Mauvaises fréquentations (1999)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Améris

Film Review

Director Jean-Pierre Améris followed up his critically acclaimed second feature Les Aveux de l'innocent (1996) with this slightly awkward coming-of-age drama, a well-acted piece that suffers from a dearth of imagination on both the writing and directing fronts.  Based on a real-life story, Mauvaises fréquentations offers a more sordid take on a familiar theme but struggles to break away from the tiresome clichés that beset many films of this kind.  The performances from the three leads - Maud Forget, Lou Doillon and Robinson Stévenin - are excellent but all three actors are burdened by a script that fails to make their characters entirely convincing.  Compared with his work on earlier and subsequent films, Améris's direction is startlingly cautious and has none of the flair and daring that we now associate with this talented auteur.  Mauvaises fréquentations is an engaging and thoughtful piece of drama but it offers very little in the way of depth and originality.

Film Synopsis

Delphine is a 15 year-old-girl who knows nothing about life.  Then she meets Olivia, a girl who seems to know everything.  It is through Olivia that Delphine begins to unravel the mysteries of adulthood and in no time she has embarked on her first love affair, with a sexually precocious boy named Laurent.  To raise money so that he and a friend can escape to America, Laurent persuades Delphine and her classmates to offer their services as prostitutes to schoolboys.  Delphine is about to discover some of the nastier truths of the adult world...