Picture of the movie Serre moi fort (Hold me tight) © Les Films du Poisson
Mathieu Amalric explores mourning and memory in Serre moi fort (Hold Me Tight)
After opening Un Certain Regard in 2017 with Barbara, a portrait of the legendary singer, the actor and director Mathieu Amalric is back in the Official Selection with Serre moi fort (Hold Me Tight), a mysterious drama about a mother on the run, presented at Cannes Première.
In 2017, Mathieu Amalric paid homage to Barbara with a poetic and tender biopic, in keeping with the legendary figure of French song. His poetic touch has returned with the family drama Serre moi fort (Hold Me Tight), his fourth film behind the camera, in which he explores the ebbs and flows of memory and the difficulties of mourning.
Based on the play Je reviens de loin by Claudine Galéa, Serre moi fort (Hold Me Tight), paints the portrait of a couple with a tumultuous history, whose lives are upended the day the protagonist suddenly abandons her husband and children. Gliding between reality and fiction, the film transports the characters from one place to another, from one era to another, where family memories intermingle with snapshots from the present.
To portray this mother with mysterious intentions, Mathieu Amalric has called on the Luxembourg native Vicky Krieps, who also dazzled the Croisette in Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island. Facing her, the Belgian actor Arieh Worthalter plays her distraught husband.
Cradled by the notes of a piano that develop with the emotions of the characters, the film presents a pared down aesthetic inspired by the work of the American painter Robert Bechtle, who specialises in scenes of daily life depicted with photographic realism.
Serre moi fort (Hold Me Tight) marks the director’s return to the Croisette, after 2010’s On Tour (Tournée), The Blue Room (La Chambre Bleue) in 2014 and Barbara in 2017. Mathieu Amalric is also present In Competition as an actor in Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and Tralala, from Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu.
