Cuando tienes 17 años

This movie is the best-directed contemporary gay love story I've ever seen. It doesn't over- dramatize the stigma that all gay youth deal with when coming out to themselves and others, but it doesn't pretend such stigma isn't important. It presents attraction and love and friendship and family and desire as the complexly interwoven mess that it always is, but is so rarely seen in media. It shows love as not the solution to all your problems, but also that it doesn't have to be tragic. It portrays traditional families charitably, alongside gayness - they don't have to be natural enemies, but they have different dynamics which are usually either ignored or treated one-dimensionally. Most importantly, this film describes coming out as it really is: a profoundly individual act, and usually played out non- tendentiously and in a narrative completely unique to that individual. Most coming out films I've seen swerve into clichés and predictable outcomes. Although this film's plot resolution is fairly conventional, somehow the characters' authenticity, uniqueness and vulnerability fulfilled the story in a deeply touching, yet unsentimental way. Bravo.

If you're not gay, you might think this movie is nothing special, the way some straight people I know thought Brokeback Mountain was tripe, not paying any attention to the repression central to that story. The moving qualities in this film are mostly a coming-out thing, so perhaps straight people won't relate, but there are glimmers here (and in our times) of that narrative holding enough substance to speak to universal truths.

In a small town in the mountainous Pyrenees region of France, two teenage boys in the same grade have an intense dislike for each other: Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein) who lives in a pleasant house in town and whose family is well-off; and Tomas (Corentin Fila) who is bi-racial and adopted by a farm family whose home is a long distance from town. Lurking beneath the mutual contempt is a sexual tension.

The beautiful location enhances the charm and depth of this moving film. In addition to the story of the two boys, there are subplots in each of their families that add greatly to the story overall. While the story of the boys' conflict seems to linger too long, the movie can be credited for being unpredictable and full of surprises.

The characterization of Tomas is particularly rich and filled with contradictions. In one moment, it is easy to despise him for his bullying ways; in the next moment, it is easy to pity him for his difficult daily life and the uncertainty due to a change that is about to happen in his family. Though not explicitly explored, he also has the difficulty of seeming to be the only non-white person in the small town.

The actors are both great in their roles as is Sabine Kiberlain who plays Damien's mother and is also a doctor. She's very nurturing in both roles and is also quite touching as someone in a crisis in the movie's second half.

By the film's end, one has compassion for all of its characters. - dbamateurcritic.

This movie was quite charming. While it was easy to anticipate a story of repressed adoration channeled in the form of antagonism, as is the case for many nonhetero- and questioning folks, it was very rewarding and exciting to see the two main characters come into their own, especially Thomas. Tension is a marvelous instrument and what I liked was that nothing in this movie was presumed or handed to you, everything took it's sweet time to present itself.

Beautiful character development, Damien and Thomas had great chemistry and rawness. To me, Thomas is crucial to the film, race is big (and I could go into that further). It was also not surprising that Marianne (Damien's mother) got such rave reviews. She was absolutely splendid, captivating the screen with her restrain, affection and depth!

Plenty of beautiful vistas to mirror the emotional range of all the characters... this IS a good film, one that I relate to and applaud, BUT in writing this, I am curious of the perspectives of those who are not accustomed to seeing these kind of romances/coming-of-age stories. So, I encourage any and all to see this, a movie that caters to its audience with characters who all feel, react and grow before your eyes.

In 'Being Seventeen' we meet Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein), who is surprised when his mother Marianne (Sandrine Kiberlain) calmly accepts his declaration of sexual attraction to a classmate. But why would she be surprised? Damien's candy-coloured rhinestone earring hardly shouts 'macho man'. But it is fair to say he is not the stereotypical film closeted homosexual: he enthusiastically takes boxing lessons from a friend of his army pilot father; and he is not even sure whether it is men generally he is attracted to, or just that particular classmate: Thomas (played by male model Corentin Fila).

The trouble with Damien's attraction to Thomas is that the latter bullies the former. But when Marianne, the local doctor in the Pyrenean community, hospitalises Thomas' weak, pregnant mother, she invites him to stay with her and Damien, and so the two boys are thrown together...

There are occasions when this film loses the way: Damien and Thomas are plainly the centre of the story, so sequences focusing exclusively on Marianne seem pointless and add little to the main story. But Kiberlain certainly provides a decent performance as the friendly mother who chats happily to the boys while serving them a glass of after-school wine (did I mention this is a French film?), before a personal tragedy means she must pull her life back together. Fila and Klein are given likable characters to play - Thomas concerned by his mother's condition; Damien the bully's victim - and also turn in good performances.

But the best aspect for me is the scenery: director André Téchiné gets the best of filming in the Pyrénées, with the endless snow-covered mountains (most of the filming seems to have taken place during the depths of winter) gradually giving way to deep, verdant valleys as the film and seasons progress. But it is not just a travelogue - this film is well worth seeing for its take on awakening sexuality.

This is certainly one of the best of one of France's great directors. The cast is perfect, and the two youths beautifully played. Their antagonism at the beginning is not uncommon to those who are still foreigners to their sexuality, and certainly not uncommon to youths far from any centres of so-called gay life. Their attraction is caught by looks that are touching, troubling and moving and the hostility to their own feelings, especially that of Thomas (Corentin Fila ) who lives a more remote life than Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein)who realises his sexual and emotional desires earlier, is perfectly understandable. I will not give away the plot, but mention must be made of the subtle and delicate acting of Damien's mother (Sandrine Kiberlain ) and her exquisite variations of emotions. This is the kind of film that raises homosexuality to a new level in world cinema, and I hope it reaches the wide audience it needs to raise hope, awareness and respect for a choice of love still a problem even in France, and yet no other country could have made this film in quite the same way. Louis Malle's 'Les Amants' which equally showed antipathy between the two lovers was considered a great breakthrough in portraying sexual love for heterosexuals. This film equals it in beauty of image, and its wisdom, and it is a crying shame it was not given the Golden Bear at Berlin. A masterpiece.