On the Adamant 2023 Movie Review

The adamant, for those who don’t know, is a mythological material and, therefore, fictional. In comics, its variation “adamantium” is used as a name for an apparently indestructible mineral, often present among Marvel heroes. Therefore, according to this use and use, it can be understood that, as an adjective, adamantine would be the condition of that – or that – marked by firmness, something or someone incapable of being corrupted, of recognized integrity. This is also the name given to a medical and therapeutic center located in the central region of Paris, like a fixed vessel, constantly rocked by the River Seine. sur l’adamant, therefore, it is a documentary that deals exactly with what its title anticipates: what happens inside Adamant, who are the people who frequent it and what makes it different from the many similar ones that exist all over the world . The proposal, as curious as it may be, still has an institutional media air, which both informs and disseminates something that is never confronted, exploring only what the filmmakers – and those responsible for the initiative – believe they have the best to offer. . A unique and therefore limiting bias.

Leaving aside any visual experimentation, assuming itself almost as a reportage, Sur l’Adamant places itself as a record of what this space is made of, who are the people who occupy it, what they have in common and what is the effect of this space. environment in their realities. As quickly identified, there is a social function in this proposal. It is almost as if those responsible for the project had, in addition to the filmic result, the greater concern of not only justifying their efforts, but also validating their own functions. At all times they make evident a cry of “ we exist and we are necessary”. As an initiative, sure. But what about the result as a cinematographic piece, since this was the format chosen for its elaboration? There is no aesthetic or even formal care, the narrative is linear and quite obvious, the reports accumulate in the middle of a reiterative and continuous logic, of “more and better”, as if the next thing came only to prove how right the previous. So more of the same. Perhaps it would work as an advertising or commissioned audiovisual piece, but not as an authorial piece, an identity that seeks, but does not reach.

The biggest issue is that Adamant is a psychiatric hospital that bets on alternative models of treatment. Instead of rudimentary or outdated techniques, which cinema often explored in period works that were more like horror stories, what we see here are modern and collective environments, which are more like studios or creative spaces. There are regular meetings where the week’s activities are discussed, constant exchanges between interns and staff, film clubs and debates, moments for drawing and literature. If “an empty mind is the devil’s workshop”, as the saying goes, what those in charge here preach is exactly the opposite: occupying oneself in a recreational way, with each other and each one with oneself, for this mutual and constant exchange a well-being, individual as well as democratic, is achieved. The cure,

However, there is not much that each of those involved can offer beyond what is already expected in the face of a scenario such as the one proposed here. From the man who thinks his life was “stolen” by Wim Wendersto the young man who carries a magnet on his chest to protect himself from bad vibes, to the resolute lady in her attempt to contribute more than what she has been allowed to do, to the young man who demonstrates in a contagious joy that what for many may seem like too simple, like the act of serving coffee, for him it is perceived as a great personal achievement, a series of charismatic and engaging figures parade on stage, but never properly deepened. Each one will have their moment of dialogue with the camera, but once this step is overcome, it’s time to see the next one, and so on. Instead of choosing one as a leading character, an option that could, in short, redefine his posture, thus allowing an intense dive into the whole, what one has is just this circular transit, which for a long time travels, but without straying too far from the point of origin. There is no depth, while in its place space is occupied only with quantity, as if the number of stories were to increase the impact that they pursue so much.

Nicholas Philibert, also responsible for photography and editing, in addition to directing, was even nominated for a Bafta and won a César and the European Film Award for the feature Ser e Ter (2002), a reference title within the documentary genre in French cinema. Since then, however, more than two decades have passed, and Sur l’Adamantarrives to show how a certain accommodation can be harmful to the filmmaker who should keep searching for reinvention. Of limited scope, it is still moving with testimonies laden with sincerity and realism, but also, on the other hand, it is these same types that increase resentment in relation to everything that the film could have been, without, however, having demonstrated the effort or commitment to show oneself as such. Even worse are the many questions that could have been asked, in relation to its origin or even maintenance, and the impact that a structure like this ends up generating in the community, beyond those directly affected, which are systematically ignored, as if irrelevant in the whole. It is a film, in short, that stops halfway, pointing to several sides, without, in the end,