This year, the Critics’ Week gifted us a feature debut that layers a visual sensibility to a coming-of-age film that captures the fragile moment when adolescence fractures into adulthood. Most recently praised for other Cannes showcases in The Girl in the Snow and The Rapture, cinematographer Marine Atlan gives us La Gradiva, which is set against the volcanic landscapes of Naples and Pompeii, and follows a group of teenagers navigating friendship, desire, belonging, and self-invention, observing their lives with an almost anthropological precision. Blending documentary-like observation with heightened emotional subjectivity, the film explores themes of identity formation, performance, spectatorship, and the lingering influence of family histories. I had the chance to speak with Marine Atlan about her remarkable approach to group dynamics, the relationship between observation and participation, and how her background as a cinematographer informed the film’s tactile visual language. La Gradiva won the top prize of the section, and 1-2 Special folks picked up the North American rights. Note: Atlan’s responses are in French.
