La Crème de la crème (2014)
Directed by Kim Chapiron

Film Review

With his first two features, the lurid horror flick Sheitan (2006) and grim prison drama Dog Pound (2010), director Kim Chapiron earned his spurs as the new bad boy of French cinema.  His third film, a saucy exposé of the naughty goings on within the hallowed walls of France's top business school, could have been his most provocative yet, but somehow Chapiron's capacity to shock and surprise seems to have waned, so what we get is a film with a massive crisis of identity, an ungainly mix of teen movie, crime drama and awkwardly sentimental dramedy.  La Crème de la crème is far from being a complete write-off but lacking a well-structured narrative and credible characters, it falls way short of your expectations and, in common with its director's previous two films, ends up being a somewhat half-hearted and gauche attempt to unpick the psyche of today's youth.

Chapiron's portrayal of what has become popularly known as 'Generation Y' (the post-post babyboomers) is far from flattering - sexually precocious narcissists who, despite having a full mastery of sexual technique (thanks to the internet and late-night TV shows) appear completely retarded when it comes to forming meaningful relationships.  The privileged elite that feature in La Crème de la crème represent perhaps the least sympathetic stratum of society Chapiron could have focused his critical gaze on, and the main challenge that he and his co-screenwriter Noé Debré faced was making their ensemble of egoistical 'Hooray Henry' protagonists human, let alone sympathetic.  Despite their best efforts, and despite some very commendable work on the acting front (Alice Isaaz, Jean-Baptiste Lafarge and Thomas Blumenthal are undeniably excellent - all three are names to watch out for), the characters still fail to be convincing.

The comicbook characterisation and lack of a coherent narrative are only two of the script's flaws.  Another is its attempt to pass off borrowed ideas or tired old platitudes as stonkingly original observations when they are anything but.  Glibly reeled out phrases like 'everything is for sale' or 'the laws of the market apply to love' would have been less wearisome if they had been meant in a more ironic vein, but, alas, irony does not appear to be Chapiron's strongest suit.  For a film that promotes itself as something along the lines of an unfettered libertine romp it ends up following a depressingly familiar Gallic rom-com trajectory, ending up in a deluge of sentiment that is slightly harder to stomach than the film's occasional flirtations with full-on erotica.  La Crème de la crème deserves some credit for at least trying to engage with a generation which most of us old fogies (i.e. anyone over the age of 30) find hard to comprehend but, lacking the courage of its convictions, as well as any real insight, it fails to avoid being the cinematic equivalent of an éjaculation précoce (if you'll pardon the French) - a decent build-up that promises a Hell of a lot but only ends in soggy disappointment.

Film Synopsis

Dan, Kelliah and Louis are three students at one of France's most important business schools.  These young people are being moulded into the elite of tomorrow and are ready to put what they have learned into practice.  When they realise that market forces apply to relations between boys and girls the three friends set out to transform their campus into a place of study and experimentation.  The cream of French youth has fun taking advantage of its privileged position, selling sex for profit.  Everything, it seems, can be bought and sold - but to what extent..?