This excellent film is decidedly not a fake, Disney perspective on the teen years.
In an unnamed, small French town, a group of bored, upper-middle-class teenage friends cope with the issues of high-school life, including the hungry search for Love & for Sex.
Director & writer Eva Husson has truly dismissed all pretense, & uncovered the real lives of these high-schoolers. This reviewer believes that the truth-telling is made all the more authentic because it is a woman who wrote & directed the film, not a salivating man!
It is crucial to understand that European children are raised a little differently than American children. That is to say, the European parents instill in their kids the belief that they should be proud of their bodies - confident, calm, & poised when they are nude. This is especially true in France, Spain, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Italy. Regarding France in particular, the phrase "A l'aise dans sa peau" is important. It roughly translates into English as "comfortable in one's skin." It is somewhat difficult to effectively explain "A l'aise dans sa peau" to Americans unless you are talking to American nudists.
Because of these cultural differences, the French high-schoolers are adept at fully undressing in front of one another & spontaneously going skinny-dipping together in a group. So if you don't like nudity, do not watch this movie!
I must praise filmmaker Eva Husson for her insistence upon one aspect of authenticity: All the actors & actresses who play high-school students are actually high-school age, not in their mid-20s; authenticity always proves critically important in a serious film.
At the center of "Bang Gang . . ." is a beautiful blonde girl curiously named "George." She is in love with a boy named Alex, but that's not where this story is headed. No.
One young man relates - after a wet spring - "The sun finally came out, and it began for us." Another young man announces to the group, "My mother will be in Morocco for 9 months". Bingo! Party spot!
But George - even though she is in love Alex - mysteriously follows her strong libido and insists on pushing her sexuality & her friends' sexualities to the very limits. With a house completely available for 9 months a "Bang Gang" is arranged, in other words, an orgy.
Sure enough, when the appointed day arrives, the teenagers gather & have wild sex throughout the house. It's as if a golden beam of sexual ecstasy is shining upon these young adults - the plain reality being that authentic eros is the domain of the young.
An interesting side-note: The movie is peppered throughout with news reports of numerous train derailments and train-wrecks playing in the background, which decisively imbues the movie with a sense that "all is not well" in French society.
And now, it would be remiss of this reviewer if I did not critique "Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story". First, where are the gay male high-schoolers? They are conspicuously non-existent. The viewer sees Lesbians, bisexual girls, & heterosexuals at the orgy, but gay lads are nowhere to be found. Hmmmm. Second, all the girls are Beautiful, & all the boys are either very cute or very handsome. Where are the nerdy teenagers? Where are the pudgy teenagers? Where are the homely teenagers? Where are the handicapped teenagers? Didn't they "make the cut"? By the way, do all French teenagers smoke cigarettes? It certainly seems that way.
Well, over the summer, there isn't just 1 orgy; I counted 5! Were American youths to participate in an orgy, this reviewer would expect the participants to pair up, having monogamous sex again & again, but that is not what happens in France! There is a decided tendency to keep switching sex-partners. Is this just a cultural difference?
With 1 summer & 5 orgies, let's take a quick look at the generation of French youths we're concerned with. Their parents internalized numerous real-life stories about World War II, undoubtedly repeated to them numerous times, and this entrenched a totally different Weltanschauung in their minds than their children. The orgy youth never had to fight in a war, get wounded, killed, or blown up; they never had to sit crestfallen on their beds with their heads in their hands when the German tanks easily skirted The Maginot Line, supposedly the impregnable French defense against invasion; they never had to be demoralized by living under the "French" Vichy government, which was a actually a puppet State truly run by the Nazis; they never got to quietly cheer on The French Resistance, courageously led by Charles de Gaulle; de Gaulle's determined, rag-tag forces bedeviled & plagued the German forces & the Nazis by blowing up bridges the Germans used, severing German supply lines, and murdering key German & Nazi officials; and lastly, they never welcomed American, Canadian, British, & Australian troops as they invaded France & kicked German ass, liberating France from German victimization & oppression!
So what we really have here with the orgy youth is a group of physically Beautiful, self-absorbed, bored, & extremely horny young people, with zero historical memory! With 5 orgies, & a lot of sex-partner switching, what do you suppose the fall-out will be? This reviewer is now silent, as I will not provide the spoilers.
I am not for a second implying that young adults should lock themselves up in monasteries regarding their bodies & their sexuality; I am merely suggesting that there must be a line where sexual liberation becomes "too much" sexual liberation. Perhaps serial monogamy is the humane, sensible solution which still has some grounding in individual Freedom.
"Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story" is an excellent film; but let us remember it deals with a very specific demographic & a very specific time!
