Les magnétiques

.... moody as duck

Loosely based on the Youth which came of age in 1981 at the time Mitterrand got to be prez in France after a million years of right-wing rule these are young men full of the sounds of Joy Division "Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders" practically tells you what the mood/mode will be here

The lead actor even has a passing resemblance to Ian Curtis and certainly stole his haircut

He is a Breton country lad who runs a radio station with his brother; never quite sure if that is bone fide or just a wish .... but they have friends who follow them ... ok it is real and named Warsaw after earlier name of Joy Division

The mum is not longer in the frame having passed away the dad runs a garage and the elder brother is a confirmed alcoholic and extremely self-destructive

Young man tries to escape military service and get P4 status (Psychology 4 ie exemption) but fails which sends him to Berlin where many different things happen

The storyline is simple there is a love/infatuation story weaved in too and cleverly so

But the overall is really about 1981 Tapes/Reel-to-Reel about the music out of the UK about "the young men, the weight on their shoulders" and the Zeitgeist attached

Filmed in very subterranean tones/hues throughout

EXCELLENTLY made it got some awards at Cannes in 2021 .... would highly recommend for music-lovers awesome soundtrack throughout and anyone old enough to remember 81 as an adult in France or elsewhere.

Sadness in the French provinces (filmed in Beaune-la-Rolande), the emergence of pirate radio stations, the election victory of President Francois Mitterrand and Berlin in the Cold War! Debut filmmaker Vincent Mael CARDONA really packed something into his declaration of love for the early 1980s. This doesn't always work, but it creates a tremendous pull that leads back to a time when people still had to do with cassettes and tapes.

There is also a complicated family history and an erotic love triangle. The music (Joy Division / Iggy Pop / The Undertones) is simply fabulous, although a little ahead of my lifetime. But I recognize the frustration in the countryside exactly because the provincial aspects of those years in France and West Germany are very similar. West and East Berlin (played by Leipzig and Dresden in the film) can also become welcome awakening experiences.

You will still see a lot of the young actors in the main roles (Thimotee ROBART, Marie COLOMB). By the way, Joseph OLIVENNES is a son of EUROPEAN FILM AWARD winner Kristin SCOTT THOMAS.

I really enjoyed this trip to the beginning of the 1980s, i.e. The time of my childhood.