''Planetarium'' (released in the UK as ''The Summoning'') is a French-Belgian drama film directed by

Rebecca Zlotowski Rebecca Zlotowski (born 21 April 1980) is a French film director and screenwriter. Education A former student at prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure, Rebecca Zlotowski received her teaching qualification in French modern literature in 2003. S ...

. The film stars

Natalie Portman Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...

and

Lily-Rose Depp Lily-Rose Melody Depp (born 27 May 1999) is a French-American actress and model. Depp began her acting career with a small role in ''Tusk'' (2014), and went on to star in the period drama '' The Dancer'' (2016), in which she played Isadora Dunc ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

, and was released on 16 November 2016, by Ad Vitam Distribution.

Plot

In the late 1930s, two American sisters, Laura and Kate Barlow, travel to France where they perform séances at cabarets with Laura hosting the session and Kate channeling the spirits. A public performance of theirs is seen by French film producer Andre Korben. Impressed by their act, he books them for a private session and is moved by the spirit that visits him. Feeling stifled by the lack of innovation in the French film industry, Korben convinces investors and his team to film a

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spea ...

as it happens. Unfortunately for Korben, the reels look ridiculous. But the director is drawn to Laura, who, despite not being a spiritualist, has a face that photographs well. The film team conceives of a conventional script in which Laura plays a medium who channels the spirit of a widower's wife and the three become locked in a love triangle with the widower unsure if he is falling in love with his former wife or the medium. Laura and Kate move in with Korben, who is generous and kind to them. However, he continues to hold private séances with Kate, much to Laura's displeasure. (She fears, rightly, that Korben's interest in the spirit world is sexual.) Eventually, Laura is forced to leave for the coast to continue filming. Korben takes Kate to a metaphysical scientist and films their sessions together. On the coast, Laura realizes that the rise of anti-semitism means the tides are turning against Korben. Rumours that he once performed in porn abound; and someone writes that she is a Jew's whore on her mirror. When Korben and Kate arrive to reunite with Laura, Korben shows his producers and investors the film of him and Kate which shows nothing. The director walks off the film and blames the money Korben has wasted chasing ghosts as an excuse. Meanwhile, Kate falls ill and reveals that she hasn't been faking but really can see ghosts. She believes this is because she is dying. Kate has leukemia, which is a death sentence at the time. Korben is jailed for his wasted investments and the trial strips him of his French citizenship. Years later, Kate is dead; and Korben has been sent to a death camp in "the East". Laura runs into Eva, an actress she once knew, who helps her get a part in a film working with her former director. No longer involved with spiritualism or Korben, Laura's film career in Nazi era France is assured.

Cast

as Laura Barlow *

as Kate Barlow *

Louis Garrel Louis Garrel (born 14 June 1983) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in '' The Dreamers'', directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

as Fernand Prouvé * Emmanuel Salinger as André Korben *

Amira Casar Amira Casar is a British-born actress who grew up in England, Ireland, and France. Early life Amira is the daughter of a Kurdish father and a Russian mother. She was born in London and was subsequently raised in England, Ireland, and France. Sh ...

as Eva Saïd *

Pierre Salvadori Pierre Salvadori (born 8 November 1964) is a French film director from Santo-Pietro-di-Venaco, known for works on romantic comedies such as '' Hors de prix'' (2006). Life and career In 1989 Salvadori wrote his first screenplay, which would the ...

as André Servier * Rosa Bursztein as Operator

Production

In May 2015,

and

had been cast in the film as sisters.

directed the film from a screenplay by her and

Robin Campillo Robin Campillo (; born 16 August 1962) is a Moroccan-born French screenwriter, editor and film director. He is known for his work on films such as '' The Class'' (2008), ''Heading South'' (2005), the French zombie film '' They Came Back'' (2004) ...

, with Frederic Jouve's producing under his Les Films Velvet banner. Filming began in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

late September 2015.

Release

Ad Vitam Distribution distributed the film in France. It was screened at the

2016 Toronto International Film Festival The 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 8 to 18 September 2016. The first announcement of films to be screened at the festival took place on 26 July. Almost 400 films were shown. Awards The festival's final awards were ...

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approval rating of 16%, based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 4.78/10. The website's consensus reads: "''The Summoning (Planetarium)'' looks out on a constellation of potentially brilliant ideas, but proves fatally unable to find its focus". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

Variety magazine ''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based ...

gave the film a negative review and wrote: "Planetarium is an inert and slipshod movie — messy and aimless, a period tale told with zero period atmosphere (you have to keep reminding yourself that it’s not taking place in 2016), built around a situation with enough possibilities to make you wish that the director, Rebecca Zlotowski, had taken advantage of at least one of them".

References

External links

* {{Rebecca Zlotowski 2016 films French drama films Belgian drama films Films shot in France Films directed by Rebecca Zlotowski Films scored by Robin Coudert 2010s French films