D'amour et d'eau fraîche (2010)
Directed by Isabelle Czajka

Film Review

Isabelle Czajka's follow up to her impressive debut feature L'Année suivante (2007) offers another sobering portrait of disaffected youth, with promising newcomer Anaïs Demoustier (Une nouvelle amie) once again cast in the lead role.  This time round, the difficulties of finding work and a place in society - the most pressing issues for today's youngsters - are Czajka's main preoccupation and whilst her film has some hard to overlook weaknesses it provides a timely reflection on one of the most pressing social themes of our era.  The main problem with the film is that it deals a little too lightly with its subject, its realism undermined by some unnecessary plot contrivances and secondary characters that are prone to caricature.  Apart from some graphic sex scenes, the film is tame to the point of tepid.

On the acting front, the film is beyond reproach, and whatever flaws there may be in Czajka's uneven, cliché-peppered screenplay are amply made up for by the compelling performances from its two leads, Anaïs Demoustier and Pio Marmai (Alyah, Maestro).  Both actors have a natural ability to engage with the spectator and subtly reveal more than is apparent on the surface.  Demoustier's character is frustratingly opaque - the script makes her out to be a contradictory and unsympathetic character, but the actress reveals just enough of her turbulent inner world to make her sympathetic and interesting.  The moment he first appears on screen, the hyper-charismatic Pio Marmai grabs our attention, again with another nuanced character portrayal that says more than perhaps Czajka intended.  There is a dangerous edge to Marmai's rapport with Demoustier, with pays dividends when the film switches from social realist drama to thriller in its final act.  

Despite its strong lead performances, D'amour et d'eau fraîche can't help feeling like a low budget TV movie put together by a company that couldn't care less about the issues at its heart.  The script lacks the attention the film needs to deliver a genuinely authentic account of youth alienation, and the direction is at times painfully lacking both in ambition and imagination.  That said, D'amour et d'eau fraîche is an engaging piece which tackles a worthy subject with honesty and more than a touch of barbed irony.  Isabelle Czajka clearly belongs to the promising class of auteur French filmmaker to have emerged in the last few years, and we can have no doubt that Anaïs Demoustier is destined for better things.  As for Pio Marmai, don't be surprised if he ends up in Hollywood in a few years' time.

Film Synopsis

Julie Bataille is 23 and eager to make a success of her life.  But even though she did well in her baccalaureate, she has difficulty finding a rewarding and well-paid job.  Her first post with a publicity firm in Paris turns out to be a disappointment, as she ends up being a general dogsbody, but her next job, as a door-to-door saleswoman for a publishing company, is even worse.  It is during her interview for this latter job that she meets a young actor named Ben.  They strike up an immediate friendship and when Julie chucks her job she accepts Ben's offer to accompany him on a trip to the south, where he earns a wad of cash by illegal trafficking.  What starts out as an idyllic romance is destined to end as a personal tragedy...