Release Date – 3rd November 2023, Cert – PG, Run-time – 1 hour 49 minutes, Director – Nicolas Philibert
Documentary looking into the activities taken part in by attendees and staff of a floating Parisian centre for those with mental illnesses and disabilities.
The key detail about On The Adamant is given via title cards at the very end of the film. After just over 100 minutes where on multiple occasions you wish that the film would delve into the work of the boat a bit more than simply observing it happening. The information that we eventually get feels better suited to the start of the film. I genuinely believe that if it had been featured at the start then as a whole this documentary would be better instead of often feeling lacking in information and interest from the audience.
The purpose of the titular Adamant is as a mental health centre for this with illnesses and disabilities. Special activities are put on each day, especially leaning towards creative arts and expression, which are observed throughout the film. We see various attendees, members of staff and patients taking part in art sessions, movie club discussions and other meetings with the basis of each moment very much being show don’t tell. However, due to the lack of context for the boat, floating on the River Seine, almost everything feels like showing. You’re simply watching without very much connection to what’s being shown.
When the film does tell it’s more from the figures on the boat telling their own personal stories. Whether it be tales from their past, or a creative release that they get from creating music, the personal feelings we hear of are the most effective, if infrequent, moments of the film. We jump between people and activities for the duration of the run-time with the main throughline being the titular location. Aside from this everything simply seems like a shift to a new moment with only a small connection to what came just before. With little sign of structure things overall feel even longer, drawn out as a whole and sometimes as individual segments with little to be engaged or interested by.
There’s almost a sense of frustration when the explanatory title cards appear at the end to provide detail to the previous 100+ minutes. A time which would have likely been more emotionally engaging and interesting in its depiction of escape and expression for those with mental disorders and disabilities. Yet, even knowing this there’s still a sense that the film is rather slow, perhaps overlong, and quite disjointed in its jumping from scene to scene.
Due to almost entirely showing without much telling On The Adamant feels as if it misses out key information and context which could turn a slow, unstructured documentary into something more interesting and emotionally engaging.
Just A Little Bit Random 