Review of Youth in Revolt (2009) by Chads. — 08 Jan 2010

In the referenced film "A bit de souffle", a fugitive on the lam, Michel Poiccard(Jean-Paul Belmondo), hunts through the newspaper for coverage of the motorcycle cop he had recently shot to death, because that's what a felon would do back in 1959 to stay informed.

But it's not there, yet, so Michel reconfigures the pages of media ephemera for a slapdash shoeshine. Half-a-century later, there's no paper to crush after Nick Twist(Michael Cera) becomes an accidental arsonist, as "Youth in Revolt" pays homage to "A bout de souffle" without being slavishly imitative about it(i.

E. it doesn't self-consciously refer to the old media so prevalent in the French New Wave classic). Known as "Breathless" to the English-speaking world, Nick becomes Belmondo to impress Sheeni(Portia Doubleday), who improbably lives in a trailer park and shares his geeky passion for old movies.

Whereas Michel had his persona molded by watching Humphrey Bogart movies, Nick, too, creates an alter-ego, and makes himself more attractive to his own modern-day Patricia Franchini(Jean Seberg). When the virgin manages to seduce Sheeni in a private school dorm room, he does so with the help of Francois, as both his masculine(the alter-ego) and feminine(himself) sides work in tandem to ingratitate the reconstructed self into her bed.

(Six years following "A bout de souffle", this filmmaker made "Masculin/feminin".) Sharing, perhaps, the same deadpan comic sensibility as Wes Anderson's "Rushmore", both serious-minded comedies demonstrate how a taste in the vintage arts can lead to a loveless existence.

(Max was into British Invasion rock.) To Nick's amazing fortune, he meets an old soul like himself, who just happens to know that "Tokyo Story" was an Ozu film, not Kurosawa. In the film's best joke, this careless cineaste probably thinks "Breathless" was directed by Francois Truffaut.