Cold Water

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'm not saying it's a bad film, but it definitely isn't great. It's awkwardly filmed, the actors don't deliver any emotion. It's somehow.... dull. For a movie which should explode with emotion, this one just doesn't deliver. It has a good soundtrack, a good story (though very common), but the rest is blank. Not even the lines are worth any attention. I understand this is a low budget, independent film, but unlike others I've seen, it didn't get my attention.

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.

Taking a low-key approach to events that are only earth-shaking to the people involved, Asseyas has made something beautiful and moving from the lives of teenagers not that different from everyone else. The inevitable tragedy plays out with complete naturalness. And the entire sequence of the party at the empty house, rhythmed by the music, is breathtaking.

What a splendid film. I was amazed only just now to discover the, oh so 70s set film, was made as recently as the 90s. Clearly the work put in by Assayas in his early films, where he clearly struggled against the odds and low budgets to get his feelings across have culminated to bare fruit here. Not 100% clear all the time yet the feeling is always right, we believe even if we do not understand fully, the actions and the motivations. Sadness, anger, loss and revenge lurk but a youthful energy raises this up and despite our struggles with the sense of the odd scene we find ourselves prepared for the ecstasy of the 70s music and drug fuelled trance like bonfire sequence at the centre of this extremely well made film. From there things become a little more predictable even if we find ourselves hopelessly in denial, like the characters portrayed so beautifully before us. Marvellous.