La relève: A Quiet, Dusty Bit of French Cinema

Is this thing worth your time?

If you're the type of person who digs through archives just to find something that feels different, you might find some charm in La relève. It’s definitely not for the popcorn crowd. If you hate movies where people stand in rooms and talk about their feelings for what feels like a week, skip it. Everyone else? Maybe give it a go on a rainy Sunday.

It’s hard to shake the feeling that this movie is trying to be more important than it actually is. There are these long, lingering shots of doorways that feel like they should mean something, but they mostly just look like empty hallways. Maybe I missed the point, but I think the director just liked the geometry of the architecture.

Small moments that stuck

• There’s a scene about halfway through where Blanche Beaume just stares at a teacup for way too long. It’s weirdly hypnotic.
• The lighting in the second act is surprisingly moody. It feels like they shot it during a genuine thunderstorm.
• I swear the background extra in the café scene is reading the same page of the same newspaper for ten minutes.

I kept thinking about how this compares to something like The Cop, which has a much punchier rhythm. La relève is definitely more interested in the silence between the words. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it just makes you check your watch.

There's a moment toward the end where the tension finally bubbles up, but then the camera cuts away to a street scene that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. Why? I have no idea. It feels like the editor just gave up. Or maybe they were having a laugh.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly good movie by modern standards. But it has a pulse, which is more than I can say for some of the stuff coming out of the major studios lately. It feels like real people made it, even if they were a bit lost while they were doing it.

Don't go in expecting a cohesive narrative. The plot drifts like a leaf in the wind. Just enjoy the dust motes dancing in the light and don't worry about where the story is going, because it isn't going anywhere fast anyway. ☕️