The Preamble
I never went deep into a Jack lore that has been haunting me for a few years now. Let me start by saying that my life has gradually changed over time. I just turned 30 and I’ve been ruminating on the fact that I did the most craziest things in my 20s that I can’t possibly imagine now. The precursor to this review for La Gradiva starts from my heritage and how the focal point of that has shifted over time. When I was in my 20s, I was desperate to travel as a broke undergrad student. My father during this time really pushed me to embrace the other side of his family’s heritage. His Jewish heritage, I should say upfront. Now, you probably know where this is going. In fact, you can put two and two together when I drop that quick little contextual clue. If you figured it out, yes, I was able to secure a trip to one of the most advanced countries in the world, Israel.
Now for someone who doesn’t know how I was able to get a free trip to this glorious country, you have to really know that Israel offers free ten day trips to the country as long as you have a family member who is Jewish. Back then, it had to be the mother’s side that was in the right in order to receive this infectious trip to Israel. Now, it can be your father, grandfather, or any other family member in your vicinity that can make you eligible for a free trip to Israel. Now that we got that out of the way, I want to tell you a quick little story about how this trip to Israel changed my life for the better or worse and how it relates to this film, La Gradiva.
The Field Trip From Bibi’s Hell!!
Where do I begin. I think it mostly started with me connecting with the few patrons that I stayed with during this ten day trip. Listen, the people that I hung out with were really cool and actually had a lot of background stories that you could pull from and relate to their struggles as individuals. But let’s be real here for a second, the trip was solely for the purpose of propagandizing the image of the country. In fact, I was dumbfounded by the intricacies and cracks behind the history of Israel. I knew this immediately when I arrived in the Golan Heights and discovered the blockage on the other side of the hill. Most notably, this was at a time when Trump and his cronies wanted to move the US Embassy to the capital of Israel, Jerusalem. This caused a stir and also heightened the mass legacy media attention on the violence between Palestinians and Jewish people, particularly Zionists. Again, I was a fucking dumbass and did not know too much about the history of the establishment of Israel and how it was formed. So I took a lot of the information with no hesitation or critical thinking. Until I started to realize that my body was on to something.
The cracks started to show once I visited the famous prayer wall. This super famous tourist spot is actually, you probably guessed it, segregated. The women have to pray somewhere else, away from the men. This is governed by the Orthodox Jews, and it’s the only place in the world where the Orthodox can do their own thing aside from slamming into incoming cars in traffic on the Palisades Interstate Parkway at 70 miles per hour with their mega vans full of kids. But that’s another lore to be told another time.
I think the reason why the cracks started to show when visiting this famous spot was because of how the men treated the women in those tight corners. The men were either relishing in the fact that they segregated the shit out of the women in this spot, or they truly did not give a fuck about anyone else but themselves. You pray at this wall and then you go back to doing the most heinous shit that a human can imagine. Like for example, aiding in a genocide of an ethnic group that had the land before anyone else. Which by the way, I’ll mention in my next blurb as the turning point of my entire human existence as a living, empathetic person.
History and How It Changes Us As An Empath
The relation between my trip to Israel and the film La Gradiva starts with the idea of understanding the subjectivity of the Palestinian and Israeli conflict. When I was sat down to witness the tellings of Israel’s occupation of the land, I started to notice the flaws in the story that was being told. The Palestinian people were pushed out of their homes, subjected to the most vile acts of violence by ultra-religious Jews, and are continuing to be killed off by their own inhabitants through strict apartheid rules that they have to live by. To me, when I noticed the flaws of the historical story, I realized that this place is a boiling hot hell for others who do not conform to Jewish society.
In the film La Gradiva, the notion of not belonging in a space that you are both mentally and physically attached to is the big selling point of the story. Toni (Colas Quignard) sees his best friend James (Mitia Capellier-Audat) having sex in the train cab. His peering eyes see both his friend and another woman who is taking away the attention of his man. The film establishes a common ground between Toni and James as best buddies who want to party down, but also have an affirmation for each other. To my own belief, Marine Atlan’s directorial debut relishes the fascination with voyeurism through the eyes of teenagers trapped in a city where they can’t escape. The field trip to Pompeii is all about learning the history behind the famous city and also critiquing it in an academic and societal way. My time in Israel did not have the opportunity to critique its dehumanization of the Palestinian people. Nor did it have the ability to control a certain type of emotion that felt empathetic for the land and its imprisoned people. The film does this in spades by giving space for the characters to breathe on their own. 145 minutes of this film are dedicated to the points of view of characters who are suffering with their own cultural identity, sexuality, and will to live as individuals who don’t feel seen by others.
Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin) plays a deep role in the film. She is a nerdy girl who feels unseen by others. The two boys, Toni and James, make fun of her for her knowledge of how the volcano eruption works scientifically. Toni is forced by the professor to team up with Suzanne for an assignment during the field trip and actively avoids her because of her looks and his inability to understand the basic science and philosophy of the land. Toni’s story in this film is quite reactionary and intricately powerful. When it is revealed that he is trying to reach out to his extended family with this trip, you start to really understand that he is hiding something that can’t be actively expressed out loud because it would disrupt his friendship with James. When I was in Israel, I started to notice my attraction to the young IDF men who wielded guns in my face while I was on the bus. I had the best time thinking about those attractions, and Toni in the film feels the same type of way about James. He even goes further to really try to find ways to bring attention to the matter through extended glares and baseless sexual conversations about James’s hookup at the beginning of the film. Even more to say, the film establishes this relationship as a platonic one from the start. James is slightly enamored and disinterested by Toni’s attraction to other men through guiding him on Grindr. The setup from the beginning seems like both of these characters are going to cause violence toward the hookup. But in reality, Toni wants to learn more about his heritage by picking a man who is part of the land.
My time with this film started to really shine once all of the characters were established and you are left to just experience the vibes that Marine Atlan establishes. It is a travelogue film, but it’s also a humanistic one at best. Almost reminiscent of this year’s Blue Heron or the masterpiece that is Aftersun. It does not shy away from the attraction and beauty of being young when you want to understand more about the world. I felt the same way Toni felt on his little trip to Pompeii. When he does start to reach out to his maternal family from Naples, Italy with an intimate letter, the film truly shines into something that can’t be fully explained here without spoiling it. Colas Quignard, Suzanne Gerin, and Mitia Capellier-Audat all give impeccable debut performances. They all felt like real people to me and give out some of the most transformative performances of this year. Suzanne Gerin especially has a tightrope that needs to be pulled with her character. She is on the inside of the narrative looking out. Her character, Suzanne, which is her real name by the way, is suffering with her body image and her image as an individual. The girls in the film are confident but are also going through their own problems. One scene in particular stuck out to me with Suzanne confessing that she is not good enough to be like the other girls in the group. When the girls overhear this in their daily gossiping routine in the bed, they start to form a consensus that this type of feeling is normal for girls who grow up to be something they are not. The retaliation of this revelation forms into how Toni treats James and how they treat each other back.
Conclusion
In my right mind when I was young, I felt the same sentiments as Suzanne. But now, my image has evolved. I don’t look at others and compare them to me. I do the complete opposite. I use my empathic powers to uplift them and give gratitude for their eventual transformation as human beings. The trip to Israel did change my stance on how the land operates, but it also made me more empathetic to others. The film aims to do the same, but also treacherously showcases the fear of growing into something you are not. Where it ends is quite powerful and understated. The last few frames of the film invoked such a feeling of dread that I had to really sit with it for a few days to collect my thoughts. Even then, I think the power of empathy is the big major key for 2026. This and Disclosure Day express that feeling in different forms of cinematic genres. This one felt more in line with how we used to live and move as young adults. And for that alone, I think the power of subjectivity in this subject is breathtaking to experience on first viewing.
Yeah man, this was peak cinema!