A Plea for More Netflix Films Like Athena
Netlix, please scrap your Noah Centineo rom-coms — flicks by Romain Gavras is what we need.
Hola,
Today, I'll briefly take you back to one of my evenings at the beginning of this week: It was pouring down all day, had a stressful schedule, unnecessarily long meetings and discussions that dragged on for hours. As a result, I came home late with no energy left, nearly starving and a slight headache driving me crazy. Who doesn't know such evenings?
The only thing that saves such a day is a — usually not very balanced and healthy — dinner and devoting the whole evening to Netflix without any important thoughts.
My evening this day looked exactly like that and, surprisingly, this time I came across a really good film. Not a stupid comedy where Adam Sandler somehow turns his life upside down, or the next teen love story with a cheesy happy ending. No. «Athena» swept me off my feet.
«Athena», who?
Romain Gavras' film starts with a bang. One second I was still answering the last messages on my phone, the next the opening scene had me riveted to the screen: It all starts with a sequence in a single shot, that is so intricately choreographed and breathtaking in its visual impact and emotional power, that it is already clear that your eyes are glued to the screen for the rest of the movie. A press conference in a police station. A French soldier announces the recent murder of his 13-year-old brother during an altercation with the police. Abdul, the soldier, was supposed to keep the community calm and prevent a riot. But in the next second, a Molotov cocktail flies across the screen from the back row. Then a powder keg is ignited and the ensuing chaos is brilliantly filmed in a single shot — or in something that looks very much like a single shot.
Angry young men ransacking the police station, stealing an arsenal of weapons and then joyriding back to the «Athena» settlement they call home. This place is their home, a feeling they underline by unfurling a French tricolour on the way: It is a defiant declaration of belonging in a country that has not always claimed them.
Soon another flag — an Algerian one — appears in the picture, a symbol of these young men's North African ancestry that subtly links «Athena» to a variety of political thrillers about French colonialism and the Algerian resistance. By this point, I was already fully under the film's spell. In the next 90 minutes, I witnessed a street battle in a French banlieue that resembled more a war than a confrontation between a hopeless youth and the police.
Tension From the Beginning to the End
Enough spoilers. After all, «Athena» is not convincing because of the plot, but rather because of the cinematography. The film is intense, from the first to the last second. It casts a spell on you, makes your pulse beat faster without any big conversations to fascinate you. And exactly this, was the plan of Gavras: «We had, however, the ambition to make an intense film, in which we wanted to create tension from the beginning to the end.» And they managed to do that, throughout the film there are imposing scenes of fireworks, street fights and POV's of the youths determined to do anything against the attacking police corps.
In ordinary movies, scenes can be energized by cuts. But in «Athena», there are no dull moments for introduction. From the first scene, in the police station, which swings directly on to the reckless ride in the van and finally meets its end in the prefab housing estate, it was clear that this film contains no boring scenes.
In the «Making Of» you can see the effort behind such an action-packed movie. Cinematographers were flung through the air with tightropes to create breathtaking shots to produce a final result that, among other things, looks a little cluttered. Every scene is staged as an attraction, which makes the content of the film fade into the background. At a certain point, you also feel more like you're watching a music video than a serious examination of the socio-political problems in the Parisian suburbs.
Lots of Looks, Little Content — Just What We Need
Hence, it is clear, «Athena» is not the best film of the decade. Not even close. One must pass on emotional and meaningful conversations, as well as surprising plot twists. But that's all right. Because even if I'd like to portray myself that way — none of us can watch films like Interstellar or the latest art-house flick every day. Because sometimes we just need entertainment.
And it's on those days that we need films, like «Athena». Films that address social problems in a subconscious and simple way and take us out of our everyday lives through scenery and action. And not films whose content and conversations are packed with drivel.
So dear Netflix, please stop letting Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston uncover some irrational and absurd murder for 90 minutes. Rather invest your money in scripts by Romain Gavras. Thank you!
Love,
Pascal
Here you can watch «Athena»
