Première année (2018)
Directed by Thomas Lilti

Film Review

With Première année (a.k.a. The Freshman), director Thomas Lilti concludes a trilogy of medicine-oriented films in which he draws on his own personal experiences as a qualified medical practitioner.  After working as a doctor for many years, Lilti elected to become a filmmaker, although his first feature - Les Yeux bandés (2007) - passed virtually without notice.  He had far more success with his second feature -  Hippocrate (2014) - which revolved around the travails of a newly qualified doctor in a busy French hospital.  A critical and commercial hit, this encouraged Lilti to make another medically themed film, Médecin de campagne (2016), which proved to be an even bigger success, attracting an audience in France of 1.5 million.

Première année, the director's fourth film, serves as a prequel of sorts to his second, with Vincent Lacoste effectively reprising the role that garnered him his first Best Actor César nomination and helped to establish him as a leading light of French cinema.  Here Lacoste is partnered with another rising star, William Lebghil, with whom he had featured in Riad Sattouf's Jacky au royaume des filles (2014).  The two baby-faced actors complement one another perfectly, the juvenile fragility of Lacoste making for some sparky interaction with the more self-controlled Lebghil.  Despite its pretty anodyne subject matter (most of the film is preoccupied with two students either swotting for their exams or hanging out together), Première année was a surprising hit in 2018, attracting no fewer than a million French cinemagoers.

In common with Lilti's previous films, this third slice of medical life makes little attempt to break new ground and deals with its prosaic subject matter in a somewhat prosaic manner.  Première année would seem to have a limited audience, primarily students of medicine who will no doubt take some pleasure from the bittersweet nostalgia trip that its director sends them on.  Lacking in incident and somewhat superficial in its writing (apart from the two principals, the characters have little substance and generally meld into the background), the film relies almost entirely on the charisma and talent of its lead actors to prevent the audience from falling asleep.  Such is the on-screen chemistry between Lacoste and Lebghil that we scarcely notice the film's obvious lack of content and originality - it is one of those cute chalk-and-cheese bromances that you just can't help warming to.

It's hard to imagine that the film will have much, if any, impact outside France, given that it is so obviously targeted at a French audience.  This is particularly true of its political subtext, which contains a pretty scathing commentary on the dismal process by which medical students are put through their paces.  Every year, thousands of aspiring doctors and surgeons are hoovered up by the country's leading medical colleges, but only a small minority (around ten per cent) actually get beyond their first year, so exacting are the standards of selection.

Lilti is not the first person to have commented on this 'Numerus clausus' system that is manifestly such an appalling waste of both public resources and individuals' time and effort - it has even been cited as one of the causes of the acute shortage of medical practitioners in rural communities.  In March 2019, a law was passed to abolish the system in 2020 and bring about a long overdue reform of health training in France.  Première année may not have brought about this happy outcome by itself but it certainly helped to make the public aware of a scandalous state of affairs in one key sector of French education.

Film Synopsis

Antoine Verdier and Benjamin Sitbon are two medical students who, despite their different circumstances, are irresistibly drawn to one another.  This is the third time Antoine is beginning his first year in medicine, having already failed twice to make the grade.  Benjamin, by contrast, is a first timer who is readily daunted by the challenge facing him, although he is determined to follow in his father's footsteps and become a qualified surgeon.  Of the thousand or so students enrolled on the course, only a small percentage will qualify, and only the most talented and hard-working have any hope of success.   Antoine and Benjamin have little time to enjoy student life - both are determined to pass their exams and take up the career they have set their hearts on.  This means long nights of endless revision and an almost monk-like abstinence from partying.  The road is long and difficult, but for a committed student of medicine there is no other way...