L'élève

What a great story. An apparently very rich family living in a luxurious French manor, hire a tutor for their son who is a genius..... I was about to divulge too much about that movie and eventually kill the suspense for you... Incredible actors and great subject. I saw Vincent Cassel for the first time in "La Haine". I live in Los Angeles and I did not know that Vincent was the son of Jean Pierre Cassel. In "la Haine", I thought that Vincent Cassel was not a professional actor but a real gang member who had been hired to play in "la Haine" and would never be seen in another movie.(he was excellent too) When I saw L'Eleve and recognized Vincent Cassel as the main actor I could not believe he was the same actor than the one in "La Haine". What a performance. What a great actor!!! More than real as a gang member in "La Haine" and absolutely convincing as a well educated tutor in "l'eleve"

..which features ,like "the turn of the screw" -which Jack Clayton adapted for the screen under the title "the innocents" (1961)-, a private tutor and a child .But unlike Clayton's unforgettable movie,there is nothing supernatural here.

The film begins quite well,in a castle where ruined aristocrats eat macaroni in porcelaine .The young actor shines as the whizz kid who knows Latin grammar by heart and never had one friend before his teacher came.Particularly successful is the night scene which displays the child's strange culinary preparations.

But when the family has to leave the desirable castle,it's downhill and even the ending -which is not even faithful to James- does not redeem "l'élève".The film becomes a hodgepodge (hotchpotch) which fails totally to convince:from the ball with the old contessa to the French cancan in a brothel,what nonsense.

Fair-haired (dyed) Vincent Cassel is rather ugly,and is outshadowed by his young co-star.

A true delicacy of French cinema. Not many films have the touch and manage such internal reflexion and beauty such as this one. It reminds us of one of Balzac's or Victor Hugo's best novels, taken to the screen by a magnificent director.