Les Amoureux [Lovers] *** (1994, Nathalie Richard, Pascal Cervo, Olaf Lubaszenko) – Classic Movie Review 12,344

Pascal Cervo stars as 15-year old Marc, who is un-naturally fixated on his older half-sister Vivien (Nathalie Richard), in the 1994 French film Les Amoureux. 

Director Catherine Corsini’s 1994 French coming-of-age romantic drama Les Amoureux [Lovers], set in a rural French town, stars Pascal Cervo as 15-year old Marc, who is un-naturally fixated with his older half-sister Vivien (Nathalie Richard), who returns home after an eight-year absence.

Vivien is very attractive in that French gamine, er boyish kind of way. Marc loves her free-wheeling, independent lifestyle. Well, let’s face it, he loves her. Eventually, and perhaps luckily, she is revealed to be extremely promiscuous, pointless and annoying. And, and luckily, it finally dawns on Marc that she has no self-worth or self-respect, so he can stop following her about and living vicariously through her, and follow his own path and have his own life.

Vivien virtually prostitutes herself with the married town mayor (Olaf Lubaszenko), before eventually humiliating him publicly in front of his wife. Vivien is just a girl who can’t say no, except to be fair, to Marc when they share a bed together. Eventually, and luckily, Mark discovers that he likes boys.

Nathalie Richard struggles skillfully and gamely with the Vivien character, trying to humanise her, and make her charismatic. But playing such a capricious annoying character is difficult, and Vivien does get very tiresome, making the film draggy midway, as the viewer sees through Vivien and gets fed up with her nonsense long, long before Marc does. Marc’s scenes in his half of the film, though, are much more interesting, involving and entertaining.

Les Amoureux [Lovers] is a curate’s egg, with the Marc half making its mark strongly and winningly, partly thanks to Pascal Cervo’s appealing performance, and the Vivien half just gone with the wind, though this is the dominant half of the movie, and Catherine Corsini seems more interested in Vivien than in Marc.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,344

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com