Jeanne et le garçon formidable (1998)
Directed by Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau

Film Review

The musical was a genre that had disappeared from French cinema by the mid-1990s and it is only recently that there has been a revival in its popularity, following the success of Christophe Honoré's Les Chansons d'amour (2007).  Released in 1998, Jeanne et le garçon formidable was a brave, some might say reckless, attempt by first time directors Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau to apply the musical format to one of the most topical and serious themes of the day, namely society's attitudes towards the AIDS epidemic.  Having worked with Jacques Demy as an assistant on his final film, Trois places pour le 26 (1988), Ducastel was well-placed to offer an affectionate homage to Demy's distinctive style of musical, which sometimes dressed grim subjects up as kitsch musical fairytales.

Jeanne et le garçon formidable is one of those unfortunate films that has its heart in the right place but somehow falls down in the execution.  It deserves credit for treating an issue as sensitive as AIDS in a highly innovative and compassionate way, without drowning in a sea of wearisome emotionality.  It boasts some impressive performances from its lead actors, Virginie Ledoyen and Mathieu Demy (the son of Jacques Demy), and supports, Jacques Bonnaffé and Valérie Bonneton.  It's an energetic and vibrant piece of cinema, instantly redolent of those great films by Demy that inspired it, but, likeable and courageous as it is, the film is painfully lacking in substance and ends up looking like the final nail in the coffin of a genre that has well and truly had its day.

The film's chief miscreant is a script that serves up the most unconvincing, cliché sodden narrative inhabited by stereotypical characters that scarcely make it into two dimensions.  This would have been forgiven were it not for the haphazard plot digressions that take us away from the main story for no apparent reason, often with a burst of bad taste and a song with the most excruciating lyrics.  The first musical number (a bunch of black office cleaners belly-aching about their work and France's immigration policy) comes as such a shock you wonder if the projectionist carelessly mixed up the reels.  Later, there's a weird musical number set in a lavatory that has a plumber thanking his lucky stars that the toilet gets bunged up so often.  At the end of the film there's a sprightly little number praising consumerism and credit cards which can hardly fail to turn anyone's stomach, even if it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.

The totally unimaginative plot follows the conventional boy-meets-girl, girl-loses-boy scenario to a tee but comes unstuck in the final act which leaves you with the impression that Ducastel and Martineau couldn't be bothered to finish the film properly.  Commendable though the performances are (Ledoyen has never looked more spunky and desirable, Demy doubly so), it's hard to engage with the characters when they are handled in such a dispassionate and formulaic manner.  The most curious thing about the film is that Mathieu Demy plays a man dying from AIDS, a full ten years before it was revealed that his father had died from the disease.   As directing debuts go Jeanne et le garçon formidable was a promising start, and Ducastel and Martineau followed it with another AIDS-themed drama, in the form of a road movie - Drôle de Félix (2000).

Film Synopsis

Receptionist for a travel agency, Jeanne is looking for the man of her dreams.  So far, her amorous encounters have been a disappointment, but she thinks she has struck lucky when she meets Olivier, a boy who is totally unlike any she has ever met before.  But it turns out that he is HIV positive - and has been for six years.  This doesn't prevent the two young people from falling in love and enjoying to the full their new-found happiness.  One day, Jeanne discovers that Olivier has gone away with his parents, without leaving a new address.  Jeanne immediately sets out to look for him...