Les apprentis

Les Apprentis is a moving saga of two impoverished friends.Antoine and Fred are unfortunate in all stages of their existence.Their financial lives are completely ruined.They are not at all lucky with their emotional existence as their girl friends have left them.What is interesting for the discerning viewer to watch is their peculiar camaraderie that allows them to go ahead in their lives despite numerous ups and downs.Pierre Salvadori has effectively created a tender tale of emotional calamities.He has elicited excellent acting performances from his entire cast.Guillaume Depardieu is splendid as gawky photographer Fred.Les Appentis takes a bizarre twist towards the end when neurotic Antoine tries to hide his emotions from Fred.It is impossible to find a parallel to this film in an array of cynical tradition of French Cinema.It easily brings to mind Claude Lelouch's Robert et Robert.The impressive soundtrack is capable of enlivening gloomy spirits.The strength of the film lies in the fact that it gives viewers ample time to make their own judgments

"Antoine" (François Cluzet) and his younger pal "Fred" (Guillaume Depardieu - anyone else think he's the double of Julian Sands?) live together in a glorified squat struggling to put a lettuce, or a tomato, on the table. The former fancies himself as a bit of a playwright but is amidst a fairly long barren spell; the latter - well he's a bit of a charming wastrel who is content to lie in bed all day as they both dream of their girlfriends, real or imaginary. Finally, they run out of what cash they did have and with eviction looming large they decide to rob the offices where "Antoine" works. That just proves to be a typically cack-handed affair for the pair, but also one that sees them rumbled by his bosses and facing a rather unique form of retribution - it's a martial arts magazine! Needless to say, this causes a bit of difficulty between these two men as depression soon hits "Antoine" in quite a potent fashion. Luckily, the boys have "Lorette" (Marie Trintignant) on hand to help steer them through this emotional maelstrom just as "Fred" succeeds in getting himself involved in a ménage-a-trois! Sure, it's all a little contrived and the scenarios do seem to go from frying pan to fire with predictable regularity, but there's a convincing and enjoyable dynamic between the two men here that the witty, quite near the bone, script does much to augment. In it's way it is quite an affecting love story depicting an inter-reliance based on a genuine fondness between two people whom you might reasonably think would do better apart. It hits the ground running and provides us with quite an entertaining observation of their lives that's well worth an hour and an half.

How to forget this beginning, with Antoine (François Cluzet), a "failed writer" (like probably many in the audience) writing endlessly to his former girlfriend, each time lying more, giving a version of his success more distant to his low reality.

The first phrase about Fred: "he has astonishing capacity to do nothing" is like a mantra, he's the best at that :)! The heist to Antoine's former job (and is aftermath), like Fred's botched attempts at photography to get to Claire Laroche's Agnes. Who's nothing special, but in the context of this professional losers, becomes like a diva, a porn star and an intellectual. The way he finally ends up making himself "useful" is weird to say the least :). Agnes's boyfriend acts and looks sick, a sexual pervert who could resort to anything. And Fred just doesn't care... Nonchalant as ever!

Scenes like the Karate instructor's punishment to Antoine would have been botched with most characters, not with Cluzet, who seems to be born to the role. He enters the tatami already cowering, knowing his defeat. Then he's a bit cheeky, like: "What are these suckers doing?". Only later, when he realizes that he's next, and he's going to be trashed... his look is just hilarious! Nowhere better applied this axiom that "the attitude with which you face problems precludes, or causes, the way you'll handle them". Or their attempt to "be nice" to the flat owner, Fred being "a student" (said with the same panache than most real life loafers :)), Antoine even pretends to be ending medicine (and has to suffer the consequences!).

Heartly recommended! Cluzet played Luc (the killer's best "friend") at "L' Adversaire" (2002), and before L'Enfer, making life miserable to beau Emmanuelle Béart which demonstrates what a versatile actor he is. Pierre Salvadori had just directed Cible émouvante, a similar story. When I saw this film I just couldn't stop making connections with Bertolucci's "The dreamers". But whereas Bernardo's dream conveyed no empathy for any of the characters, in here we like them both (and they're not exactly likable or have "redeeming qualities", like Tom Brooks (BBC's "Talking Movies"'s presenter) uses to say for criticizing bad movies.

IMDb's reviewer dbdumonteil is right at: "its tendency to keep an uplifting look in gloomy social conditions" and "focus on these two unconventional people, unable to adapt themselves properly to the society and to cope (...)".

The ending is FINE in the sense that there are no Hollywood changes, uplifting morales or corny music. Just life, in its endless complexity, like on Martha Stout's book "The myth of sanity".

Overally, fun and enlightening story about characters who just couldn't care less for society, but end up with us caring for them.

Nice characters, funny and witty, that movie offers us a nice time. Not a bit pretentious,, this is not a great movie, but it is well made, well acted and show a good complicity between the 2 main characters.

How often does a comedy film actually make you laugh out loud? There were several occasions when this one had me roaring. It's the story of two young men squatting in a Paris apartment and scraping a living of sorts. This is Frenchmen Behaving Badly.

Antione (Francois Cluzot) is the nervy hypochondriac with literary pretensions. His physical resemblance to Dustin Hoffman is remarkable, and he exhibits the same quirky neurotic intensity.

Fred is played by Guillaume Depardieu, son of Gerard. Whereas Antoine has bouts of self-loathing over this down-and-out existence, Fred is the genuine article. He lies and steals as easily as breathing, and he has refined laziness into an art form.

The relationship of the two men is the wellspring of much of the humour, and the pairing works splendidly. Their bitter-sweet partnership is both funny and touching. Their high point, the relief and elation after the burglary, is embodied in their early morning walk through the food market, the symbolic return of colour and prosperity to their lives. When the downturn comes, Fred proves himself to be much more than a vacant layabout, and friendship ultimately triumphs over illness and despair.

The Paris of this film isn't the 'ville lumiere' of monuments and rive-gauche cafes. This is more 19th arondissement than 9th. Rather than designers' studios, these real, gritty streets are lined with carpet shops.

A nicely-observed comedy of human manners and foibles, "Les Apprentis" has liberal helpings of warmth and charm, and its greatest blessing is, it's very funny.