Latest news with #LouiseCourvoisier
ABC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Cheesemaking meets toxic masculinity in coming-of-age story Holy Cow
In Louise Courvoisier's debut feature film, "Holy cow" is used both as an expletive and as an acknowledgement of the life source that sustains the characters who reside in the film's rural town. What: An emotionally affecting, unassuming coming-of-age story with a cast of non-professional actors. Starring: Clément Faveau, Maïwene Barthelemy. Directed by: Louise Courvoisier. When: In cinemas. Likely to make you feel: Gently transported into the life of rural, working-class children. Holy Cow's coming-of-age story centres on Totone (Clément Faveau), an 18-year-old boy who lives on a farm in the remote French Alps region of Jura with his alcoholic cheesemaker father and seven-year-old sister Claire (Luna Garret). After Claire is left in Totone's care following their father's untimely death, the teen hatches an aspirational plan to win 30,000 euro ($53,500) of prize money in a cheesemaking competition. Many of the actions of Holy Cow's rapscallion protagonist stem from deep feelings of inadequacy and shame in a world that does not allow the space for men to be emotional and complex. Beyond the economic precarity of his life, he labours beneath unspoken rules that govern relations between men and women and lofty gendered expectations that he can not always meet. He violently lashes out at a peer when the subject of his affections rejects him, affects a feigned air of disgust when discussing pleasuring women with his closest male friends, and generally regards women his age as a means to an end. An antidote to the undercurrent of toxic masculinity is Totone's tight-knit friendships with schoolmates Jean-Yves (Mathis Bernard) and Francis (Dimitri Baudry). The way they care for each other is imperfect yet enviable in its ability to counter the grief and trauma that Totone, in particular, is undergoing. Another respite is Totone's guardianship of Claire, who he lovingly and unstintingly cares for to the best of his abilities. Together, Totone, Jean-Yves, Francis and Claire are a hodgepodge quartet muddling their way through life. Central to Totone's ploy to make the best Comté in the region is pilfering grade-A milk from Marie-Lise (Maïwene Barthelemy), a young, straight-talking farmer he starts seeing. The pastoral beauty of Comté cheese country — where Courvoisier herself is from — is expertly evoked through Elio Balezeaux's lens, though the insularity of living in a small town with limited possibilities is depicted in equal measure. Faveau's understated performance as Totone expertly balances trepidation with the increasing realisation that he can break out of the confines of gender and class in his life. Yet, as the film adeptly shows, transcending one's station in life is not as easy as a cheesemaking competition may lead you to believe. Holy Cow could have materialised into a bleak study of poverty and misfortune, but it remains intentionally warm and hopeful despite the mishaps Totone experiences — while not varnishing the challenges of growing up without emotional and material anchors. It is not interested in textbook happy endings or neat resolutions for its characters. They hurt each other and act with a recklessness typical of who they are — children. Instead, it morphs into an optimistic portrait of chosen family and accelerated adulthood, with the cheese a not-so-subtle metaphor for Totone's growing maturity and eventual entry into a world he had no choice but to join. Holy Cow is in Australian cinemas now.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Blunt and charming, this French film about cheese-making is filled with pride
HOLY COW ★★★ (M) 92 minutes The Franche-Comté region of France, near the Swiss border, is famed for its wheels of cheese, made by farmers who follow traditional methods – if you want to get into this business, you'd better be prepared to plunge your forearm into a copper boiler filled with scaldingly hot milk – and who have to meet an especially strict set of standards before they're allowed to use the Comté name. All this is laid out for us in Holy Cow, a first feature from writer-director Louise Courvoisier, who grew up in the region before leaving to attend film school. In one key moment, a cheese connoisseur samples a wedge and proclaims it's inedible for the moment and needs time to mature. There is, I'm afraid, a rather heavy-handed metaphor here. Listening in on the exchange is Totone (Clément Favreau), the film's 18-year-old hero, who has good intentions but is still going through a maturing process of his own. Visibly still more boy than man, he's forced to grow up especially fast after the sudden death of his father, which leaves him as the sole guardian of his young sister (Luna Garret). As a representative of French culture, Courvoisier has her own set of standards to maintain, seeking to combine a degree of raw realism with the kind of quaint charm that could appeal to tourists. There's an element of literal documentary in her approach, not just in the depiction of the cheese-making process but in scenes like one which shows the birth of a calf, and more generally in her use of non-professional actors whose awkwardness is part of their appeal.
The Age
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Blunt and charming, this French film about cheese-making is filled with pride
HOLY COW ★★★ (M) 92 minutes The Franche-Comté region of France, near the Swiss border, is famed for its wheels of cheese, made by farmers who follow traditional methods – if you want to get into this business, you'd better be prepared to plunge your forearm into a copper boiler filled with scaldingly hot milk – and who have to meet an especially strict set of standards before they're allowed to use the Comté name. All this is laid out for us in Holy Cow, a first feature from writer-director Louise Courvoisier, who grew up in the region before leaving to attend film school. In one key moment, a cheese connoisseur samples a wedge and proclaims it's inedible for the moment and needs time to mature. There is, I'm afraid, a rather heavy-handed metaphor here. Listening in on the exchange is Totone (Clément Favreau), the film's 18-year-old hero, who has good intentions but is still going through a maturing process of his own. Visibly still more boy than man, he's forced to grow up especially fast after the sudden death of his father, which leaves him as the sole guardian of his young sister (Luna Garret). As a representative of French culture, Courvoisier has her own set of standards to maintain, seeking to combine a degree of raw realism with the kind of quaint charm that could appeal to tourists. There's an element of literal documentary in her approach, not just in the depiction of the cheese-making process but in scenes like one which shows the birth of a calf, and more generally in her use of non-professional actors whose awkwardness is part of their appeal.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘How to Have Sex' Director Molly Manning Walker Heads Up Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury
How to Have Sex director Molly Manning Walker will head up this year's jury for Cannes' Un Certain Regard sidebar. The British filmmaker, whose debut feature won the section's top prize in 2023, will be joined on the jury by French-Swiss director Louise Courvoisier, whose Holy Cow won Un Certain Regard's Youth Award last year, Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini, the 2024 ex-aequno best director winner for The Damned, Argentinian actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (120 BPM), and International Film Festival Rotterdam director Vanja Kaludjercic. More from The Hollywood Reporter Cannes: Sally Hawkins, Matthew Broderick, Martin Freeman Join Simon Bird's 'I'm Not Here' Dwayne Johnson Takes a Prestige Swing in First 'The Smashing Machine' Trailer 'Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert - The 20th Anniversary Tour' to Take Flight (Exclusive) 'It's such an honour to return to Cannes as the President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,' Walker said in a statement. 'This selection will forever hold a special place in my heart. Being a part of it really changed my world. I can't wait to discover the films at the epicentre of new cinema. Right now more than ever I feel that cinema is so key to bringing us together and allowing us to feel, to connect with each other. To escape, wonder and learn about each other. I'm excited to go on this journey with the other Jury members as I know it will be one hell of an adventure escaping into these filmmakers' worlds.' The five-member jury will be tasked with awarding prizes for Cannes' main sidebar, which highlights emerging voices and formally adventurous work. Guan Hu's Black Dog won the Un Certain Regard prize for best film last year. This year's program includes 20 titles, and is packed with directorial debuts, including Scarlett Johansson's Eleanor the Great, starring June Squibb; Harrison Dickinson's Urchin, the first time behind the camera for the Babygirl and Triangle of Sadness star; and Akinola Davies' My Father's Shadow, starring Slow Horses actor Sope Dìrísù. The 2025 Un Certain Regard sections will open on Wednesday, May 14, with Promised Sky from Tunisian director Erige Sehiri. The 78th Festival de Cannes will runs from May 13 to May 24. Best of The Hollywood Reporter "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked 20 Times the Oscars Got It Wrong
The Guardian
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Holy Cow review – warmhearted story of smalltown teen turned champion cheesemaker
It doesn't get more French than a drama about cheese. Holy Cow is the feature debut from director (and part-time farmer) Louise Courvoisier; it's a social-realist drama that is the opposite of grim and miserable in its warm and often funny telling of a coming-of-age story about a teenager from a struggling family of comté-makers in the remote region of Jura. Courvoisier warms things up nicely with her idealism and optimism, and she gets brilliant performances from her non-professional cast, cows included. The opening scene features a calf sitting in the driver's seat of a car staring out of the window. Newcomer Clément Faveau (a poultry farmer in real-life) plays 18-year-old Totone, first shown at a country fair so drunk that he jumps on a table and strips naked. Totone lives with his dad, a cheesemaker who drinks heavily, and his wise seven-year-old sister; no one ever mentions a mum. Totone gets small-town kicks with his mates, riding around on mopeds getting drunk, until something awful happens. Left alone to look after his sister, Totone comes up with a daft get-rich-quick scheme to make €30,000 in a comté competition. How hard can it be to knock out a prize-winning wheel? Faveau gives an amazingly subtle performance; Totone doesn't say much but his fragility and complexity are all there, humour too in the little shrug of a shoulder. Also terrific is Maïwene Barthelemy, as a teenage dairy farmer Totone falls in love with – and steals from. In what might be the most tender line of the film, she tells Totone, not unkindly: 'Stop snivelling and pull your finger out.' Holy Cow is sentimental in the best of ways, with its warmth and hope in human nature. After watching the intensive labour of the cheese-making scenes you may also complain less about handing over a fiver for a little chunk of comté. Holy Cow shows at UK and Irish cinemas from 11 April.
