phew love works at full speed when Lellouche allows himself to push his maximalist and over-aesthetic approach to the limit, but always felt…
It is often said that every director aspires to direct a musical. And that’s probably also true for the blockbuster gangster film.
With phew lovethe French actor and director Gilles Lellouche tries his luck – in a certain way – in the tradition of the (very) feature films of Martin Scorsese, but by replacing the Rolling Stones and the rock of the 1960s with The Cure, Billy Idol and the synthesizers of the 1980s, then sprinkling a little layer of the cinema of Xavier Dolan.
The feature film has also enjoyed impressive success in France, recording no less than 4.6 million admissions.
But what is it about this proposal that so appealed to the younger generation? Already, young Clotaire (Malik Frikah), a little thug who believes he has everything he can and approaches the world around him as a limitless playground, accumulates confusions and misdeeds as a gamer would do today. Grand Theft Auto.
At least that’s the case until his eyes meet Jackie’s (Mallory Wanecque) one day. As tradition dictates, opposites eventually attract, and the two teenagers fall madly in love with each other.
Their adventure is nevertheless destined to take a destructive turn when Clotaire attracts the attention of a criminal leader convinced of being able to profit from his aggressiveness and his recklessness.
After an opening sequence as tragic as it is shattering, Gilles Lellouche devotes more than half of his film to the wild youth of his two protagonists in the heart of northern France at the end of the 1980s.
And it is definitely in this part of the adaptation of Neville Thompson’s novel that the director invested the most, accumulating strong images, dreamlike sequences, and very strong formal impulses, even going as far as to offer us a love at first sight choreographed to the sublime and timeless “A Forrest” by the group The Cure.
phew love moreover works at full speed when Lellouche allows himself to push his maximalist approach to the limit, over-aestheticizing with enviable tact his great story of youthful love, just like his protagonist’s first contact with organized crime.
Then, there is the rest of the film, where we find the two main parties (now played by François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos) after ten years of separation. One will try to make up for lost time by imposing his rhythm and his methods, while the other has never really recovered from the hasty end of their story, content to live contentedly, but without passion in the arms of a wealthy businessman.
The montage then alternates between the story of these two beings permanently occupying a corner of each other’s thoughts, but who are now separated from each other.
The last act also proves to be particularly brutal, while Clotaire resumes his escapades in the manner of a raw and unstoppable force, but which nevertheless only asks to be tamed by the chosen one of his heart.
If François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos clearly highlight all their dramatic intensity, Lellouche above all reveals the great talents of young Malik Frikah and Mallory Wanecque, in addition to presenting secondary characters just as well drawn, and perfectly portrayed by Alain Chabat, Benoît Poelvoorde , Élodie Bouchez, Vincent Lacoste and Raphaël Quenard.
The problem is that the master of ceremonies allows himself a change of direction in relation to his outcome announced at the beginning of the course which significantly changes the situation in terms of the vision of the story which has been hanging in our heads for more of 150 minutes. Such a deviation would have gone better if phew love had been careful not to start his frantic race on such a « flashforward ».
Everything sets the stage for a finale that is more sweet than bitter, at once simplistic, raw and concrete (for such a context). It is likely that such an intense, noisy and assertive story, constantly carried out at full speed, could only end with such a lull.
Without reinventing the genre or even replacing some of its most worn mechanics, Lellouche wins his bet by treating his project with the same fiery passion as that which unites his two protagonists.
In the words of the Beatles: « All you need is love ».
Although those of Louise Latraverse would have just as well summarized the whole thing and its aims: “Love, cry! »
