Le péril jeune
Encyclopedia
Le péril jeune is a 1994 French
film directed by Cédric Klapisch
. It is a comedy-drama starring among others Romain Duris
(Tomasi), Nicolas Koretzky (Momo), Joachim Lombard (Léon), Vincent Elbaz
(Alain Chabert), Julien Lambroschini (Bruno), Élodie Bouchez
(Sophie), Julie-Anne Rauth (Marie), Hélène de Fougerolles
(Christine), Lisa Faulkner
(Barbara) and Jackie Berroyer (Jo). The movie takes place in Paris
during the 1970s.
. They remember their youthful indiscretions during their last year in their Parisian high school during the seventies, such as demonstrations
, first experiments with drugs and women and also the contents of the courses.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
film directed by Cédric Klapisch
Cédric Klapisch
Cédric Klapisch , is a French film director.Klapisch was born at Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine. He is from a Jewish family; his maternal grandparents were deported to Auschwitz. He studied cinema at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle as well as at the University of Paris VIII...
. It is a comedy-drama starring among others Romain Duris
Romain Duris
-Life:Born on 28 May 1974 in Paris, son of an engineer-architect father, Duris studied arts at university. He was noticed in the street by a casting director whilst waiting in a queue in 1993 and offered a part in the 1994 Cédric Klapisch film Le péril jeune...
(Tomasi), Nicolas Koretzky (Momo), Joachim Lombard (Léon), Vincent Elbaz
Vincent Elbaz
Vincent Elbaz is a French actor. He has appeared in many French television shows and movies.His first major role was in the 1994 movie Le péril jeune.Elbaz received the 1998 Jean Gabin Prize.-Filmography:...
(Alain Chabert), Julien Lambroschini (Bruno), Élodie Bouchez
Élodie Bouchez
Élodie Bouchez-Bangalter is a French actress. She is best known in the United States for her role as Renée Rienne on the fifth and final season of the television show Alias...
(Sophie), Julie-Anne Rauth (Marie), Hélène de Fougerolles
Hélène de Fougerolles
Hélène Christine Rigoine de Fougerolles is a French actress. She is the daughter of Alain Rigoine de Fougerolles and Anne Saumay de Laval. Initially planning to become a beautician, she began to study acting at age 15. She later attended acting classes in Paris and briefly at the Actors Studio...
(Christine), Lisa Faulkner
Lisa Faulkner
Lisa Tamsin Faulkner is an English actress and television personality.-Early life:Faulkner was educated at Tiffin Girls' School, Kingston upon Thames.When Faulkner was 16, her mother, Julie, died of cancer...
(Barbara) and Jackie Berroyer (Jo). The movie takes place in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
during the 1970s.
Plot
Ten years after having left high school, four friends, Momo, Léon, Alain and Bruno meet for the birth of the child of their friend Tomasi, who has died one month earlier of a drug overdoseDrug overdose
The term drug overdose describes the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities greater than are recommended or generally practiced...
. They remember their youthful indiscretions during their last year in their Parisian high school during the seventies, such as demonstrations
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
, first experiments with drugs and women and also the contents of the courses.
Characters
- Tomasi (Romain Duris) is a rebellious, fun-loving teenager. However, after meeting Barbara's friends, he starts taking drugs regularly and quickly becomes withdrawn and self-destructive, skipping classes and spending most of his time in Barbara's squatSquattingSquatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
. He starts a relationship with Sophie, who eventually becomes the mother of his child. Tomasi died of a drug overdose shortly before the present-day events in the movie.
- Bruno (Julien Lambroschini) is Tomasi's closest friend, and the most artistically enclined of the group. He starts a relationship with Barbara, thus introducing his friends to the squat where she lives and the world of drugs. Because of this, and because he believes he could have saved Tomasi by being a better friend, Bruno blames himself for his death.
- Léon (Joachim Lombard) is the most politically conscious of the group. His brother is a deanDean (education)In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
at the high school, which causes some friction between the two, principally because his brother, having been involved in the May 1968 events, believes Léon's generation parrot previous ideas without knowing what they mean (a belief that is confirmed when Léon admits to not knowing what the class struggleClass struggleClass struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
is actually about). Léon is Class PresidentClass PresidentA class president is usually the leader of a student body class, and presides over its class cabinet or organization within a student council, in a grade school class presidents are generally elected by the class, a constituency composed of all students in a grade level.The practice of electing a...
, and often finds himself having to choose between fun with his friends and his responsibilities. He has an awkward crush on fellow class president Christine (Hélène de Fougerolles), but chooses not to act upon it because her preppiness is the target of her friends' ridicule, a decision which he later regrets.
- Momo (Nicolas Koretsky) is the son of a deaf-muteDeaf-muteFor "deafness", see hearing impairment. For "Deaf" as a cultural term, see Deaf culture. For "inability to speak", see muteness.Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was both deaf and could not speak...
bakerBakerA baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades...
, with whom he has a strained relationship. Although his father considers it obvious that his son will become a baker, Momo has more ambitious aspirations and feels trapped by his father's expectations.
- Chabert (Vincent ElbazVincent ElbazVincent Elbaz is a French actor. He has appeared in many French television shows and movies.His first major role was in the 1994 movie Le péril jeune.Elbaz received the 1998 Jean Gabin Prize.-Filmography:...
) is a care-free teenager whose primary interests are sports and having fun. He is somewhat of a class clown, which often irritates his friends who consider him immature. Within the group, Chabert is the only one who seems to retain his innocence throughout the movie.
- Barbara (Lisa Faulkner) is a BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
student who came to France as an assistantAssistant teacherAssistant teachers are additional teachers assisting a primary teacher, often in the same class room. An example for the use of assistant teachers is the German Assistant teacher programme of the Educational Exchange Service....
EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
teacher. She lives in a squat with a large group of hippieHippieThe hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
s, who indulge in heavy drug use (particularly LSDLSDLysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
). She soon becomes Bruno's girlfriend, but the two eventually part when she heads back to England.
- Marie (Julie-Anne Roth) is a friend of the boys' who has conflicted views on feminismFeminismFeminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
. While she advocates equality between the sexes, she at one point implies that being sexually harassed is somewhat flattering. She is very politically conscious, leading their friends to believe that she and Léon will eventually become a couple. Léon later explains that this very expectation kept them from ever dating.