Rodeo
Both Lola Quivoron and her non-professional lead, Julie Ledru, bring distinction to their first feature, a French drama set in the world of motocross.
The French and the Furious: Julie Ledru
Some aspects of Rodeo are strikingly successful but unfortunately there is also much in it that falls short. Nevertheless, the first impression it gives is terrific. The filmmaker is France’s Lola Quivoron functioning as both writer and director and, regardless of the usual connotations of the word ‘rodeo’, her film is set in the outer suburbs of Paris. It’s there that her central figure, Julia (Julie Ledru), seeks to throw in her lot with a group of bikers. In a form of motocross, they take over a road to race on and to show off their latest stunts, stopping only when the cops intervene.
The way in which Quivoron sets this up is masterly. Working closely with her editor Rafael Torres Calderon and her photographer Raphaël Vandenbussche, she adopts a style which is close and quick. The fact that she does this on the wide screen is unconventional, but Quivoron is so at ease with it that it succeeds totally. And it doesn't only pull us in instantly, it also enables Rodeo to convey an exhilaration, an exuberance, that is very necessary for the material. At the outset Julia having lost a bike promptly steals a motorbike which had been put up for sale. She does this by pretending to try out the machine before putting down the cash and then driving off at speed. This will not be the only instance of her obtaining a bike in this way for Julia is obsessed by riding these vehicles. For us to understand what it means to Julia is crucial and expressing that so perfectly in cinematic terms is Quivoron’s triumph.
This feat is not the only element in Rodeo that can be considered memorable. Quivoron has apparently used a non-professional cast here and that extends to Julie Ledru herself who was indeed a real-life biker. Her performance which is the crux of the film is compelling, one of those cases where a player’s striking film presence is immediately apparent. But, if the film’s impact is instant, it fails to sustain it and that is due to the way in which Quivoron as writer chooses to present her material. However, I should perhaps add a qualification here in that it could well be that anyone drawn to the sporting aspect may find it so much to their taste that any weaknesses are relatively insignificant. From my own viewpoint, however, there are a series of misjudgments that undermine the film.
First, take Julia herself. She is undoubtedly the key figure, but the screenplay doesn't really help us to understand her in detail. She has a strong female presence which charges the film and that might encourage some to see her as a role model. However, even if we are encouraged to think of those she robs as well-off, she is a criminal and will in fact be the instigator of a heist (the theft of a whole truckful of bikes when they are being transported) which will provide the climax of the film. But no less challenging to her winning our approval is her desire to be accepted in the macho world of the bikers, men who certainly show initial hostility to her. If Kaïs (Yannis Lafki) becomes a friend, at least two of the others – Louis Sotton’s Ben and Junior Correia’s Manel – commit acts of abuse. We may be told that Julia was born with a bike between her legs, but that's not enough to justify her insistence on wanting to be accepted as part of this male group which is run from a jail cell by Domino (Sébastien Schroeder) – they are not just bikers but men engaged in thefts and other illegal activities. Yet on becoming part of this organisation Julia can assert that she belongs there. As for any background details that might help to explain her, they are largely absent: Julia comes from Guadeloupe but we never meet Julia's mother, see almost nothing of a younger brother and find that any sexual issues that could be relevant are kept firmly undiscussed (Julia may want to call herself ‘Unknown’ but nothing is made of it and the relationship with Kaïs is far more friendship than romance).
Secondly, apart from the three already mentioned the other men in the group are never differentiated or developed in any way so that they account for virtually nothing. Thirdly, the screenplay seems uncertain in what it does choose to emphasise, that being Julia's friendship with Ophélie (Antonia Buresi), the wife of the jailed Domino, and with Ophélie’s young son Kylian (Cody Schroeder). This provides the female element in this very male context, but any comparisons between the two women seem irrelevant: Ophélie is cowered by her husband’s control of her while Julia has no such force to contend with and the bonding between Julia and Kylian would only seem relevant if Julia had ever shown signs of wanting to become a mother.
If these are the major errors of judgement here, one can also add that the climactic heist is less memorable than the film’s opening section and is made even more unlikely by Julia being sexually assaulted in the course of it. Although some critics have described Rodeo as having echoes of the Fast and Furious franchise, an aspect which they felt did not fit too well with other parts of it, my own disappointment was with the screenplay which failed to give the necessary backing to a film that seemed to promise so much. Even so, Quivoron’s direction is memorable and Ledru is exceptional, and that may well be more than enough to justify seeking out this film.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Julie Ledru, Yannis Lafki, Antonia Buresi, Cody Schroeder, Louis Sotton, Junior Correia, Ahmed Hamdi, Dave Nsaman, Mustapha Dianka, Mohamed Bettahar, Chris Makodi, Sébastien Schroeder.
Dir Lola Quivoron, Pro Charles Gillibert, Screenplay Lola Quivoron with Antonia Buresi, Ph Raphaël Vandenbussche, Art Dir Gabrielle Desjean with Theo Campredon, Ed Rafael Torres Calderon, Music Kelman Duran, Costumes Rachel Raoult.
CG Cinéma/Canal+/Ciné+/ CNC/Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine-Curzon.
105 mins. France. 2022. UK Rel: 28 April 2023. Cert. 15.
