À toute vitesse (1996)

Director:

Gaël Morel

Writers:

Gaël Morel (original scenario)
Gaël Morel (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

16 January 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A brief extract of four kids' lives somewhere in France. Quentin, who won a writers contest and now...

Plot Keywords:

Author | Motorcycle | Teen | Masturbation | Nose Bleed

Cast

Élodie Bouchez	...	Julie
Stéphane Rideau	...	Jimmy
Pascal Cervo	...	Quentin
Mezziane Bardadi	...	Samir
Romain Auger	...	Rick
Salim Kechiouche	...	Jamel
Mohammed Dib	...	Karim
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hasan Akyurek	...	Le boucher
Marie-Claude Bacon	...	Cliente de la FNAC 2
Ryad Benkouider	...	Ami de Jimmy 6
Nassera Benlaloui	...	Fille au Luna Park 2
Hacina Bouhamadi	...	Femme de la ruelle
Stéphane Bouillard	...	Racketteur 2
André Bouvard	...	Le flic
Jean Branche	...	Gitan 1
Christiane Charlet	...	L'infirmière
Silvère Demule	...	Skinhead 2
Laurent Diomande	...	Ami de Jimmy 5
Nicolas Dixmier	...	Animateur radio 2
Christine Dubouchet	...	Cliente de la FNAC 1
Anne-Laure Euvrard	...	La chanteuse
Frédéric Fargier	...	Ami de Jimmy 1
Fabrice Farison	...	Le pianiste
Patrick Geoffray	...	Skinhead 3
Estelle Granet	...	Anna
Abdel Guedichi	...	Racketteur 3
Kena Guines	...	La gitane
Sabar Hamai	...	La garçon au flipper
Frédérique Hurpeau	...	La mairesse
Alain Husson	...	Skinhead 1
Thierry Josson	...	Gitan 2
Missoum Laimene	...	Ami de Jimmy 4
Aurélien Morel	...	Le serveur
Paul Morel	...	Le père de Quentin
Youcef Ninach	...	Ami de Jimmy 3
Michel Petit	...	Client à la FNAC 2
Nabil Sadji	...	Animateur radio 1
Joaquim Sa	...	Le garçon de la petite annonce
Hanafi Soul	...	Racketteur 1
Patrice Thomas	...	Ami de Jimmy 2
Karine Valverde	...	Fille au Luna Park 1
Stanislas Vart	...	Client à la FNAC 1
Bernard Villeneuve	...	Le journaliste

Also Known As:

Full Speed (USA)

Runtime:

85 min | USA:105 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Filming Locations:

Villefranche-sur-Saône, Rhône, Rhône-Alpes, France

Company:

Magouric Productions

Soundtrack:

Come on down

Love: Four Divertimenti

Gaël Morel co-wrote (with Catherine Corsini) and directed this very French exploration of the manifestations of love in a style that feels more like eavesdropping on private encounters than on a linear drama. The plot is actually tightly woven around each of the four characters, at the same time giving the effect of four characters' viewpoints on love.

Samir (Mezziane Bardadi) is a French Arab from Algeria who opens the film in a tender frolic with his 'blood brother' and quickly witnesses the accidental death of the man he loves. He travels to a small town in France, lonely, needy, feeling like an outsider (remember the history of the French Algerian conflict) and encounters a young novelist Quentin (Pascal Cervo) celebrating the publication of his first novel with his best friend Jimmy (Stéphane Rideau) and his girlfriend Julie (Élodie Bouchez) in a dance bar. Samir and Quentin make eye contact and soon a brief assignation outside the club leads to a kiss that the vulnerable Samir views as a sign of love but that Quentin views as strange but as possible content for his next novel.

Quentin loves Julie, Julie loves Quentin, but has an eye on Quentin's best friend Jimmy, a lad faithful to his friendship with Quentin to the point of fending off Julie's enamourment. But when Quentin and Samir begin spending extended periods of time together (Samir longing for a physical relationship, Quentin refusing but intent on gathering information for his novel), affinities are tested. Quentin departs for Paris to write, Jimmy and Julie begin a lusty affair, and Samir feels again deserted by a lover. Samir is attacked by gay bashers and defended by Quentin who in the course of the fight sustains a head injury, an injury at first easily resolved but one that later leads to tragedy. Quentin returns from Paris to discover Julie has found love with Jimmy and while Samir's obsession with Quentin races at the new availability of Quentin as a partner, Quentin is disgusted and returns to his career as a writer in Paris and the story comes to a protracted ending with a series of sad incidents: Quentin, the core of each of the love stories remains aloof, dedicated to his growing fame as a writer and gleaning the events as fodder for his assent to literary fame.

The stories are bound with threads if same- gender love, homophobia, human frailty and need. The actors are all beautiful for the eye and render tender performances. The countryside of France is exquisitely captured by cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie and director Gaël Morel manages to weave these little stories in a conversational, simple manner that appeal to the heart and the eye. For some the film may seem rambling and disconnected and unfairly compared to 'The Wild Reeds', but Morel has a sensitive, gentle manner in setting a mood that allows it to flow like a stroll through the flowering woods of young passions. Recommended. Grady Harp