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RELEASES France

J’aime Regarder Les Filles explores teenage love and social class

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Primo and Gabrielle are 18 years old. She belongs to the Parisian bourgeoisie. He is the son of modest provincial shopkeepers. Dazzled by the charm of Gabrielle and her circle of friends, Primo bluffs his way through it, lies a great deal and compensates for the social (and financial) gulf separating them by using boldness and imagination. This is the storyline of Frédéric Louf’s debut feature J’aime Regarder Les Filles [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lou de Laâge
film profile
]
(“I Like Watching Girls”), which is being launched in theatres today by Bac Films.

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Co-scripted by the director and Régis Jaulin, the film stars young stage actor Pierre Niney (seen at Cannes in The Snows of Kilimanjaro [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robert Guédiguian
interview: Robert Guédiguian
film profile
]
), Lou de Laâge, Audrey Bastien (Lights Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
), Ali Marhyar, Michel Vuillermoz and Johan Libéreau. There is also a historical and political backdrop to the film, for it opens on the eve of May 10, 1981 (the day François Mitterrand was elected French President).

"First and foremost, it’s a love story and a film about adolescence, more specifically about immaturity and its disadvantages…" commented Louf. "Primo is a young man looking for his place in the world. As is often the case in adolescence, we feel comfortable nowhere and especially not in our family. That’s why, at first, he doesn’t try to stand back and take an objective look at Gabrielle’s circle: in his eyes, it can only be better because it’s different!”

“In fact, he is in no hurry to be defined by one milieu or another. All he wants is to be carried away by his desire. And that’s where he is caught out by his immaturity, because what defines an immature person is precisely not knowing one’s own desires!"

Produced by Les Films de Pierre and Maia Cinéma, J’aime Regarder Les Filles was pre-bought by Canal+ and Ciné+, and backed by the Ile-de-France and Centre regions. The film was lensed by DoP Samuel Collardey.

Also hitting screens this Wednesday are Michel Ocelot’s magnificent animated film Tales of the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michel Ocelot
film profile
]
(in competition at the Berlinale 2011 – distributed by StudioCanal); Portuguese director João Nicolau’s The Sword and the Rose [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(co-produced with France and Germany, unveiled at the Venice Mostra 2010 – see review – distributed by Shellac); and three UK features: Richard Ayoade’s Submarine [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Mars Distribution), Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block (Océan Films) and Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
.

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(Translated from French)

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