Screening: Friday 17 November, 13.45 and 18.15 NFT2
Young director Cedric Klapisch drew critical and public attention with his first feature, Riens du tout, which enjoyed an honorable career in France and got him a César nomination for best first feature. His new effort, Le peril jeune, recreates the world of the 70s, when young people still believed demonstrating was more important than finding a job and Kathmandu and Woodstock were an integral part of their universe.
Le peril jeune opens in the waiting room of a hospital as four young men await the birth of a child fathered by a dead former companion. Whiling the time away, they reminisce about the good old days of 20 years ago, when the five of them, still in school, fervently admired the exploits of their 1968 'peace and love' predecessors, frequently cutting class in favour of the neighourhood café and its pinball machine and enjoying love affairs while their contemporaries are still at the flirting stage. Two events change their lives: first, the 'baccalaureat' which opens the doors to university; and then, the presence of drugs in their midst. Suddenly, the unity of the group is jolted, the four boys who grew up to be the men waiting in the hospital stayed in school to prepare their exams, the fifth went his own way.
Although conventionnaly structured, Le peril jeune efficiently catches the viewer's attention. Klapisch has assembled a cast of talented newcomers representative (perhaps too much so) of the teenagers one could meet in the 70s, from the so-called 'baba-cools' to the would-be yuppie. Tech credits are fine. The film has obviously touched a sympathetic chord in the fortysomething audiences and has been quite succesful in France.
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