Director Nicolas Pariser invites you to find out: a walkabout of structured opinions, self-reflection, and principles of decisions and choices in Venice Competition selection One Minute to Midnight — a journey beyond words and beyond motion.
Nicolas Pariser is not a frequent presence on the festival circuit. However, on the occasions when he does participate, his impact is considerable. His distinctive style, characterised by the fusion of love and politics, remains unparalleled. This recalls his direction of The Great Game, featuring Melvil Poupaud in a memorable collaboration with Pariser. The duo returns this year, making Pariser’s debut in the Venice competition, alongside 21 other selected titles. This film, One Minute to Midnight, is, at its core, a journey — one defined by constant exchange about ideas, decisions, and everything in between.
What do we inherit from those we never knew? Léo is about to find out. His partner has left him, and now he learns of his father’s death, and an inheritance in Italy that will force him to confront the past. Before the journey, Léo walks through Paris, seeking the faces that shaped him. Some are old, some are new. And with each encounter, he begins to understand his own choices more deeply — slowly making peace with what comes next.
The dialogue drifts like wind through the film — a blend of Ceylan’s depth and Linklater’s lightness, carrying the weight of life’s questions with the ease of a passing breeze. We sit, we listen — and the dialogue unfolds like a shared journal of every thought we’ve ever had, every quiet idea we’ve carried. It compresses a lifetime of reflection into something almost familiar, almost ours. To say it specifically, the film is woven from the voices of many — each person Léo meets offering their own turmoils, their philosophies, their wounds. And their words fold back onto his journey. Men and women speak differently, but the film finds nuance in every exchange, where each woman, in turn, draws something from him, gently or painfully, shaping the man he becomes.
Still zooming into the dialogues, the conversations traverse a broad thematic spectrum — relationships, identity, feminism, memory, infidelity, righteousness, and morality. These are internal preoccupations that surface during Léo’s walking ‘tour’, creating a dynamic that functions as a two-way energy within the film. As Léo moves through the city, the director’s intentions come into focus. We see him owning up to his mistakes, confronting his flaws — even the ones he liked — as he finds clarity without losing himself. It’s a process that feels necessary, and the director is clearly saying — this is what growth looks like. Companions, plans, surprises — Léo handles them all, for better or worse.
The film’s soul is in its writing. Every line feels held with care, shaped with precision, and filled so quietly into the frame that you almost miss the craft. Amid all the searching conversations, new angles emerge — perspectives we didn’t know we were missing. And they arrive like something we’ve never heard before, yet somehow needed. So what is it — a feminist film, a political one, an activist’s ode? Or something we’re meant to learn from? Maybe it’s all of the above — a new-era ecosystem, packed into the film’s structure itself.
One Minute to Midnight is a literal, introspective, cinematic discussion of a man in existential crisis, where there’s a division of beliefs, standpoints, and opinions. The film shows how each individual brings connection to Léo, and from there we begin to understand Léo louder and clearer. However, for Léo, it becomes even more complicated, which itself shows a parallel view of how things can go against each other, or the reversal of understanding people and how it affects them from different angles.
As Armelle (Anaïs Demoustier) said, “You’re the one who needs to think, to reconsider in light of what you have learned, own it! It’s not a woman’s place to pardon you.” — the film slowly talks about the nuances between discussions, the importance of making ends meet, and the reflective side of it all. The film contains a beauty of its own, that gets packed into a visionary aid for Léo and every walk of men in the world.
The 83rd edition of the Venice International Film Festival is running on September 2-12, 2026.
