Le plus bel age (Those Were The Days)
Didier Haudepin
France
Le plus bel age, lest anybody get the wrong idea, is not the tender age of the characters in this film. The desperate suicide of a brilliant student, Claude, during initiation at the legendary Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris provokes the only witness to question the circumstances.
She, a younger first-year student sees the affair quickly hushed up and an official explanation issued which attributes the death of Claude to a highly volatile nature.
The young girl find the explanation insufficient, and, deeply troubled by the butal disappearance of someone older and brighter, she feels guilty that is is she who is still alive.
She finds two names carved on a desk top - "Axel & Claude" - and they lead her to Claude's lover. Her search for the truth involves her in overlapping love affairs, and, finally at the climax of a perverse pact, Alex reveals to her the real reasons for Claude's death.
The film stars Elodie Bouchez, who won the 1995 César for Best Female Young Hopeful for her performance in Les roseaux sauvages as the girl who witnesses the suicide. Sophie Aubry is the unfortunate Claude. Alex is played by Melvil Poupaud, whose credits go back to 1983 and include Jean Becker's Elisa and Jean Jacques Annud's L'amant.
Didier Haudepin, the producer head of Bloody Mary Productions, directed and wrote the dialogue with first-time scriptwriter Claire Mercier.
The production company of Le plus bel age, Bloody Mary, has adopted a proactive policy in developing scripts by unknown writers. "We receive a lot of scripts," confirms Haudepin. "There are three scriptwriters in the company, and we all have different tastes. So there is no particular genre we ar loking for. For example, the multi-prize winning comedy Regarde les hommes tomber was a first work developed here at Bloody Mary by Jacques Audiard.
"We help with the re-writing and of, course, the funding. We use name stars - as with Jean-Louis Trintignant and Jean Yanne in Regarde le hommes tomber or the young, but already experienced Elodie Bouchez and Melvil Poupaud in Le plus bel age to get the best results."
Le plus bel age is a Bloody Mary/La Sept Cinema co-production, with participation from the Sofica Sofinergie 3, the CNC and Canal+. THe film will be released in France on 13 September by Rezo Films.
Prod cos: Bloody Mary Productions, La Sept Cinema, La Sofica Sofinergie 3, Canal+
Prod/Dir: Didier Haudepin
Scr: Suzanne Durrenberger
Ed: Juliette Welfing
Prod des: Michel Vandestein
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Cast: Élodie Bouchez, Melvil Poupaud, Sophie Aubry, Gaël Morel
Running time: 85 mins
International sales: Mercure
