They break up and it makes for a surprisingly surprising film! September Without Waiting is the gem of this end of summer – Cinema News
“No Waiting for September,” Jonas Trueba's new film, hits theaters this Wednesday. This comedy about separation puts a charming duo in the foreground, with a light and effective mechanism reminiscent of “Groundhog Day.”
What is it about?
After 14 years together, Ale and Alex have a crazy idea: to organize a party to celebrate their separation. If this announcement leaves their loved ones perplexed, the couple seems certain of their decision. But is it really?
They have bad news to announce to their friends and family. They are separating! This is the simple, common thread of September Without Waiting: to make this announcement and gather the reaction of those around them.
The real surprise of the film is that it gives off a real feeling of lightness, which takes on the appearance of a romantic comedy. To give a light side to this separation, the separated couple explains that they want to organize… a separation party! This is the other originality of this film, wanting to celebrate the separation. A deliberate repetition mechanism is then put in place: witnessing the same announcement again and again and observing the variations in reactions.
A repetition mechanism, like Groundhog Day
“I appreciate repetition in cinema, in general. I can even say that one of my favorite films, the one I have watched the most, is Groundhog Day by Harold Ramis.says director and co-writer Jonas Trueba. This is a fundamental film for me. As a child, I went to see it several times, and I myself lived in the repetition of the vision of this film. In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray changes but the others always act in the same way, whereas in No Waiting for September, it is the reaction of the others that changes..”
If repetition is present, the filmmaker plays with the form, to avoid weariness, and even offers sequences tending towards musical comedy!
Lightness in drama
The film's tour de force is also to thwart certain expectations. One could legitimately say that September without waiting will shed light on the reasons for the couple's separation. The viewer will ultimately never know anything about it, and the director places the stakes of the film elsewhere, also contributing to the feeling of lightness that emerges from it.For me it is important that there is no concrete reason, that it is almost a mystery, to avoid the film becoming too realistic.“
And to add: “Usually, movies about couples and breakups have an obvious drama: children, infidelity… Not here. I wanted to empty the film of any common, recognizable elements; to keep it ethereal. Which makes it resonate with classic romantic comedies..”
A film within the film
Like another feature film recently seen at the cinema, Le deuxième acte by Quentin Dupieux, Septembre sans attendre offers a form of mise en abyme of cinema, with the editing of a film within the plot. Situations that will please the film-loving public. The film also calls upon a certain number of references, such as to Eric Rohmer. There are also references to Stanley Cavell, theorist (who is also mentioned by Arnaud Desplechin in the film Spectateurs! which will be released in 2025). It is to Stanley Cavell that we owe the concept of “comedy of remarriage”.
“It's not so much an intellectual question of “the film within the film,” but rather how our lives and films intertwine. It's not a film that idealizes belonging to the world of cinema, but rather shows the difficulty of making work, life and love coexist.“, says Jonas Trueba.
The film was written by three people (the director and the two main actors) and marks the continuation of a long-term collaboration between this trio.If we count my medium-length Miniaturas, it is really our eighth and a half film (laughs). I tried to aggregate the experiences of previous films, and it was clear: I wanted to make the film with Itsaso and Vito, and for them to play a couple (Ale & Alex) for the third time after Eva in August and Venez Voir. Use the same actors to do something similar, but differently. I also wanted to involve them in the writing, not being ready to write a film alone. I needed company to laugh at my mistakes and my anxieties..”
“I tried for the first time to integrate my family heritage, classic cinema, and a certain idea of comedy” concludes Jonas Trueba.
September Without Waiting arrives in theaters on September 4, 2024.