Jeux d'enfants (2003)

Director:

Yann Samuell

Writer:

Yann Samuell (writer)

Release Date:

14 May 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

From the visionary mind of director Yann Samuell comes France's hit comedy!

Plot:

As adults, best friends Julien and Sophie continue the odd game they started as children -- a fearless...

Plot Keywords:

Game | Daring | Love Hate | Cement | Heart Monitor

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Guillaume Canet	...	Julien Janvier
Marion Cotillard	...	Sophie Kowalsky
Thibault Verhaeghe	...	Julien à 8 ans
Joséphine Lebas-Joly	...	Sophie à 8 ans
Emmanuelle Grönvold	...	Julien's Mother
Gérard Watkins	...	Julien's Father
Gilles Lellouche	...	Sergei Nimov Nimovitch
Julia Faure	...	Sophie's Sister
Laëtizia Venezia Tarnowska	...	Christelle Louise Bouchard (as Laetizia Venezia)
Élodie Navarre	...	Aurélie Miller
Nathalie Nattier	...	Sophie à 80 ans
Robert Willar	...	Julien (80 ans)
Frédéric Geerts	...	Igor
Manuela Sanchez	...	Teacher
Philippe Drecq	...	School Principal

Also Known As:

Love Me If You Dare (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
Mieux que la vie (France) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexuality.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

France | Belgium

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Japan:PG-12 | Mexico:B15 | Hungary:14 | South Korea:15 | Germany:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:M18 | Singapore:NC-16 (cut) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R | Philippines:R-13

Filming Locations:

Liège, Wallonia, Belgium

Company:

Nord-Ouest Productions

Trivia:

When Julien is at the cemetery on the day after which he and Sophie haven't seen each other for ten years, he wishes Sophie would just appear and sing "La Vie en Rose", a song by Édith Piaf. Marion Cotillard (Sophie) would later win an Academy Award for playing Piaf in La môme (2007).

Goofs:

Continuity: The first time we see the bus driver chasing the bus his hat falls off towards the left side of the road. The second time it drops directly behind him to the right of the middle.

Quotes:

Sophie Kowalski: Tell me that you love me first because I'm afraid that if I tell you first you'll think that I'm playing the game.

Soundtrack:

La Vie en Rose

Again, why I love French movies.

SPOILER BY WAY OF INTERPRETATION###### Most movies have one thing sinisterly in common with life. Both pretend that while people are good, life is full of bad things that happen to them which sometimes make them do bad things later. This is true, too, of villains. They are always justified by a bad child-hood or society. This movie is not much different. Sophie is abused because of her heritage/race (in French films this is allowed to be a background detail, in an American film they only mention it if that's what the movie's about in the first place, and even then they feel compelled to include a moral lesson about it {basically in order to deny that it is a facet of everyday life}). Julien's loss of his mother is his own motivation. But seriously folks the character's motivations are exactly what this movie is NOT about. They live their lives the way they do, not out of self-defense, but out of love of life. The ending makes perfect sense when viewed from this perspective. Do you dare to live life? Do you have unlimited control of your actions? If you did AND you had someone calling you on it at every point then your life would be as wild and nonsensical as these two fantasy figures. Wuthering Heights? Maybe. Romeo and Juliet? More likely.