As if echoing their preoccupations with friendship and love, teenagers from a Paris suburb meet to rehearse the play, The Game of Love and Chance, which they are studying in their French class. The spoken word, placed in the centre of teenage power relationships, is the meeting point between the language of 18th-century theatre and that of youngsters in the 2000s. Drawing on Marivaux’s text, Kechiche re-explores the reality of social determinism for these youngsters from working-class neighbourhoods. True to his liking for working with amateur actors, this essential film by Kechiche also marks the revelation of budding actors: Sara Forestier, Sabrina Ouazani and Rachid Hami. LL
SCREENING
KATORZA
TUE 19 > 8pm, with Emna Mrabet, lecturer at Paris 8 and author of Le cinéma d’Abdellatif Kechiche.
