Movie theater. We saw the film “Their children after them” adapted from the book by Nicolas Mathieu, and here is what we thought of it

A successful adaptation of the book

Adapting a successful novel to the cinema is never easy. Even more so when the story spans several years. Here, fans of the book, which sold more than 400,000 copies, will be delighted. If Nicolas Mathieu did not participate in the screenplay, the Boukherma brothers, who signed the adaptation, took up the story almost identically to bring the whole thing together harmoniously in 2 hours 16 minutes.

We therefore follow Anthony, over four periods from his 14 to his 20 years, and his love at first sight for Stéphanie, a girl a little older and from another social class. In a post-industrial Lorraine where the blast furnaces no longer burn, we enter into the intimacy of families where disillusioned fathers have lost the job of their lives and where youth, burning with desire, search for themselves between desires for elsewhere and social determinism.

Lorraine, a character in her own right

From the first scenes, people from Lorraine will have no trouble recognizing the Pierre-Percée lake, bordered by the forest and filmed at its most beautiful, in summer. The next moment, it is the imposing framework of the Hayange blast furnaces which follows suit. Because it is here, between the working-class housing estates and the HLM districts of northern Lorraine, that the intrigue begins.

This is one of the great successes of the project: the film was shot entirely in Lorraine, over 55 days in the summer of 2023, involving 2,000 local extras. The Fensch valley, Joeuf, Yutz, the Snowhall of Amnéville and an architect's villa in Épinal served as a filming location. If the social context, against a backdrop of unemployment, alcohol and drugs, is bleak, the very aesthetic and luminous photography clearly pays tribute to the region.

It is also in Lorraine, and more precisely in Épinal where Nicolas Mathieu grew up, that the adaptation of another of his novels, “Connemara” is currently being filmed. Mélanie Thierry, Bastien Bouillon and Jacques Gamblin are in the casting under the direction ofAlex Lutz.

Gilles Lellouche and Paul Kircher: very convincing actors

As soon as the book was released in 2018, Gilles Lellouche asked Nicolas Mathieu to adapt his novel. Finally, he will have to give up, too busy with another (big) project: “L’Amour Ouf”. But he won't completely abandon ship since he plays Patrick, Anthony's alcoholic father. He bursts onto the screen in this dark role of a man who gradually loses everything he has cherished, down to the most intimate and deep wound: his son's esteem.

The other great performance is due to the main actor, the young Paul Kircher, a young hope of French cinema. Nominated twice for the César for The High School Student (2022) et The Animal Kingdom (2023), he blends into the touching and melancholic character of Anthony, emerging from boredom the moment he meets Steph's gaze, a love destined to escape him. For this role, Paul Kircher received the Most Promising Actor award at the Venice Film Festival.

The cast is completed by Ludivine Sagnier, the young Angelina Woreth and Sayyid El Alami, as well as Raphaël Quenard.

A quality soundtrack

Those who have read it know that music plays an essential role in Nicolas Mathieu. In his Goncourt, each period bears the title of a song of the period, ending on « I Will Survive » in 1998. The film remained faithful to this spirit by drawing on the same references as much as possible. Except « Smells like teen spirit » of Nirvana for the year 1992, whose rights were too expensive…

Difficult to restrain one's emotions during shots near the lake, one evening of July 14, 1996, accompanied by the charming voice of Francis Cabrel on “Saturday evening on earth”.

Memories of the 90s

With the film, it's a whole bunch of memories that will bring back to the spectators the age of Anthony, 12 years old in the film in 1992, or even quite simply of Nicolas Mathieu born in 1978. Panini albums, video games of the time, the 400 shots with friends to stave off boredom at the time when cell phones did not exist, the fireworks balls, the semi-final France-Croatia and Lilian Thuram's two goals in 1998…

In this rural France at the time of first love, everyone over 30 will inevitably have a little pang in the heart when nostalgically diving back into their childhood memories.