Nés en 68 (2008) - film review

In 1968, Catherine, Yves and Hervé are students in Paris, politically active and willing participants in the turbulent events of May.  Driven by anti-capitalist idealism, they join a group  which sets up a community on an abandoned farm in Lot.  The three friends live an idyllic life at first, enjoying their newfound freedom outside the crypto-fascist bourgeois system, but soon their differing ideals and aspirations begin to drive them apart...

Nés en 68 marks a radical departure for the talented writer-director team Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, who had previously scored notable successes with their highly innovative comedies Drôle de Félix (2000) and Crustacés et coquillages (2005).  The film attempts to depict the major changes in French society, from May 1968 to the late 1980s through the shared experiences of a group of friends, making a dubious connection between the era of free love and the AIDS epidemic that followed.  Whilst there is some merit in the concept, the film’s obvious budgetary limitations prevent it from realising anything like its full potential and the film feels shallow and prone to cliché.  Ducastel and Martineau’s writing and direction are inferior to their previous productions, but what most lets the film down are the performances which are generally lacking in conviction and scupper what might have been a great piece of drama.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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