Nerdly » BFI Flare 2023: ‘The Five Devils’ Review

29th Mar2023

BFI Flare 2023: ‘The Five Devils’ Review

by Jasmine Valentine

Stars: Adèle Exarchopoulos, Sally Dramé, Swala Emati | Written by Léa Mysius, Paul Guilhaume | Directed by Léa Mysius

Against the backdrop of rural France, youngster Vicky (Sally Dramé) finds she is able to recreate any scent she comes into contact with — including her mother Joanne’s (Adèle Exarchopoulos). When she does, Vicky is transported to hallucinations of her mother’s childhood, revealing how she came to befriend her long-lost aunt Julia (Swala Emati). With distant family troubles coming back to the fore, Vicky must grapple with her newfound truth and harsh schoolyard reality.

Queerness and any kind of witchy, sorcerer magic are two concepts which often effortlessly go hand in hand. It’s a camp notion even without context, yet The Five Devils doubles down on psycho-thriller tendencies as opposed to a kitschy, Charmed-like good nature. The film’s concept is all at once familiar yet unique, maintaining an edge by choosing to portray dated teenage horrors through a child’s unsuspecting eyes. Leading the charge is the sapphic’s own Adèle Exarchopoulos, thankfully a far cry from her beloved-yet-should-probably-be-forgotten role in 2013’s Blue Is The Warmest Colour. With the backing of a confident cast and a fairly watertight story, Exarchopoulos is able to do what she seems to effortlessly achieve — making queerness the highlight rather than the focus.

Kicking the action off with an Aqua Zumba class — which is arguably a direction more movies should take — Joanne is immediately shrouded in mystery. We paw at her family portraits on the swimming pool wall, but writer-director Léa Mysius is skilful in only biting off as much as she wants us to chew (or perhaps, smell). When she meets Julia at a gymnastics class, Mysius allows enough room for their blossoming connection to breathe naturally, their growing attraction only called into question briefly by Joanne’s dad, who implies to Julia that she’s prone to phases. This minute passing of judgement is inherently real to an authentic queer experience, with The Five Devils understanding their plight while letting the correct narrative perspective lead the way. The only area this could arguably fall down in is that of Julia’s experience, possibly playing into stereotypes of Black women’s relationships with unexplained powers onscreen. Though this should be noted, Swala Emati is heartbreakingly vulnerable as Julia, failing to understand her own inner workings while losing the love of her life in the process.

What’s possibly most interesting to note is Mysius’ use of visual time. Viewers are propelled into a daunting unknown through Vicky’s glimpses into a past that may or may not be accurate, before being suspended in the present waters of the pools and lakes in which Joanne self-medicates. Discrimination is touched on both with a heavy and light hand, orchestrating an overall story that falls somewhere between hellish reality and a farcical fairytale. Intoxicating, enthralling, and quietly seductive, The Five Devils arguably brings the best of French cinema and magic-wielding ideology to create something all its own.