With his intense gaze and buoyant personality, Damien Bonnard has emerged as a promising French talent since playing a conflicted rookie cop in Ladj Ly’s Cannes-prizewinning, Oscar-nominated “Les Miserables” in 2019.
Although Joachim Lafosse’s “The Restless” is the only the third film which he has headlined — alongside Leila Bekhti — his face will look familiar to anyone who has been watching French movies for the last decade. A workaholic with an insatiable curiosity, Bonnard has appeared in nearly 70 films, shorts and TV series since launching his acting career in 2009. Notable titles include Alain Guiraudie’s “Rester Vertical,” Dominik Moll’s “Only The Animals” and Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk.”
“The Restless,” in which he plays a father and husband suffering from bipolar disorder, was his most physical and challenging role to date.
The film was well-received in its Cannes competition slot and is currently playing at the Colcoa festival in Los Angeles.
Although Joachim Lafosse’s “The Restless” is the only the third film which he has headlined — alongside Leila Bekhti — his face will look familiar to anyone who has been watching French movies for the last decade. A workaholic with an insatiable curiosity, Bonnard has appeared in nearly 70 films, shorts and TV series since launching his acting career in 2009. Notable titles include Alain Guiraudie’s “Rester Vertical,” Dominik Moll’s “Only The Animals” and Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk.”
“The Restless,” in which he plays a father and husband suffering from bipolar disorder, was his most physical and challenging role to date.
The film was well-received in its Cannes competition slot and is currently playing at the Colcoa festival in Los Angeles.
- 11/5/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
There is a moment of genuine tension at the very beginning of Joachim Lafosse’s “The Restless” that is worth your attention. Damien (Damien Bonnard), is swimming with his son Amine off a boat on the rocky French coast. They are headed back to shore when Damien suddenly stops the boat and jumps back into the water.
Continue reading A Family Suffocates In ‘The Restless’ [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading A Family Suffocates In ‘The Restless’ [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.
- 7/17/2021
- by Gregory Ellwood
- The Playlist
No one utters the word “bipolar” until practically the end of Belgian director Joachim Lafosse’s “The Restless,” but you can sense that’s what the character Damien is dealing with from the opening scene, when a father-son day on the sea takes a startling turn. After steering a rented boat a certain distance offshore, the ever-impulsive Damien spontaneously dives overboard, leaving his boy, Amine (Gabriel Merz Chammah), alone at the helm. “I’m swimming back — you take the boat,” he says, leaving the boy with no other choice.
“The Restless” presents this startling rift in parental responsibility from the son’s point of view, suggesting that the episode — the kind of judgment lapse that might qualify as “fun-loving” in an American man-child comedy but feels genuinely alarming here — almost certainly has its origins in Lafosse’s own upbringing. Like that real-world Laurel and Hardy episode when Mom called the paramedics,...
“The Restless” presents this startling rift in parental responsibility from the son’s point of view, suggesting that the episode — the kind of judgment lapse that might qualify as “fun-loving” in an American man-child comedy but feels genuinely alarming here — almost certainly has its origins in Lafosse’s own upbringing. Like that real-world Laurel and Hardy episode when Mom called the paramedics,...
- 7/16/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Belgian director Joachim Lafosse wakes up the Cannes Film Festival competition with The Restless (Les Intranquilles), a story about a man who can’t sleep.
Damien (an excellent Damien Bonnard) is bipolar, and prone to manic episodes. During these, he goes without rest for days on end, rushing around trying to fix and do everything. He lives in a comfortable country home with his young son Amine (Gabriel Merz Chammah) and his caring wife Leïla (Leïla Bekhti), who makes furniture in a workshop on the premises. Damien has his own workshop: he is a successful painter, a job that seems to suit his temperament. But when he goes into what we learn is yet another manic episode, and refuses to take his medication, Leïla is at the end of her tether.
It’s a quietly engaging portrait of a loving couple in a conflict neither of them wants to be in.
Damien (an excellent Damien Bonnard) is bipolar, and prone to manic episodes. During these, he goes without rest for days on end, rushing around trying to fix and do everything. He lives in a comfortable country home with his young son Amine (Gabriel Merz Chammah) and his caring wife Leïla (Leïla Bekhti), who makes furniture in a workshop on the premises. Damien has his own workshop: he is a successful painter, a job that seems to suit his temperament. But when he goes into what we learn is yet another manic episode, and refuses to take his medication, Leïla is at the end of her tether.
It’s a quietly engaging portrait of a loving couple in a conflict neither of them wants to be in.
- 7/16/2021
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
After appearances at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section (for “Our Children” in 2012) and the Directors Fortnight sidebar (for “After Love” in 2016), Belgian director Joachim Lafosse has landed in Cannes’ most prestigious section, the Main Competition. In fact, he’s at the tail end of that section: His film “The Restless,” which screened for the press on Thursday, will be the last of 24 competition titles to screen for Spike Lee’s jury and the Cannes audience on Friday, the day before the festival will conclude with its awards ceremony.
That’s not the kiss of death by any means: At the last four Cannes, one of the movies that screened on the final day went on to win something from the jury, with three of them picking up acting awards.
And as is par for the course for Lafosse, his new film is an acting showcase for its leads,...
That’s not the kiss of death by any means: At the last four Cannes, one of the movies that screened on the final day went on to win something from the jury, with three of them picking up acting awards.
And as is par for the course for Lafosse, his new film is an acting showcase for its leads,...
- 7/15/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
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