Living out of a small studio apartment in Paris that his working class parents pay for, a maladroit young man named Primo (Pierre Niney) is failing in school and falling in love. J’aime Regarder Les Filles is set against the 1981 French presidential elections, using the political backdrop to widen the class gap between our awkward lead and his bourgeois love interests. Primo’s impassioned, but irresponsible escapades elicit sporadic laughs and earnest empathy thanks to his sad puppy persona. Writer/director Frédéric Louf’s feature debut is a cut above the typical teen dramedy, employing awkward realism, intelligent camera work, and a carefully selected cast to present young, whimsical love at its least glamorous.
Primo’s bookish looks and middle-class upbringing almost go unnoticed when he sneaks into an upscale right leaning house party and steals the dance floor with unrefined, but fully committed confidence. With his act he manages to bed the beautiful, but spoiled Gabrielle (Lou de Laage) while simultaneously, and unknowingly, attracting her friend Delphine (Audrey Bastien). Instead of focusing on his studies or paying his rent with the money his parents give him to do so, he spends his nights working odd jobs with his new neighbor Malik (Ali Marhyar), and spends all of his mounting cash on impressing his out of league muses. His narcissism slowly comes to a head, but he allows himself to be blinded by young love regardless. As his left leaning thoughts and modest upbringing is exposed, truth becomes his downfall, yet ultimately his salvation.
Despite his wide variety of blunders, Primo remains a remarkably endearing leading man. Niney’s fragile frame and often bruised face has an inherent empathy inducing quality to it that is spot on for the role. No matter what selfish act he commits, we’ll continue rooting for that fairytale love that always seems just out of his reach. To help accentuate Primo’s natural awkwardness, cinematographer Samuel Collardey shoots much of the film with a static camera, allowing no sense of natural movement or sensuality to develop. All that is left is Primo’s clumsy animation, and a couple times, the graceless reality of two giddy youngsters copulating.
Louf has crafted a curious blend of immature politically set romanticism and awkward humor. Think de-stylized Wes Anderson; melancholic humor based around a morally slanted, yet likable lead (and even employing Andersony bold faced title cards to set the stage), but without any of the outlandish outfits, high profile soundtracks or flamboyant camera movements we’ve come to expect from the auteur. J’aime Regarder Les Filles may not be flashy, but it works, and it works well.
Reviewed on September 17th at the 2011 Toronto Int. Film Festival – Discovery Programme
92 Mins.
