Les Amandiers / Forever Young

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi: Les Amandiers / Forever Young (FR/IT 2011) avec Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Stella) et Sofiane Bennacer (Étienne).

FR © 2022 Ad Vitam Production / Agat Films & Cie / Arte France Cinéma / BiBi Film. P: Angelo Barbagallo, Patrick Sobelman.
    D: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. SC: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Noémie Lvovsky, Agnès de Sacy – collaboration: Caroline Deruas-Garrel. DP: Julien Poupard – source format: ARRIRAW – colour – 1,85:1. PD: Emmanuelle Duplay. Cost: Caroline de Vivaise. Makeup: Caroline Philiponnat. M supervisor: Matthieu Sibony. S: Sandy Notarianni – 5.1. ED: Anne Weil. Casting: Marion Touitou.
    C: Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Stella), Sofiane Bennacer (Étienne), Louis Garrel (Patrice Chéreau), Micha Lescot (Pierre Romans), Clara Bretheau (Adèle), Noham Edje (Franck), Vaccili Schneider (Victor), Eva Danino (Claire), Liv Henneguier (Juliette), Baptiste Carrion-Weiss (Baptiste).
    Loc: – Paris – New York City – Créteil, Val-de-Marne (interior of the Théâtre des Amandiers).

    Soundtrack includes:

– "Popcorn" (Gershon Kingsley) perf. Hot Butter

– Franz Liszt

– J. S. Bach: Präludium c-Moll, BWV 999

– "Parce que" (comp. Gaby Wagenheim, lyr. Charles Aznavour) perf. Serge Gainsbourg

–  Antonio Vivaldi

– "Me and Bobby McGee" (Kris Kristofferson, Fred Foster) perf. Janis Joplin
– "Les Feuilles mortes"

– "Guarda che luna" (Walter Malgoni) perf. Fred Buscaglione

– "Andy" (Catherine Ringer, Fred Chichin) perf. Les Rita Mitsouko

    126 min
    Festival premiere: 22 May 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
    Sortie en France: 16 Nov 2022.
    César 2023 : Meilleur espoir féminin pour Nadia Tereszkiewicz
    Finnish premiere: 16 June 2023 – released by Cinemanse - Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Joel Kinnunen / Monica Ödahl Åminne.
    Viewed at Strand 2, Iso Kristiina, Lappeenranta, 20 June 2023.
 

« Regardez ces enfants, regardez les crimes qu’ils commettent, regardez comme ils se mentent à eux-mêmes, comme ils veulent apprendre et ne peuvent pas, comme ils veulent faire le tour de toutes les expériences et les épuisent en si peu de temps, et quels espoirs pourtant ils portent encore en eux quand la lune est pleine. Je vous laisse avec eux, ils sont comme nous, ils ont envie d’être aimés. »

– Patrice Chéreau, à propos de sa mise en scène de La Dispute de Marivaux

    Unifrance: " At the end of the 1980s, Stella, Victor, Adèle and Etienne are 20 years old. They take the entrance exam to the famous acting school created by Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Romans at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre. Launched at full speed into life, passion, and love, together they will experience the turning point of their lives, but also their first tragedy. "
    IMDb: " Follows a troupe of young students at one of France's most prestigious performing arts academies as they navigate the ups and downs of art and love."
    IMDb: " The film is semi-autobiographical for writer-director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and is based on her experiences as a student at Les Amandiers theatre school in Nanterre in the 1980s where she studied under Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Romans. Her fellow students at the time included Agnès Jaoui, Vincent Perez, Thibault de Montalembert, Marianne Denicourt, Bruno Todeschini, Isabelle Renauld, Eva Ionesco, Laurent Grévill, Hélène de Saint-Père and Bernard Nissile."

AA: A honest, tender, humoristic and tragic account of theatre school students at the Théâtre des Amandiers. Because Chernobyl is evoked, that would mean that the year is 1986. Also another catastrophe is evoked: AIDS. From such dark background the passions of the young protagonists emerge – their commitment to their theatralische Sendung as well as their affairs of love. Engagingly embodied by Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Stella) et Sofiane Bennacer (Étienne), the whole team growing to a convincing esprit de corps. Their teachers are living legends, portrayed with unaffected charisma by Louis Garrel (as Patrice Chéreau, 1944–2013) and Micha Lescot (as Pierre Romans, 1951–1990). In 1986, a famous production of Chekhov's Platonov was mounted at the Amandiers, central to the movie.  From the beginning, the axis Paris – New York is essential, the contact with the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. The movie is clearly a labour of love for Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and her screenwriter teammates Noémie Lvovsky, Agnès de Sacy and Caroline Deruas-Garrel. The result is vibrant and aching. Also personal for me, since 1986 was my transition year. I was simultaneously still a student in West Berlin (a city severely affected by AIDS and devastated by Chernobyl) and already in charge of the programming of the Finnish Film Archive.