French Film Review: Revoir Paris

After an idyllic date night full of red wine and a late-night motorcycle ride home, Mia (Virginie Efira) stops at a Parisian bistro to take shelter from a downpour. Her reprieve is shattered when a gunman opens fire.

Three months later, with a frustratingly hazy memory of the attack, Mia finds herself numbed and unable to resume her life. Her friends and partner seek something from her that she can no longer give.

Determined to reconstruct the sequence of events and reestablish a sense of normality, Mia finds herself repeatedly returning to the bistro where the shooting happened. In the process, she forms bonds with some of her fellow survivors, including wry banker Thomas (Benoît Magimel) and orphaned teenager Félicia (Nastya Golubeva). When she remembers that a stranger helped her make it through the attack, Mia sets off on a mission to find him, if only to make sure that he is still alive. Revoir Paris is a moving meditation on grief, healing, and the importance of connections forged in tragedy with a breathtaking performance by Efira, who won the 2023 César for Best Actress for her performance.

Although fictional, the film was inspired by writer/director Winocour’s own brother’s experiences as a survivor of the Bataclan concert hall 2015 attacks. “My brother was at the Bataclan on November 13,” she said. “While he was hiding, I stayed in contact with him by text for part of the night. The film was inspired by my own memories of the trauma and by the account my brother gave in the days after the attack. I experienced for myself how events are deconstructed, and often reconstructed by memory.”

Director: Alice Winocour

Starring: Virginie Efira, Benoît Magimel, Grégoire Colin

From France Today magazine