Saint Omer

“I also just saw Saint Omer. It's a French courtroom drama, take on the Medea myth, but also, can I say, between this and Anatomy of a Fall, what's going on in the French court system? This is not a joke, this is not like a jokey thing I'm doing. I would really love for like someone who knows the French legal system to like, I don't know, hit me up on Twitter, I don't know. It seems a lot more like a like a family therapy session than a than a legal structure in both films, but yeah, if there are French lawyers who speak excellent English, because my French is [ __ ], that would be so amazing.”

“St. Omer. I’m going to take it.”

“Saint Omer, Alice Diop. Golly! This makes you think hard and deep about parenting, motherhood, all kinds of fields. Truly, truly, truly a masterpiece, a courtroom drama. Masterpiece, masterpiece. You got to see it. You got to see it.”

“I'm also going to take Saint Omer here, from Alice Diop. This was one of my favorite movies of the last several years. It's just a beautiful, concise, powerful, emotional, heart-wrenching, and very, very aesthetically sophisticated film, from a filmmaker who has made many documentaries that I also love. But this is a very, very strong narrative and I'm taking it.”

“Last but definitely not least, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, one of the great new, exciting filmmakers on this planet. Anytime she does anything, I’m excited for it. This is another underappreciated classic, which I guess is the theme here. So watch this movie. But also watch anything that Alice does because exciting new voice. Not even new anymore, but exciting voice period. She’s got a lot to say about the world and we all should listen.”

“Saint Omer. I mean, it’s dealing with a mother who kills her child, and it’s not even up for debate. It’s not a whodunit. It’s a courtroom, you know pretty early on that she murdered her child. And as a mother watching it, it’s, like, you want to hear some big reason that she did it, and you don’t get that. She’s not a sympathetic character. But she is, as well. It’s a very confusing film, and yet it stays with you, and it makes you think about your relationship with your mother, what being a mother is.”