LOL (Laughing Out Loud) ® (2008)

When Lola's boyfriend is unfaithful to her on his summer holiday, she dumps him and flirts with his best friend as punishment. But as their class prepares to leave on an excursion to London, the relationship hots up.

Director:

Lisa Azuelos

Writers:

Lisa Azuelos, Nans Delgado

Stars:

Sophie Marceau, Christa Theret, Jérémy Kapone

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sophie Marceau	...	Anne
Christa Theret	...	Lola
Jérémy Kapone	...	Maël
Marion Chabassol	...	Charlotte
Lou Lesage	...	Stéphane
Émile Bertherat	...	Paul-Henri
Félix Moati	...	Arthur
Louis Sommer	...	Mehdi
Adèle Choubard	...	Provence
Jade-Rose Parker	...	Isabelle de Peyrefitte
Warren Guetta	...	David Lévy
Alexandre Astier	...	Alain
Jocelyn Quivrin	...	Lucas
Françoise Fabian	...	La mère d'Anne
Christiane Millet	...	La mère de Charlotte

Storyline

When Lola's boyfriend is unfaithful to her on his summer holiday, she dumps him and flirts with his best friend as punishment. But as their class prepares to leave on an excursion to London, the relationship hots up.

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Plot Keywords:

smoking | mother daughter relationship | nickname | love | high school | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

4 February 2009 (France)

Also Known As:

Lol

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pathé, Bethsabée Mucho, TF1 Films Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Remade as LOL (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Somewhere Only We Know"
Performed by Keane

User Reviews

"La Boum" for the new millennium (kinda)

This French movie was recently re-made by director Azuelos as a Hollywood movie starring Miley Cyrus. Now if I were to suffer a heart attack while watching TV on my couch and I knew a Miley Cyrus movie was coming on later, I'd change the channel, even before calling 911, just so I was not literally found dead watching it. THIS French version appealed to me, however, first because I'm long-time fan of Sophie Marceasu. Few Americans probably remember that Marceau, when she herself was a young teen in the 80's, got her start in a movie called "La Boum" (which many of us saw in French class), which was somewhat similar to this. This film is a little more racy in its content (but certainly not very explicit), not because French teen mores have probably changed that much since the 80's, but because this movie focuses on somewhat older teens than "La Boum" did (sixteen-year-olds rather than thirteen-year-olds) and casual teen sex and drug use is taken more as a given. Marceau gets to play the mother of the teen this time, and what apparently HASN'T changed is that the parents of teens in French movies are far more attractive than they probably are in real-life and are way too self-involved in their own sex lives (Marceau's character is torn between her ex-husband and a new affair with dope-smoking narcotics officer) to be very effective parents. There's no doubt SOME truth in that though.

I first saw the actress who plays the daughter, Christa Theret, in a small but very sexy role in the recent art film "Clink of Ice" where she plays the dying protagonist's younger mistress. The actress herself is quite young though and was still a teen herself when she tackled this role. Her various boyfriends, however, all look to be twenty-something male models and dress like members of The Cure circa 1985 while listening to the Rolling Stones circa 1970 (while I'm sure most real-life French teens probably listen to the same Justin Beiberesque crap all teens generally seem to these days). Her main boyfriend, "Mael", has his own problems with an overbearing father who considers his schooling more important than the (actually pretty good)band he plays in.

There are several annoying things in this movie besides the adults being a little too vapid to be sympathetic and some of the teens being to mature-looking to be believable. I don't think even in France teens drug their sympathetic yet dimwitted grandmothers so they can have a party in their house (nor should such a thing probably be encouraged). And the gang all travels to England at one point, and their Brit hosts are all portrayed as unattractive and incredibly stupid--they can't tell they're being insulted in French and they allow one boy-girl couple to spend the night together after they claim to be long-lost cousins. Oh yeah, then there's the strange scene (prominently featured in the trailer) where Marceau and Theret take a bath together (but don't get too excited because they don't actually show anything).

This is no great shakes, but I'm confident it's vastly preferable to the American re-make (not that I'LL ever know. . .). Not worth seeking out perhaps, but worth seeing if it's ever released outside of France.