The Five Devils
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''The Five Devils'' () is a 2022 French
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
film directed by Léa Mysius, who co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Guilhaume. The film stars
Adèle Exarchopoulos Adèle Exarchopoulos (; born 22 November 1993) is a French actress. She had her career breakthrough starring as Adèle in the romance '' Blue Is the Warmest Colour'' (2013). At the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, she became the youngest person in the ...
and Sally Dramé. It premiered in the
Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (, formerly ) is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festival as a ...
section of the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
on 23 May 2022. It was released in France on 31 August 2022.


Premise

Vicky has a magical gift: she can smell and reproduce any scent of her choosing. She collects these in carefully labelled jars. The solitary child has a very strong bond with her mother Joanne, whose scent she also captures. When her father's sister Julia, who has recently been released from prison, enters their lives, Vicky also begins to reproduce her scent. Vicky is transported back in time into dark and magical memories, leading her to discover the past love affair between her mother and Julia, the secrets of her village, and her own existence.


Cast

*
Adèle Exarchopoulos Adèle Exarchopoulos (; born 22 November 1993) is a French actress. She had her career breakthrough starring as Adèle in the romance '' Blue Is the Warmest Colour'' (2013). At the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, she became the youngest person in the ...
as Joanne Soler * Sally Dramé as Vicky Soler * Swala Emati as Julia Soler * Moustapha Mbengue as Jimmy Soler * Daphné Patakia as Nadine * Patrick Bouchitey as Jean-Yvon * Noée Abita as waitress *
Merwan Rim Merwan Rim (born 13 July 1977 in Sarcelles, France) is a French actor and singer-songwriter. Biography At the age of 17, Merwan Rim started to learn and instruments as an autodidact. Realizing his gift in musical arts, Merwan decided to become ...
as karaoke DJ


Production

''The Five Devils'' is Léa Mysius's second feature film as director, following '' Ava'' in 2017. Mysius co-wrote the film's screenplay with its cinematographer Paul Guilhaume. The film was produced by Fanny Yvonnet for Trois Brigands Productions and by Jean-Louis Livi for F comme Film, both of whom previously produced ''Ava''. ''The Five Devils'' benefited from production support from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma (and support from the
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (; AURA) or ; or ; . is a Regions of France, region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes. The new region came into e ...
region itself), pre-sales from Canal+ and Ciné+, and support from the
ÃŽle-de-France The ÃŽle-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...
region. Filming was set to begin in March 2020, but was interrupted due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. Filming resumed in March 2021 and lasted seven weeks. Filming took place in
Isère Isère ( , ; ; , ) is a landlocked Departments of France, department in the southeastern French Regions of France, region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère (river), Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.
between 1–24 March 2021, in the commune
Le Bourg-d'Oisans Le Bourg-d'Oisans () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. It is located in the Oisans region of the French Alps. Le Bourg-d'Oisans is located in the valley of the Romanche River, on the road from Grenoble to Brianço ...
and at Lac Bleu. Shooting continued in the ÃŽle-de-France region, including the Michel-Beaufort swimming pool in
Bondy Bondy () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. Name The name Bondy was recorded for the first time around AD 600 as ''Bonitiacum'', meaning " ...
on 31 March and 1 April 2021. Filming wrapped in Paris on 16 April 2021.


Release

''The Five Devils'' had its world premiere in the
Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (, formerly ) is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festival as a ...
section of the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
on 23 May 2022, where it received a five-minute standing ovation. It was released theatrically in France on 31 August 2022 by Le Pacte. International sales are handled by
Wild Bunch The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang, or the Oklahombres, were a gang of American outlaws based in the Indian Territory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were active in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Terr ...
. In a deal negotiated by Wild Bunch,
Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...
acquired ''The Five Devils'' for North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, India and Turkey. Mubi gave the film a limited theatrical release in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland on 24 March 2023. The film was released exclusively on Mubi's
streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...
platform from 12 May 2023.


Reception


Box office

''The Five Devils'' grossed $336,025 in France and $161,003 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $497,028. In France, the film opened alongside ''
Everything Everywhere All at Once ''Everything Everywhere All at Once'' is a 2022 American Independent film, independent Absurdist fiction, absurdist comedy-drama film written and directed by Daniels (directors), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who produced it with Russo brot ...
'', ''La Dégustation'', '' Both Sides of the Blade'' and ''La Page blanche''. The film sold 4,922 admissions on its first day, 485 of which were preview screenings. It went on to sell 25,906 admissions in its opening weekend. At the end of its theatrical run, the film sold a total of 71,833 admissions.


Critical response

On the
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 75 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Overflowing with ideas as it moves across genres, ''The Five Devils'' uses intoxicating magical realism to explore a family's troubled past."
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which uses a
weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. ''The Five Devils'' received an average rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars on the French website
AlloCiné AlloCiné is an entertainment website founded by Jean-David Blanc in 1988, then joined by Patrick Holzman. It has belonged to the company since 2013 Webedia. which specializes in providing information on French cinema, mostly centering on nove ...
, based on 31 reviews. Jordan Mintzer of ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' assessed the film as having too many elements, criticising screenwriters Mysius and Guilhaume for infusing an "otherwise compelling and intimate tragedy with elements of witchcraft, the supernatural and time travel that feel like they belong in another film—whether it's by Shyamalan or
Robert Eggers Robert Houston Eggers (born July 7, 1983) is an American filmmaker who has written and directed '' The Witch'' (2015), '' The Lighthouse'' (2019), '' The Northman'' (2022), and ''Nosferatu'' (2024). His films blend elements of horror, folklore, ...
, or something from the
Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appe ...
. Rather than enhancing the intrigue, the genre components wind up diluting it, and when the two sides of the movie ultimately come together, the impact feels blunted". Writing for ''
Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. It is updated several times a day, with en ...
'', Valerie Complex was mostly positive on the film, but criticised the way it depicted its Black characters, writing, "There are many movies with Black protagonists at Cannes, but Black people direct none ..Julia and Jimmy aren't given much agency. They exist as a platform for Joanne, who uses them to elevate herself ..And the hair. Look, Black hairstylists need to be consulted and hired to give Black characters decent-looking hairstyles. Unkempt hair and bad wigs plague Black actresses on sets, and ''The Five Devils'' falls into this trap. Films have to start investing in the complete aesthetic of Blackness, and that means getting people who can bring the most authenticity to a character". Jake Cole of ''
Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...
'' praised the film, stating it "feels like the work of a much more seasoned filmmaker" and that Mysius' filmmaking "exudes an exquisite command of atmosphere and aesthetic language".


Accolades


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Five Devils, The 2022 films 2022 drama films 2022 fantasy films 2022 LGBTQ-related films 2020s fantasy drama films 2020s French films 2020s French-language films Films about female bisexuality Films about mother–daughter relationships Films impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic Films shot in Île-de-France Films shot in Isère Films shot in Paris French fantasy drama films French LGBTQ-related films Le Pacte films Lesbian-related films 2020s LGBTQ-related drama films LGBTQ-related fantasy drama films Films directed by Léa Mysius