Review by jromanbaker

I was looking forward to seeing this film, and the first half is extremely good indeed, especially on its observations that without being ' known ' or have people rooting for you you stand very little chance in either getting into the so-called literary world and into journalism. I could smell the corruption just by watching the screen. It was like this in the Bourbon era and so I feel it has been for a long while. So what went wrong for me ? The force of the story carried the film, despite the fact that the direction seemed very conservative. Fine images at times, but not really that spark that showed a new voice in the cinema. My mind often wondered back to the 1950's and the very long adaptation of ' Le Rouge et le Noir ' and the blandness of the direction then. And yet despite doubts I thought I would give this film a higher rating. Xavier Dolan was much, much better than the lead Benjamin Voisin, who often failed to convince me he merited the role of Lucien and I thought it a pity Dolan was just that much older for the part. Apart from him and the excellent Vincent Lacoste I found the casting weak and that applied sadly to the female actors. Where are the actors like Riva, Seyrig, and Huppert to take these parts ? I have thought this over carefully and that is my honest opinion. The ending after a very long film seemed rushed and the final scene was literally a washout. But all that said the first half is very fine and has a truth to it that castigates French society, then and now.