Basically, Cédric Klapisch's second long feature movie had known a genesis like "Duel" (1971) by Steven Spielberg. It was to be shot for the television and broadcast on the Franco-German channel: Arte. But it was eventually exploited in the French theaters. This film, partly autobiographic brings out a deep nostalgia through the realist vision on which it focuses. It's the story of a bunch of friends who are gathered for the waiting of Sophie's childbirth and they especially remember their memories when they were in high school: teachers, girls, drugs, demonstrations etc... They were inseparable and motivated by a strong thirst for living.
The movie is constructed like a long and vibrant flash-back, momentarily interrupted by sequences of the present moment. To understand the whole movie, let's quote the director's opinion about his work: "the action takes place in 1975, a year of transition between the seventies and the eighties, between a collectivist and individualistic time". If we don't really feel the individualist side, on another hand, the collectivist feeling is very evident. In 1975, society is divided in several faces including 2 significant ones. There are the ones who try to conserve a hippy attitude and the others, aware of the economic problems of their time and decided to fight them, notably through demonstrations where solidarity was a strong asset (rise of unemployment). It is precisely these economic difficulties, at the time considered as not important but which later in the eighties were to rise sharply, making the society enter an individualistic sphere with the evaporation of solidarity. Gérard Jugnot will clearly show it in his film "une époque formidable" (1991). But this transition is also made at the level of the main characters' mentality. They are presented as carefree and rowdy teenagers who will become conscientious grown-ups, the baccalauréat is a sort of frontier between these two worlds.
What makes "le péril jeune" so enthralling is that it is mostly filled with dialogs as straight as a die which often cleave through the air revealing Klapisch's great ease with his topic. Sketching his characters with a touch of irony and tenderness, he is supported by a group of young actors all remarkable and we are really under the impression that they fully blossom in their respective roles. I watched a documentary about the film in which the actors have excellent memories about the shooting. Besides, thanks to "le péril jeune", Klapisch made a name for Romain Duris (who was to become Klapisch's favorite actors), Vincent Elbaz and Elodie Bouchez and he contributed in launching their careers in French cinema. In another extent, it would be unfair to neglect the rest of the cast, just outstanding because most of the secondary characters escape from a tempting caricature (the headmaster, the teachers).
It is also useful to add that Klpaisch brilliantly uses his camera: to shot sequences of the present moment when the friends are in the hospital, he sticks it in front of them and nearly doesn't move it. Whereas in the long flash-back, his camera is constantly moving. Then, humor is well present throughout the movie but it doesn't stop it from ending on a dramatic note since we learn Tomasi's death due to the drug. Moreover, we leave the projection with a little of melancholy as if disillusions had eventually prevailed over hopes even if the very last shot shows us the four friends running with frenzy in the street.
Klapisch moves up a rung in comparison with his previous movie "riens du tout" (1992) and signs here, a movie that enchants us. This joy which treats the eyes is all the more intense as the director's forthcoming movies, "un air de famille" (1996), "l'auberge espagnole" (2002) will be equal to the hopes. At last, "le péril jeune" should revive good old youth memories to the ones who were students in the seventies.
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