Passe ton bac d'abord...

Not a strong film by Pialat. I have seen a couple of great ones from him, but this one is just too disjointed, with too many characters demanding our attention to work well. Working class life, with its uncertainties and narrower horizons, was a specialty with Pialat. His treatment of Loulou's family a year later would be masterful, but these teenagers waiting to write the ''bac'' don't have enough individuality to interest me. They go on a trip to the seashore that looks promising but not much happens.

Philippe Marlaud and Sabine Haudepin play the principals and they are good (pity that Marlaud died at 22). There is a story line involving a married girl and the boy she really loves that is more interesting. The feeling of regret over lost opportunities is strong.

Being one of the more overlooked and forgotten Pialats this took me quite off guard. This seems to be the point where Pialat really changed his style. This is actually quite warm, even though we're still, at least in parts, the objective observer. We follow the lives of a group of young friends in their final year of high school, who drift about, make out, have sex, get married, get low paying jobs, etc.

The first half really felt like a more low down contemporary French version of American Graffity only without the cars. It has quite a bit of charm, and the characters are quite the personalities. Slightly lost it's drive towards the middle, when they went on vacation, and the tension with parents, etc. was rather left behind, but it went strong till the end - though I must admit I was slightly disappointed by the final reveal. Anyhow, pretty spectacular stuff. And very unexpected coming from Pialat. 8.5/10.