Jeunesse dorée

'open your eyes and discover..' with this words began a song of the band 'yes' a few years ago, it could be the device of this film, the device for the two girls, who are the main characters, and a device for us the spectators. they are learning to see during this movie, and we, the viewers are learning with and through them. they and we learn, that life could be more, than tristesse. one of my thesis is, that you can appreciate ninety percent of all movies after the first two shots; in this case satisfies the first: an incredible establishing shot, a plan-sequence, technically and textual on the highest level. it shows you on the one hand the trist environment of the 'banlieue', of some town in the département 'hautes-de-seine', but it shows you also, because of the elaborating way this shot was made, the openminded curiosity of the view of the protagonist, because within the shot the point of view became subjectiv. so we are coming to another most important matter in making movies: the attitude; the attitude of the filmmaker is the view. the view at the protagonists, and this view has to be compassionate, tender-hearted, affectionate.

every good film reflects the medium, here through photography. the two girls goes on a journey for the very first time in their lives, a journey through France, to photograph buildings and speak with the people, who live there. this journey becomes a initiation and a deliverance, even because there is no cursory action, or very dramatic event. so the narrative plot is completely organic and natural, reduced to the essence; to apply ockam's razor. optically predominates fix shots in perfect cadrage, we have in mind the films of jean-marie straub and danièle huillet or in writing terms the oeuvre of peter handke. it is also a variation of alain tanners masterpiece 'messidor' (in a much more optimistic way), or wim wenders 'im lauf der zeit' (girls instead of men, much more optimistic also), roberto rossellinis 'viaggio in italia' (girls instead of couples, here is the term of salvation similar). the french knows the history of cinema, and whats movies are about, it seems since the day of birth. short: one of the best movies i've seen the last few weeks, which means a lot, in seeing about five films a day, a great director with a brilliant future..

It's a movie so simple that "clever" brains could take not enough attention to it. But, to me, it's a radical move up from all these movies (Cronenberg, Antonioni, Tarantino) where the only thing you feel is the hand of the director. The story of these two young girls finding their purpose in life by traveling France to take photos (of "strange" buildings in the countryside...) is very moving, even (or because of it) you feel a sense of "reality" in the two actresses. I think I'll never forget them, even in 50 years. The blonde one escapes all clichés you may expect from a "teens" movie. To be crude, she's physically attractive and could be a centerfold magazine. But, at one very special moment during their trip, she tells a boy that she can't invest herself in a relationship and that, in fact, had NEVER made love... In stupid occidental thing, this would be put in the mouth of a "ugly and unlucky" teenager. Here, it's said by a shy, though active yet-to-be woman, singing in a band, sharing family duties and making his dream (being a photographer) comes true. A very good movie, sliding rhythm, never predictable... Pierre GAFFIÉ