Nos 18 ans (2008)
Directed by Frédéric Berthe

Film Review

Nos 18 ans is supposed to be a French remake of Fausto Brizzi's popular Italian film Notte prima degli esami (2006) but it feels more like a lazy rehash of several French coming-of-age films from an earlier decade.  A nostalgic smash-and-grab raid on Michel Lang's L'Hotel de la plage (1978) and Claude Pinoteau's La Boum (1980) is really all the film amounts to - a dreary, predictable saga in which the uninteresting offspring of dull bourgeois families make the transition from childhood to adulthood with so little interest value that you wonder if it's worth the effort.

Frédéric Berthe's mise-en-scène is as uninspired as the writing, although, despite the poor quality of the script, some members of the cast manage to acquit themselves.  Alas, old-timers Bernadette Lafont and and Michel Blanc are pretty well surplus to requirements and do nothing but look horribly out of place in a misjudged comedy.   Pierre Niney made his screen debut in this film, albeit in a minor role - eight years on he would be awarded the Best Actor César for his lead role in Jalil Lespert's Yves Saint Laurent (2014).  Nos 18 ans isn't quite as vacuous and insulting as Berthe's subsequent so-called comedies R.T.T. (2009) and  Hollywoo (2011), but it's pretty heavy going, unless you happen to be a sucker for formulaic coming-of-age fare like this.

Film Synopsis

In 1990, 18-year-old Lucas has reached the first important milestone in his life: he has finally come to the end of his last year at school.  He makes the use of his newfound freedom to insult his mean-minded philosophy teacher Monsieur Martineau, but quickly regrets it when the latter points out he will be conducting the oral retakes next term.  That same day, Lucas attends a party at which he meets the beautiful Clémence, with whom he instantly falls in love.  Unfortunately, Lucas forgets to ask Clémence her surname, and he doesn't yet know that she already has a boyfriend, Yvan.  But, as someone once remarked, the course of true love never did run smooth...