52 Films by Women Vol 6. 43. THE FIVE DEVILS (Les Cinq Diables) (Director: Léa Mysius)
Rightly criticised for relating outlines in spoiler terms, I tried describing director L é a Mysius’s film, Les Cinq Diables ( The Five Devils ) more abstractly: a fire, a child with strong sense of smell, time travel, karaoke. Other reviewers have simply described it as a lesbian drama. (Why didn’t I think of that?) Those reviewers have taken as its chief signifier the film’s star Ad è le Exarchopolous, who appeared in the 2013 Cannes Palme D’Or winning lesbian romance, Blue is the Warmest Colour , in which she starred opposite L é a Seydoux. Unlike Seydoux, who has appeared in two James Bond films as well as David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future and Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch , Exarchopolous is less well known internationally. Her one English language film, The Last Face , directed by Sean Penn, was greeted with derision at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Co-written with Paul Guilhaume, Mysius’ follow-up to her 2017 feature debut, Ava , is at its heart a mother-daug...