3000 years of longing : l'heure du conte entre deux Mad Max

Entre Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) et Furiosa (2024), George Miller a pu caser un film singulier et surprenant, dans lequel une rousse tombe amoureux d’un djinn. Ils se racontent leurs 1001 nuits de solitude.

Si "3000 years of longing" (un clin d'oeil à "40 000 of dreaming", la lettre d'amour de Miller au cinéma australien ?) est un commentaire sur les liens entre orient et occident, c'est par le biais d'une conversation entre une femme esseulée et une entité magique qu'il tire sa singularité. En faisant dialoguer l'éternel et le passager, l’intime et l'universel, la fiction et l'histoire de chacun, le film redonne ses lettres de noblesse au lien ténu entre fiction, racines et construction de soi.

Le mythe, incarné par le djinn est bien, comme dans l’histoire d’Aladdin, prisonnier de la lampe, du temps et du désir contrarié de ses ma?tres successifs. Esclave prisonnier des siècles, chaque rencontre donne lieu à des péripéties qui l'empêchent de se libérer en exau?ant les 3 voeux du conte. Malgré sa puissance quasi divine, il se retrouve, time and again, empêché, sans cesse oublié puis retrouvé de fa?on cyclique. Et quand une simple mortelle, une femme quasi éteinte, spécialiste des mythes, utilise son pouvoir et son amour pour lui redonner sa liberté, il revient la visiter, de temps en temps, tout au long de sa vie. En résumé?: mythe et racines se nourrissent l’un et l’autre. ?

Cette ?uvre nous rappelle que nous avons tous besoin de racines et de mythes pour nourrir notre propre histoire et nous permettre d'avancer. Le film ne fait pas la promotion d'une forme de globalisation horizontale, mais bien de l'universalisme.

Miller, en évoquant directement les super-héros dans le premier quart d'heure, lui qui devait réaliser son Justice League, rappelle que ce n’est pas dans la sur-consommation d'ersatz que nous allons garder ce lien et avancer. Le voir aussi en forme, à 77 ans bien frappé, au milieu d’un cinéma terne et peu imaginatif fait vraiment beaucoup, beaucoup de bien. En attendant Furiosa.

Is George Miller's 3000 years of longing just another tale?

Between two furious romps in the desert, George Miller was able to deliver a surprising gem of a film, in which a redhead falls for a Djinn. Begins their tale of 1001 nights of loneliness.

?If "3000 years of longing" (an obvious nod toward "40 000 of dreaming", Miller's love letter to Australian cinema) tells a tale of East meets West, its singularity lies in the conversation between the universal and the intimate, the loneliness of a forgotten myth and the life of an exegete plunged in celibacy, the fiction and the construction of oneself. To this furiously trendy agenda, the film gives back roots and the need to believe, in great and small stories, but also in oneself.

The myth, embodied by the Djinn is indeed, as in the story of Aladdin's lamp, a prisoner. Through the centuries, he cannot fulfill his vocation and gain freedom, giving meaning to the life of each. His condition of an almost divine yet locked up entity makes his trail through the centuries incredibly melancholic and humane, for he is repeatedly lost and found. And when a simple mortal, a very lonely woman, who happens to be a renowned myth specialist, uses her power and her love to free him, he comes back to visit her, from time to time, throughout her life. In summary: myths and roots need and feed one another.?

I was very moved by this latest effort from the Road Warrior, Babe & Happy Feet film maestro, which I took at first for a glorified woke ad. But something was hitting me deeper, just as the incredible cutting chops from Mad Max 2, the intricate delicacy of white, black, and grey nuances from Happy Feet or the Fury Road photography & framing from John Seale did. When some are tempted to force their agenda deep inside our throats, erasing centuries of history, tales and lore, this work reminds us that we all need stories and roots to stand tall against the sky and to move forward. The film does not promote dire horizontal globalization. Its central theme is rather universalism, which lately has been losing ground in popular media.?

Miller says it quite clearly in the first 15 minutes, as he was to direct his Justice League at one point: It is not in the over-consumption of empty superhero stories that we will keep this connection and move forward. Seeing Miller, now 77, so prolific in the midst of a dull and unimaginative film landscape feels really, really exciting. Especially with Furiosa on the horizon.

Sylvain Thuret - Rédacteur web / Web editor - 28.10.2022