La Tête haute (2015)
Directed by Emmanuelle Bercot

Film Review

With her fourth feature, actress-turned-director Emmanuelle Bercot casts a critical eye over the French state's ability to reform persistent juvenile delinquents and concludes, somewhat like Pangloss in Voltaire's Candide, that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds".  It doesn't need a filmmaker to point out that juvenile delinquency is one of the most serious social problems France (indeed most countries in the developed West) has to deal with, but rather than ring out yet another counsel of despair, Bercot accentuates the positive and shows that there is hope, that France's criminal justice and social support systems have enough compassion and commitment to save at least some of the feral adolescents that come their way.

La Tête haute is a worthy film but its noble intentions are somewhat undermined by its preachy tone and a gradual drift towards forced sentimentality in its second half.  Bercot appears more concerned with turning out a feel good crowdpleaser than offering an honest appraisal of how things really are and her film ends up feeling more like soft soap than hard social realism, although it does have a gritty edge to it and certainly does not downplay the difficulties involved in reforming naturally aggressive teenagers.  The Dardenne brothers' Le Fils (2002) is a more challenging viewing proposition, but it has a depth and brutal authenticity which Bercot's film patently lacks.

What redeems the film and makes it a compelling piece of drama are the astonishingly true-to-life performances from the three lead actors, who include two established stars of French cinema who need absolutely no introduction (Catherine Deneuve and Benoit Magimel) and an exciting newcomer, Rod Paradot, an 18-year-old carpentry apprentice 'discovered' by casting director Elsa Pharaon at a technical college in Paris.  Despite having no prior acting experience (or maybe because he has no such experience), Paradot brings a dangerous raw vitality to the film that makes it entirely his own, much as James Dean did with Rebel Without a Cause (1955).  It's not a particularly deep or nuanced performance but it positively seethes with truth, to the extent that Paradot compels us to identify not only with his character Malony, but with the reviled stratum of society he represents, adolescents trapped in a never-ending cycle of self-loathing, violence and censure.

As the juvenile judge in charge of Malony's reform and rehabilitation, Deneuve tempers her uncompromising toughness with compassion, effectively symbolising the humane but rigorous system that the French state has developed over many years to deal with juvenile delinquents.  Benoit Magimel's character Yann represents one of the dedicated workers on the front line, and the fact that he was himself a problem teenager offers hope that one day Malony may be a reformed character.  There is a great deal in the film that doesn't quite work - Sara Forestier's 'bad mother' is no more than a facile caricature, and the amorous interlude which assists Paradot's process of maturity feels jarringly incongruous, directing the film down a sentimental cul-de-sac from which it never fully recovers.

The one thing that does work, and in doing so pretty well makes up for all of the film's other shortcomings, is the moving relationship that slowly develops between Paradot and Magimel.  The educator's concern for the seemingly untameable Malony is genuine and you can almost feel this working its way into the younger man's consciousness, beginning the slow and painful process of reform that may one day make Malony a model citizen.  La Tête haute plays the sentimentality card too glibly to be entirely satisfying but its heart is in the right place and there are enough moments of truth to make up for the sorry lapses into soapy contrivance.  In any event, the film's generally upbeat tone leaves us with the encouraging thought that whilst dealing with juvenile delinquency remains an on-going battle, the war is far from lost.

Film Synopsis

Unable to cope with her troublesome six-year-old son Malony, single mother Séverine places him in the care of a juvenile court judge, Florence Blaque.  Malony is now the French state's problem and over the next ten years he grows into an aggressive and unstable teenager as he moves from one institution to another.  Malony appears incapable of reform and it seems certain that he will end up a perpetual criminal and social outsider.  In a rehab centre, a man experienced in dealing with cases such as this takes Malony under his wing and does his best to make him a reformed character.  Despite the encouragement he gets from his teachers and social workers, Malony is still unable to control his urge to rebel.  It seems that nothing will prevent him from going to prison...