L'eau froide

To answer the previous reviewer's question: Yes. Thus the title.

I had the same reaction to this Olivier Assayas study of two disaffected teens as I had to the director's later "Irma Vep", namely that it is a sometimes touching, often tedious film. There is a reason that the great early to mid seventies soundtrack stays in one's consciousness and invites almost universal praise among my ten IMDB colleagues below and that is because it is the only part of the film that is fully alive. Everything else feels slow and drawn out. Scenes tend to last too long and not do enough, like the police interrogation of Christine that takes way too long to establish the fact that she hates her father and that interminable pot/sex party which is where I'm fairly certain I would have pulled the plug were it not for Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper and Janis J. I will, say, however, that the ending is quite powerful. That empty piece of paper says it all. And I do not think I would have been as blown away by this bleak denouement without the fine performance of Virginie Ledoyen as the unhappy, angry Christine. And since Ledoyen was 18 when she did the movie, I guess you have to credit Assayas at least partly for her excellent work. Give it a B minus.

I really hadn't expected much of this movie when I saw it in Brooklyn last summer. But, as a coming of age story, it's one of the few ones that really hits home for me. Cold Water is just such a frustrated, restless film, neither condemning nor forgiving its self-involved children and inadequate parents. It's fair in that way, which is refreshing. I'm tired of hearing rich kids get a lot of breaks and tired of hearing the Richard Fords explain away their parenting mistakes.

Visually, it's not a terribly structured or naturalistic film, and maybe that's why it seems to be so right on. The frenetic energy and seeming meaninglessness of the individual shots really conveys the frustration that comes from having the faculties of an adult, but none of the powers. Those shots come together in these long, slow sequences . . . small town livin'. There's a seeming, but deceptive, plotlessness that drew a lot of recognition from me.

You shouldn't miss the party scene. Man, that brings back memories. Pure recklessness, and listening to CCR over and over and over.

This is an interesting film about two teenage French lovers, both from troubled homes. The boy has the typical, at times overbearing and at other times inattentive, divorced father. The girls' home-life is much worse. Her father gains custody of her just so he can commit her to an institution. Her mother is well-meaning, but has troubles of her own, being mixed up with Scientology and a violence-prone Muslim boyfriend. After the girl escapes from the institution, the pair rendezvous at a party/bonfire at an abandoned house (an interesting scene that takes up nearly the whole middle third of the movie); they then go on the lam together.

America/Hollywood has made many (really way too many) movies about teens, most of which are typically saccharine and very cliché-ridden. The French, on the other hand, often make movies with teens (especially teen girls) who are worldly and sophisticated beyond their years and typically involved in sexual affairs with angst-filled middle-age men. This movie really avoids either of these tedious moulds, and given that, and the general lack of over-the-top drama, this one of the more realistic teen movies I've seen, either from France OR America. Given the music, I think it might have been set sometime before 1994 (maybe the 70's) and could have been a personal story for the filmmakers.

French beauty Virginie Ledoyen is, of course, much more attractive than your typical alienated teenage girl, even given a startling scene where she gives herself a very bad haircut on-screen while her emotionally disturbed character is wandering around the house party (to the tune of Janis Joplin's rendition of "Me and Bobbi McGee"). Her bad haircut and surprisingly very decent acting almost make her seem like a normal troubled teen girl for awhile (at least, until she takes all her clothes off at the end and reminds us we're in the presence of rare, unattainable beauty--but then I guess that's a stupid thing to complain about). I know less about the young actor playing the boy, but he's very decent too. The adults in the movie are believably ineffectual while the teens and teen extras are believably inarticulate (it's nice not to hear the kind of precocious trendy teen-speak that American movies are always lousy with).

I've seen a lot of French movies about teens recently (or, at least, ridiculous sexy French teen girls) like "Noce Blanche" and "Elisa" (with Vanessa Paradis and Gerard Depardieu), "La Boum" (with a young Sophie Marceau), and "L'Ennui" (with Sophie Guillemin). This may or may not be the best, but it is certainly the most realistic.

It's early 70's. Troubled teens Christine (Virginie Ledoyen) and Gilles (Cyprien Fouquet) are star-crossed lovers. She has a problematic relationship with her dad. She gets caught shoplifting while he escapes. She escapes from juvenile detention while he starts playing with dynamite. She convinces him to leave for an artist commune as they walk into the deep woods off the grid.

Olivier Assayas directs this personal indie as he grows into a strong voice in French cinema. The male lead is a bit of a blank but that's fine for the role. Ledoyen cements herself as a promising new actress in this film. She has a gorgeous and open look. She pulls in the audience. I expected Gilles to do something with the dynamite. His side of the story is a little disappointing that doesn't go to its full potential. The ending leaves the threads untied and their relationship uncertain. These are two young hot people in love but the future is no happily ever after. It's left hanging and that's how I felt. I'm uncertain about these kids and this movie.

I would have thought by now I couldn't be haunted by yet another film about teen-age lovers and outsiders. Yet Assayas' lovely and bleak "Cold Water" is a valuable entry into this crowded, but rarely truly insightful field.

It's 1972. Touching on class, racism and other issues, the film follows Christine and Gilles, who live on the outskirts of Paris. Both are delinquents, indulging in petty crime and feeling outside society. But while Gilles has at least some care and support at home, Christine has a father whose only reaction to her confusion and pain is to lock her away in mental institutions. It's hard to tell where Christine's vicious cycle began. She's clearly unbalanced, but was that inevitable? Or has the act of imprisoning her, ignoring and drugging her pain, not only failed to treat her troubles, but actually caused them?

Assayas manages to take two lost, inarticulate heroes, and make us not only care about them, but identify and see ourselves in them. You don't have to have an adolescence nearly this extreme to understand the kind of inarticulate ache and anger of youth.

Not every moment works, and it could be argued that even at 90 minutes the film can feel too long for its very simple story. But whenever a film-maker takes an overused subject and finds something new to say about it, you have to take notice.

Frustratingly it continues to be unavailable in the U.S. on DVD, blu-ray or for legal download or online viewing. Given the film's excellent reputation, I can only assume that has to do with the expense of rights to the film's amazing soundtrack of 1970s music.