Atomic Age
L’Âge Atomique
Two young guys explore the Paris night: love, friendship, rock ‘n’ roll and melancholy in this seductive mood piece by new director Héléna Klotz.
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- Director Héléna Klotz
- Producer Alexandre Perrier
- Screenwriter Héléna Klotz, Elisabeth Perceval
- With Eliott Paquet, Dominik Wojcik, Niels Schneider
- France 2011
- 67 mins
- UK distribution TLA RELEASING
Teenage hipsters Victor and ennui-laden Rainer take the train into Paris, swig Red Bull, banter about the Stone Roses, and muse about what awaits them. Checking into a club, Victor hits on the girls, while Rainer spikily rebuffs the advances of a male admirer. Testosterone surges, bravado leads to a face-off… just another night on the town, quoi. Gorgeously shot by Hélène Louvart, this vivid, atmospheric mood piece-cum-character study does indeed capture the fragile, volatile isotope-like nature of a certain male age, as well as offering a delicately insightful take on the homoerotic currents of young male friendship. Rock ’n’ roll in a very French way, with shades of Romantic-poet spleen, Atomic Age is co-written by the director’s mother Elisabeth Perceval, regular collaborator with Nicolas Klotz (Heartbeat Detector), and there’s a definite shared family aesthetic in Héléna Klotz’s deeply haunting exploration of a border between realism and abstraction.
Jonathan Romney
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