Le Plus bel Age
Those Were the Days movie storyline. No sooner had she begun to frequent the prestigious corridors of a class of hypokhgne than Delphine, a novice, saw the body of Claude, a brilliant student of the upper class, crushed at her feet. At the top of the staircase, Delphine had time to catch a glimpse of Axel, Claude’s lover. She does not know how to interpret the gesture that is engraved in her memory.
Did Axel want to retain Claude or pushed her? Has the girl committed suicide or was she murdered? In the wake of these terrible questions, Delphine is fascinated by Axel, whom she discovers that curious relationships also united him to Bertrand, Claude’s beloved brother.
Those Were the Days (French: Le plus bel âge) is a 1995 French drama film directed by Didier Haudepin and starring Élodie Bouchez, Melvil Poupaud, Sophie Aubry, Gaël Morel, Myriam Boyer, Marcel Bozonnet, Benjamin Mercier, Bégonia Zuazaga, Estelle Larrivaz, Sylvie Testud. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
Film Review for Those Were the Days
It is rather good, directed by Didier Haudepin! With camera movements fluid and almost elegant, at times. It is very good, but it does not transcend anything. Worse: it seems that by modesty she constantly serves the scenario. And as the screenplay is fixed, corset … In the discharge of Claire Mercier, the screenwriter: the originality of the matter. It has rarely been shown in cinema the bizarre customs of the great schools, supposed to furnish the nation with its future elites.
Polytechnic, Normal sup. St. Cyr. The hazing. The initiatory ceremonies to the tragic endings… In denouncing these practices, the writer does public health work. Was it necessary, however, to sink into caricature? The poor decommissioned (Elodie Bouchez) and the beautiful dandy mortifer (Melvil Poupaud) probably exist in life. But their crippling defect is that they listen to themselves thinking to the point of being constantly less interesting than what they would like to appear.
They are archetypes. Symbols. And there is nothing more inquisitive than symbols in motion. It dies very quickly, it is seen only occasionally, via video tapes, but, paradoxically, it is Claude (Sophie Aubry, magnificent) who appears as the most true character. She loved a moron, be it! She dies, killed by the crap, okay! But she dies in revolt, so alive…
Those Were the Days (1995)
Directed by: Didier Haudepin
Starring: Élodie Bouchez, Melvil Poupaud, Sophie Aubry, Gaël Morel, Myriam Boyer, Marcel Bozonnet, Benjamin Mercier, Bégonia Zuazaga, Estelle Larrivaz, Sylvie Testud
Screenplay by: Didier Haudepin, Claire Mercier
Production Design by: Michel Vandestien
Cinematography by: Jean-Marc Fabre
Film Editing by: Juliette Welfling
Set Decoration by: Dominique Douret
Music by: Alexandre Desplat
Distributed by: Rézo Films
Release Date: September 13, 1995
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