Mes copains

France

2008

26 Min

Color

1.66:1

French

Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
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CAST Sylvain Creuzevault, Arthur Igual, Damien Mongin, Lolita Chammah, Gilbert Begniot, Esther Garrel, Michelle Goddet

SOUND Luc Meilland

Cannes (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), BAFICI (Panorama), Locarno (I film delle giurie)

Synopsis

It’s a tough winter for young Julien: he meets up with his mother and she asks him to write a statement against his father for the divorce trial; he meets up with his friend Arthur and he tells him that his girl, Lolita, slept with Demian, another friend; he meets up with Demian, who confesses the betrayal; he meets up with his father, who warns him that if he testifies against him, Julien will be a dead man for him; he meets up with the beautiful Lolita and she makes it clear that, for her, being with him or with any of his friends or with all of them is the same thing; he meets up with his sister, who cries over their parents’ fighting, and asks Julian for help. No wonder that the film’s protagonist would confess: “I want to see the sea. Sleep.” At last, he makes up his mind and writes a letter to his ex-girlfriend: life is too hard and, without her, seems insipid. Bars and parks (and a precise, lovely soundtrack) are the setting in this appealing directorial debut by the young and handsome Louis Garrel, who is none other than his father’s son. —BAFICI

Director

Louis Garrel

Primarily known in the U.S. for his memorable performance in director Bernardo Bertolucci’s controversial 2003 drama The Dreamers, Paris-born actor Louis Garrel made his first onscreen appearance in the 1989 film Les Baisers de Secours (Emergency Kisses). While it was over a decade until Garrel would appear onscreen again, his comeback role in Rodolphe Marconi’s 2001 Ceci Est Mon Corps (This Is My Body) marked the beginning of a spectacular run that would find him working with some of the biggest directors on the international film scene and winning his very first César Award (for the 2005 film Les Amants Réguilers [Regular Lovers]). Shortly after portraying the male half of a cinema-obsessed pair of siblings in Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, Garrel stunned viewers with his performance as a young man who loses his father and subsequently follows his amoral mother on a hedonistic journey of depravity in Christophe Honoré’s adaptation of the notorious Georges Bataille novel Ma Mère. On the… read more