Aggiungi una trama nella tua linguaA former singer, who was drafted and fought in the Algeria war, is demobilized and wants to make a come back, which is not easy when you've been gone for twenty-seven months; meanwhile, his ... Leggi tuttoA former singer, who was drafted and fought in the Algeria war, is demobilized and wants to make a come back, which is not easy when you've been gone for twenty-seven months; meanwhile, his kid brother falls in love with his music teacher and is involved in very bad things. Arres... Leggi tuttoA former singer, who was drafted and fought in the Algeria war, is demobilized and wants to make a come back, which is not easy when you've been gone for twenty-seven months; meanwhile, his kid brother falls in love with his music teacher and is involved in very bad things. Arrested, he is released thanks to the teacher's evidence who provides him with an alibi before... Leggi tutto
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Recensioni in evidenza
In 1962, the end of the Algerian war, a former musician, Rego (Christophe Malavoy) returns home, and tries to resurrect his career. His younger brother, Antoine (Pierre Loup-Rajot, who got the César for most promising actor for his role), is in love with his music teacher. His goal is to win her heart. In the course of the film, we follow these two brothers' attempts at making their dreams come true, meeting new characters along the way, from the strict principal of Antoine's school (Philippe Noiret), to Rego's rival (Claude Brasseur).
The film provided an excellent overview of the state of France in the early 60's. In the year the film was set, the yéyé movement had just found its feet, through the release of Françoise Hardy's "Tous les garçons et les filles". Zeitoun made this tour of old France even better by adding hits of the time in the film. Even its title is taken from a song by one of the most important yéyé singers, Johnny Hallyday. We are shown the youth of the time dancing in proms to the slow "Tous mes copains" by Sylvie Vartan, or twisting to songs by Les Chaussettes Noires. Their schools, strict, with disciplinarians as teachers, as exemplified by Philippe Noiret's character. In one scene, indicative of that, he slaps a student for addressing him using "Hi" instead of "Hello" (!). It was these teachers that complained about the rebellious nature of the yéyé, a movement symbolising France's will to forget the difficult times of the early post-war era and move on with a youthful energy.
The establishment, of course, still held on. As previously noted, the Algerian war took place during the early 60's, resulting in the utter defeat of France. In order to restore its reputation, the French army started to use singers who had reached the suitable age for army service, like Johnny Hallyday and Eddie Mitchell. They let them continue their career, but only if they posed with their army uniforms in the single and album covers. It was thought that the youth would support - and forgive - the army if their idols did so. Rego, the film's singer-hero, was not one of the lucky ones, and his career went downhill because of his lack of activity during his army service.
So, Rego and Antoine symbolised two different aspects of the French 60's society. Their portrayal by Malavoy and Rajot was excellent, especially Malavoy's performance was very satisfactory and showed the will of his ambitious hero to restore his former glory. Rajot's acting was also solid, but I think his César win for the role was a bit undeserving to him. As for the others, Brasseur and Noiret were already famous before this film for decades, and their characters didn't have any special qualities to distinguish them from their other work.
Still, Ariel Zeitoun's directorial debut was a charming work, showing admiration for this special decade of France's recent history. From the music, to the settings, to the performances, everything was well-chosen and, coupled with a little bit of nostalgia, resulted in a film that left lots of "Souvenirs Souvenirs".
The screenplay tells the story of two brothers ;the most interesting ,that of the eldest ,who comes back from Algerian war ,is botched ;who could believe Marlene Jobert is an ambitious manager ? The same goes for Claude Brasseur. When a singer began his career before being drafted ,it was very hard for him to make his come back : Johnny Halliday and Eddy Mitchell are notable exceptions ;but the interminable military service (at the time ) took its toll and ruined many careers and true French rock died on the vine ;Ariel Zeitoun shows it ,through Sylvie Vartan's song,but he does it cowardly...
As for the story of the kid brother ,it's even worse ;only Philippe Noiret shines in his part of principal;music ,like it or not,occupies a tiny place in French curriculum ,but Gabrielle Lazure seems the only teacher (along with a caricature of French teacher) in the whole school ;her love affair with her pupil is given a mushy treatment ,and looks like a lite "Mourir D'Aimer "..
A memory to forget....
Lo sapevi?
- QuizFabienne Babe's debut.