Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, until that point, Abdellatif Kechiche had an impressive track record. Indeed, 'L'esquive' and 'La graine et le mulet' had both won the César of the best French movie of the year and ‘La vie d'Adèle’ had won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival so I was still quite eager to check his following directing effort. First of all, even though I thought that ‘La vie d'Adèle’ was one of the most spellbinding love stories ever filmed, it was still a rather controversial movie and not everyone really loved it (my gay cousin really hated the damned thing for example). The grievances against this movie were mostly regarding the super explicit sex scenes involving the main characters and guess how the guy started his new directorial effort? With nothing else than a super explicit sex scene not directly involving but still witnessed by the main character which made the whole thing even more sleazy… The weird thing was that there was no more sex at all displayed through the rest of the movie which made this opening scene even more pointless. Concerning the rest of the movie, well, even though it goes on for almost 3 hours, there was no plot but more problematic was that there was no character development whatsoever. Indeed, after 3 hours, who was Amin? Seriously, there was not a single moment during which he tells us or his friends what he thinks or feels. Sure, he was rather attractive and Kechiche obviously tried to make him poetic, smart and artistic (medical student, amateur photographer, lover of animals and obscure old movies,…) but the guy remained rather passive and empty and basically hardly interesting after all. There was also the fact that the camera constantly lingered on the asses and the crotches of all these young girls… Was the main character some kind of pervert? Or is Kechiche some kind of pervert (something that many argued ever since the controversy around ‘La vie d'Adèle’)? Maybe Kechiche wanted to show that all the boys, even the seemingly nice ones like Amin, are actually wired to look at girls this way and therefore it should be seen as something natural and not as something perverted. Maybe but it was still rather nauseating to behold. And, yet, there was also some good stuff. Indeed, Kechiche has such an intriguing naturalistic approach to filmmaking and he once again managed to get some really solid performances from a cast of unknown and first-timers. There was also something quite fascinating about this beautiful and effervescent community. Finally, even if it took way too long, Kechiche did manage to convey a convincing portrait of young people trying to have some fun during the summer. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie was a major step back for this director, it was still not a complete disaster and I actually think it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre.