“Dialogue with life”, the troubles of a high school girl

You see there is no plot about adolescents who one bad day discover the bitterness of life. enough. The French director Christophe Honoré (in addition to directing his own scripts, he also writes novels for young people) does not avoid the tumult of controversy to deal with taboo subjects, in the antipode of a paternalistic and gloomy approach. For this reason, Dialogue with life tries not to look like the others, thanks in part to a good performance by Paul Kircher, who we believe is high school student Lucas Ronis, knocked out by the shock of losing his father at age 17 and his idiosyncratic relationship with his mother, whom you’ve seen, the very reserved, always wonderful Juliette Binoche.

This is not to say that Honoré — who chooses a conventional narrative approach only in moments altered by the second camera in terms of points of view (perhaps unnecessary, such as, for example, the use of chopped on asphalt on the road) — gets something out of hand in the footage. Facilitating the subjective voice and avoiding some repetitions would simplify the narrative of the protagonist’s existential doubts.

In this raw portrait set in a northern city, the film does not shy away from following well-known paths, especially sentimental and sexual. Her relationships with men are also considered part of that apprenticeship which, by force, by the law of life, will end up centering her compass, either for better or for worse, an option left to the judgment of the viewer.

The tone of the photo with a dark and pale color palette, as befits a canonical drama, with the contribution of costume notes (it is a long duel sequence in its entirety), places the character in his original environment. to show us the complexity of his personal relationships, with his older brother, with friends, and even with his mother. Perhaps the script is trying to make us believe that his alibi is more complicated than it appears. The disappearance of a very close relative is of course always painful, but, as the saying goes, “dead in a hole, alive in a bun”. It must be morality, there is no other. Deep down, what happens to Lucas happens to millions at that age.

«LE LYCEEN»

France. in 2022

Director: Christophe Honore.

Cast: Paul Kircher, Vincent Lacoste, Juliette Binoche, Xavier Giannoli, Christophe Honoré, Isabelle Thevenoux.

Drama. 122 minutes.