: November (Novembre) | Review
23 May 2022
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

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

“I think I’m kind of a drug addict for image and sound coming together! I’m always putting images to sound and getting high”: An interview with Hlynur Pálmason, director of Godland

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Leyla’s Brothers: An interview with Saeed Roustayi

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Plan 75: An interview with director Chie Hayakawa

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Falcon Lake: An interview with director Charlotte Le Bon

Selina Sondermann
Read More

“How to make a genuine portrait of life”: An interview with the stars of Leila’s Brothers

Selina Sondermann
Read More

“It’s never as I planned it to be, but that’s the point. I like that”: An interview with Marie Kreutzer, director of Corsage

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer Fait Tousser)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

The Woodcutter Story (Metsurin Tarina)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
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

  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • “We really wanted to create a cabbage gun”: An interview with David Earl and Chris Hayward stars of Brian and Charles
    Cinema & Tv
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Ithaka
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wayfinder
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Adele lights up Hyde Park for BST Festival
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Cannes Film Festival 2022: Forever Young (Les Amandiers) | Review
Cannes Film Festival 2022: Boy from Heaven (Walad Min Al Janna) | Review