Class distinctions, raging hormones, bad decisions The title suggests hoodlums or gypsies. Thierry de Peretti examines a local Corsican
fait divers in a style that's part neorealism, part noir thriller, and all class inequality, adolescent hormones, and stupid violence. Aziz (Aziz El Hadachi) is a boy from the wrong side of the tracks of Porto-Vecchio, on the south end of the island. One night after an evening drinking and dancing in a disco Aziz takes several buddies and a girl to invade the unoccupied vacation home and pool where his father does maintenance. They swim, drink liquor, and make a mess. One, the chubby Jo (Joseph-Marie Ebrard) gets sick and throws up on the furniture. They also steal a handful of things, including a hi-fi that the Madame later says "wasn't new." The one valuable item is an antique rifle with engraved handle.
The owners of the house turn up pretty soon. When they find the damage the don't call the cops but refer to local gang boss Bati (Michel Ferracci), who traces the break-in back to Aziz and his father. Peretti is knowledgeable, astute, and subtle in his seemingly desultory examination of what the boys do, which leads up to senseless violence. Peter Debruge, chief international film critic of
Variety, is not far off the mark when he writes "If Larry Clark went to the French island of Corsica and made a film, it might look an awful lot like 'Les Apaches.'” Very true. The boys are always taking their shirts off, particularly the more chiseled ones. Two of the slimmer ones are sharp dressers, one has a girlfriend who works in a hotel but is more ambitious than her boyfriend, who doesn't want her to go to Juan les Pins for a seasonal job. She says she'll get back to him when he develops some ambition, and his reply is "I'd rather be dead."
Aziz confesses to the other (minor) thefts and returns the items. François-Jo (François-Joseph Cullioli) trns out to be more interested in selling the valuable rifle as a springboard to a better life than loyalty to Aziz. What follows is a series of fumbles, and closeups of the individuals involved leading to a senseless murder.
The trouble the boys cause is minor. They return what they stole. The owners aren't much concerned. It's what the boys do to deal with the trouble that makes things much, much worse. De Peretti wisely doesn't resolve anything, which contributes to the sense of neutrality and realism. He studiously works his documentary vein -- until the end when rather than pumping up the Larry Clark sensualism, he slips into early Coen brothers territory, only to slip away again, with a final ironic tableau underlining just how close to invisible the French-Moroccan boys are to the wealthy vacation population. The irony is tinged with sadness and wisdom.
The young actors, all newcomers, are fully committed, able, and well cast. This is too modest and unwilling to resolve anything to be either a great film or a commercial one but it works its little vein of detached realism well enough to leave a haunting memory or two amid scenes that may seem too familiar. An outstanding sequence comes late when three boys are driving down a country road in a truck. Background sound is ominous and the camera, instead of coming closer, draws away, conveying a sense of events unfolding outside control or good sense.
Les Apaches, 82mins., opened at Cannes in Directors' Fortnight, May 2013, and was released theatrically in France 14 Aug. with moderately good reviews (Allociné press rating: 3.4) and it was still playing occasionally at MK2 Beaubourg in Paris in October. This is De Peretti's second feature. Screened for this review as part of the Univrance-Film Society of Lincoln Center Rendez-Vous with French Cinema for 2014 (6-16 March). Public showtimes:
Monday, March 10, 12:00pm – EBM; Tuesday, March 11, 6:30pm – WRT; Wednesday, March 12, 7:00pm - IFC
In Person: Thierry de Peretti
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