Un jeune poète (2015)
Directed by Damien Manivel

Film Review

Un jeune poète, the debut feature from director Damien Manivel, could be dismissed as an exercise in self-indulgent navel-gazing were it not for the fact that it avoids the mistake of taking itself too seriously and instead throws up a humorous, albeit slightly cruel, portrait of the young man as an artist - or, more precisely, a young man earnestly trying to persuade himself he is an artist.  Talent is such a nebulous and subjective concept that even genuinely gifted artists sometimes have cause to question whether they possess it, so no wonder there are so many non-entities in the world, convinced of their genius as they offload their latest creative abominations into the sea of mediocrity that threatens to drown us all.  Maybe it was Manivel's own lack of self-confidence that prompted him to make this cutely idiosyncratic little film?

The critics obviously don't doubt Manivel's ability.  So far, he has made three shorts, one of which, La Dame au chien (2010), won him the Prix Jean-Vigo in 2011.  The lead actor in this promising short, Rémi Taffanel, returns to play the central character in Manivel's first feature, a gawky-looking young man who is so wrapped up in his search for his artistic identity that he can't help  looking like a visiting extra-terrestrial.  Certainly, the people he encounters in the sunny French town of Sète (a very different Sète to the one portrayed in Abdellatif Kechiche's La Graine et le mulet (2007) and José Alcala's policier Coup d'éclat (2011)) seem to think him odd, but then these are unlikely to be the kind to be well-acquainted with poetry.  Manivel's film prompts us to consider whether poetry is even a valid form of artistic expression in this high-tech, sound-bite-driven age of rapid-communication and instant gratification.  There's no point building a transmitter if there's nothing to receive what you are going to send, so what's the point of being a poet if no one can appreciate poetry?

Manivel's film may be a tad slight and somewhat lacking in direction, but it is not without charm, and its obvious (and visibly flawed) attempts to imitate the style of Éric Rohmer's films gives it an endearing gauchness that aligns well with its subject.  By not taking his film too seriously and allowing it the freedom to acquire its own offbeat identity as it was made (in a mostly improvisational manner during its rapid ten-day shoot), Manivel creates a film that is fresh and distinctive, as quaint and authentic a picture of an artist finding his feet as you could wish for.

Film Synopsis

Rémi has barely put his teen years behind him when he weds himself to the idea of becoming a poet.  Confident of his ability to enchant the world with his verse, he wanders around the town of Sète in search of inspiration, armed with the instruments of his craft, a biro and a notebook.  For the moment, Rémi hesitates over where he should begin his quest for ideas.  Should he start by contemplating the sea or by climbing to the top of a mountain?  Should he listen to bird song or set out to find his muse?  If all that fails, he can always take to drink...