Criticism of ‘The young lovers’, the great romance of Fanny Ardant

At the beginning of every sentimental relationship there is something of jumping without a net, of complimenting the established norm, of defying death. Even more so when, like the story it tells young lovers, the protagonist, a 45-year-old man, falls madly in love with a woman who has already begun the path of her seventies. Isn’t this an act that stands up to time, to the proximity of the disease and the expected end, which resembles the component of madness converted into the very essence of love sabotage, seen as an outburst that clouds and blurs all hint of logic and prudence? And if we talk about the commitment to unreason, it doesn’t hurt to recall or discover Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971), which was, let’s not forget, Cameron Diaz’s character’s favorite movie in Something’s Up as Mary (Peter and Bobby Farrelly, 1998), another unique thesis cum laude of love as an intoxicating metastasis.

In the arms of the mature woman

It is not Tardieu’s film, with a tricky and playful title that for once respects the translation in our country, a feminist vindication (its author does not seem interested in making us see that things would be different by changing the genres, since age is inexorable in each case), a self-help treatise on the benefits of old age, nor an act of justice in favor of new sensitivities. Much less a work feel good. the young loversabove all, addresses the concept of love fou from a warm, empathetic, audaciously utopian perspective, not at all revengeful, although it somehow inverts the roles of a classic like soft skin (Truffaut, 1964) or, better still, from the controversial and glorious Twinky (1970) by the late Richard Donner. He is also interested in approaching topics such as the reconquest of lost love, as idealized as it is splintered in the heart, and, in particular, the crisis of the middle-aged man and his fears and emptinesses, continuing with the exploration of certain areas already addressed in the interesting get me out of doubt (2017). If we get a little harsh, as it is my duty here and what I am paid for, we could say that Tardieu’s film has an erratic start and that it takes him a little to focus, to find his focus (he does not reach his promised height until his twenties final minutes), as happens with the most memorable loves. And that Melvin Poupaud is convincing as the lead, but the film is by Cécile De France and, of course, by Fanny Ardant. The graceful, radiant, powerful presence of the actress from the woman next door (Truffaut, 1981) impels us once again to step on known ground and to understand this small, imperfect and honest work (let the reader/spectator play by superimposing on Ardant’s face that of Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Frot or Isabelle Huppert) as a kind of celebration reverential of the mature French actress, that type of quasi-supernatural woman who seems to surpass the conventions of the rest of the mortals of vulgar flesh and scrawny bone, and of the poor wimp (it is also obligatory to summon Pierre Louÿs) who owes her, almost regardless of his condition sexual, tribute to a diva, to a miracle, to a pagan goddess, from here to eternity.

For suicidal hearts, without brake and reverse gear, and lifelong romantics

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DATA SHEET

Address: Carine Tardieu Distribution: Fanny Ardant, Melvil Poupaud Original title: Les Jeunes Amants Country: France Year: 2022 Release date: 10–06-2022 Gender: Drama Duration: 112 minutes

Synopsis: 15 years after their first meeting, Shauna, an elegant retired architect, crosses paths with Pierre, a happily married doctor, in a hospital corridor. She is 71 years old, he is 45. Opposite but mesmerized by each other, they reconnect and start an affair. Widow, mother, grandmother, Shauna needs to reaffirm that she is a whole woman after all.