Parky at the Pictures (DVD 20/12/2018)

Crime novelist Olivia Déjazet (Marina Foïs) arrives in the southern French town of La Ciotat to host a writing workshop for young people. Famed for the railway station that the Lumière brothers filmed to audience-terrorising effect in 1895, the once-thriving shipbuilding centre now survives on the making and maintaining of luxury yachts and Antoine (Matthieu Lucci) and his working-class classmates poke fun at Olivia's Parisian accent, as they walk home from their first session, in which they had contemplated the opening scene of a thriller. 

Although Antoine had contributed to the discussions about how the victim might be murdered and where their body could be found, he is happier playing video games alone in the comfortable home he shares with his mother (Anne-Sophie Fayolle), father (Cédric Martinez) and younger sister (Chiara Fauvel). However, he also looks at army recruitment clips and anti-immigration diatribes by right-wingers like Luc Borel (François Cottrelle). Consequently, he often finds himself in conflict with Malika (Warda Rammach), whose grandfather had come to La Ciotat from Algeria to work in the CNC shipyard that gave the town its character. 

Olivia tries to referee the squabbles while coaxing her students towards thinking for themselves. They can't decide whether to set their story in the past or present and argue over whether the victim should be a yacht-owning toff or a migrant victim of racial prejudice. However, Benjamin (Julien Souve) isn't interested in participating at all, as he only signed up to the course to please the job centre and Olivia agrees to let him stay with the group on condition that he doesn't distract the others when they're supposed to be writing. 

Rinaldi (Pierre Bouvier) gives the class a guided tour of the yard, whose cranes still dominate the skyline. He was a Communist and participated in a decade-long occupation to try and prevent closure. But craft only come for renovation nowaways and Antoine slips away from his party to ask permission to explore below deck on one of the yachts. The others show up soon afterwards and Antoine tries to convince Olivia to agree to setting the story in the present and using the past for flashbacks to a possible motive. He is taken by her composure and quick wit and goes home to watch her being interviewed for a literary programme on television about the way she depicted macho brothers in one of her books. 

Antoine begins to read one of Olivia's thrillers and gets teased by his cousin Teddy (Olivier Thouret) when he defends her while hanging out with their mates. The consensus is also against him during the next session, when he follows Malika's description of the launch of a huge tanker (which is accompanied by old news footage) by reading out a graphic account of a massacre perpetrated by a sacked worker. 

Olivia commends the structure of his piece, but criticises the style for its complacent complicity in the slaughter. Boubacar (Mamadou Doumbia) takes exception to its racist undertones and Benjamin has to separate the pair when they square up to each other. However, Antoine also offends Fadi (Issam Talbi) by mentioning the attack on the Bataclan in November 2015 and Etienne (Florian Beaujean) and Lola (Mélissa Guilbert) wonder whether they shouldn't discuss the impact that radicalisation has had on the mood of the country and the fact that future terrorist atrocities are a certainty. 

Fadil urges Olivia to denounce Antoine's bigotry, but she explains that authors don't always agree with the ideas spouted by their characters and accepts his assurance that his intention was to start the story with a bang not score cheap points, because politics doesn't interest him. When she bumps into Antoine, while swimming off the rocks with her publisher, Boris (Lény Sellam), Olivia tells him that she is always available if he wants to talk, But he scurries away to film her in the water and on her balcony and play back the footage on his phone. That night, Antoine also joins Teddy and his crew to spy on a caravan camp full of migrants and even blacks his faces with mud before having target practice with a pistol. 

At the next session, Antoine and Malika trade insults again over the direction of the story. But Olivia is disturbed by his insistence that the killer should be  driven by idle curiosity rather than rage or hatred. Antoine avers that the Bataclan terrorists were less inspired by ideology than an urge to experience the taking of a life and he reads a passage from Olivia's book to accuse her of creating a murderer who had no passion for his crime. She is happy to take criticism, but she has no intention of being disrespected and asks him to leave. Yet, that night, when she Skypes with Boris about the problems she is having in finishing her latest novel, it's clear that Antoine is precisely the kind of character she is striving to produce. 

Having checked out the social media pages of Antoine and his gang, Olivia visits his home to ask him to tone down his more provocative ideas in class and he insists that he is merely speaking his mind. During the next meeting, he is quieter than usual, as Malika and Fadi suggest that the death could be an accident after laid-off workers kidnap a foreman who is doing well for himself at the marina. So, Olivia seeks Antoine out on the cliffs that afternoon and inquires whether he would be willing to help her with a troublesome character by answering some questions about his lifestyle and beliefs. 

Hesitant about keeping their appointment, Antoine is on his guard when Olivia asks if she can record their conversation. He mumbles inconsequential details about his downtime and is taken aback when she reveals that she has seen him camouflaged and brandishing a gun on Teddy's Facebook page. She wonders why he would have made this and an extract from one of Borel's speeches available to public gaze and Antoine insists he neither knows nor cares. Teddy is his married cousin, who struggles to feed his family with his wages as a mason and repeats his assertion that he has no truck with politics. 

He claims that Olivia is interested in him because he scares her and demands to know if this turns her on. Maintaining a poker face, she assures him she is solely intrigued by his views and behaviour and he accuses her of being a vampire who exploits ordinary people to make herself rich and famous. She denies this and suggests they pause. But Antoine has had enough and storms out and he does so again during an interview with a local news crew, as Olivia extols the therapeutic benefits of writing and how she hopes that her students will be proud of getting their collaboration published. 

That night, Antoine comes to Olivia's house with Teddy's gun. She tries to remain calm, as he appears on the terrace through the darkness and he orders her to drive him to the coast. Ignoring her attempts to engage him in conversation, Antoine escorts Olivia to the clifftop. He explains that he has never been here at night before and tells her she can go, as he fires three shots at the moon before tossing the gun into the Mediterranean. 

A few days later, Antoine turns up at the classroom and asks if he can read something he has written. Boubacar and Fadi don't think he should be given the air time, as he has not taken the exercise seriously. But Olivia nods and he hurries through a character thumbnail about someone who has been driven to distraction by his dead-end town and has feigned friendships to hide his loneliness and show willing at trying to belong. But his boredom and disillusion keep driving him towards killing a random human being to prove to himself that such a senseless crime was possible. He knew the cops would put it down to racism or homophobia. But he would always know he had killed because he could and there was nothing better to do.

Bidding farewell, Antoine leaves Olivia to slump in her chair. As the film ends, Antoine has found a job on a cargo boat and he is shown the ropes by a black sailor. Feeling something close to freedom and relieved to have escaped La Ciotat, he stands in the stern and watches the cranes and wind turbines diminishing in the distance. 

Although the setting invites comparison with Cantet's Palme d'or winner, The Class, this also has much in common with Return to Ithaca, as a small group of people debate a range of moral, political and personal issues with rising levels of tension and disenchantment. There are moments when Cantet and Campillo allow their non-professional debutants to soapbox, as they explore literary theory, recessional economics, the ethics of migration and the daunting dangers of ennui with a touch too much eloquence and assurance. But the exchanges are never dull and Cantet should be commended for eliciting such natural performances from his young leads. 

Matthieu Lucci is particularly impressive, as he struggles to understand the world around him and his role within it. He also achieves a simmering rapport with Marina Foïs, who keeps close guard over the nature of her ongoing project and her own emotions, as she becomes grimly fascinated by a boy whose refusal to play by her rules by excites and intimidates her. However, she seems less engaged with the others in the group, even though Warda Rammach displays a creative spark and a commitment to her hometown that is largely lacking in classmates who exhibit the classic millennial traits that prevent them from emerging as rounded individuals. 

That said, in realising a project that was first conceived in 1999, Cantet and Campillo avoid sweeping generalisations in providing a vivid snapshot of French youth and the attitudes they have inherited (but not necessarily understood) from their elders. The isolating influence of the Internet is deftly exposed and the most striking moments come when kids who are not used to having their opinions challenged have to fight their corners and carry others with them. Thus, while Pierre Milon's seascapes are sublime and Bedis Tir's score creeps under the skin, it's the byplay between the first-time actors that makes this so compelling and disconcerting.

Costume comedy is such a tricky proposition that film-makers have generally given it a wide berth. Bob Hope had fun as a tailor's apprentice posing as a great lover in Norman Z. McLeod's Casanova's Big Night (1954), but there's a fine line between anachronistic tomfoolery and postmodern smugness, as Sofia Coppola while making Marie Antoinette (2006). The French have a decent track record when it comes to historical capers, with Christian-Jacque's Fanfan la Tulipe (1952), Philippe de Broca's Cartouche (1962) and Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Swashbuckler (1971) all cutting a slapstick dash. But, despite the best efforts of a willing cast, Laurent Tirard Return of the Hero always seems to be straining to match its forebears when it actually comes closer to Matthew Butler-Hart's Miss in Her Teens (2014), which was based on a 1747 play by David Garrick and also turns around a soldier returning from active service to discover that the world he left behind has changed considerably in his absence. 

No sooner has Capitaine Charles-Grégoire Neuville (Jean Dujardin) donned his scarlet Hussar finery to propose to Pauline Beaugrand (Noémie Merlant) than he is called away to fight the Austrians. It's 1809 and, with Napoleon Bonaparte's hegemony over Europe being challenged, Pauline's parents (Christian Bujeau and Evelyne Buyle) understand Neuville's failure to keep his promise to write every day. But, with her sister suffering from pneumonia after stalking off in the rain after months of silence, Elisabeth (Mélanie Laurent) decides to take matters into her own hands and forges a billet doux from the front that restores Pauline's spirits.

When Pauline insists on writing back, however, Elisabeth is dragged into a correspondence that compels her to invent a secret mission to Pondicherry in India, as she knows that Neuville is a bounder who has left her sibling high and dry. She consults an encyclopaedia to give her missives a ring of authenticity, but she sometimes gets carried away and gossips in the nearby town of Bourgogne marvel at Neuville's daring deeds and his speculations in a tobacco plantation and an elephant farm. Eventually, however, Elisabeth decides to cut her losses and concocts a farewell from a besieged fortress, in which Neuville urges Pauline to forget him and move on with her life. 

Taking him at his word, Pauline marries neighbour Nicolas Bonvallet (Christophe Montenez) and starts a family. In 1812, however, a dishevelled and heavily bearded Neuville returns to Bourgogne and Elisabeth spots him mooching around the market after he disembarks from a stagecoach. He knocks her to the ground on being ejected from the inn and confesses that he is a deserter who has fallen on hard times. But, when he declares his intention to call on Pauline (whose name he can't remember), Elisabeth tells him about the letters and shows him the monument that the townsfolk erected in his memory. However, any hopes she might have had that she had seen the last of Neuville when he departs on the coach are soon dashed when he makes a return in the garb of a country gentleman. 

Graciously wishing Pauline and Nicolas every happiness, Neuville accepts an invitation to lunch and feigns amnesia to explain his reluctance to discuss his wartime exploits. When Madame Beaugrand asks about his escape from the fort surrounded by 2000 rampaging Englishmen, however, he embellishes details provided by Elisabeth to bluff his way through a far-fetched account that culminates in the 11th-hour arrival of the cavalry. Despite Elisabeth mocking the novelettish nature of his anecdote, everyone else at table is enthralled and bursts into spontaneous applause at his derring-do and modesty.

Indeed, Neuville is acclaimed as a hero throughout the town and he is presented with an award in front of a fawning crowd. Moreover, the wealthy Denoyer (Laurent Bateau) offers Neuville the use of his chateau in return for allowing him to invest 50,000 francs in his Indian diamond mine. But Loiseau (Jean-Michel Lahmi) hears of the deal and persuades Neuville to sell him some shares of his own. Such is the esteem in which Neuville is held that he is made guest of honour at a grand ball and Pauline even suggests that she would be willing to fulfil the erotic promises made in the letters that Elisabeth had confiscated before they could be posted. When she catches Neuville heading towards an upstairs room with a bottle of champagne, she guesses his intention and scoffs at his delusion that he is the most desirable man in Bourgogne. 

Sneaking into the woods to keep his assignation with Pauline, Neuville is surprised by the sordid nature of her desires when she drags him into the barn. He is relieved, therefore, when Elisabeth bangs at the door and takes the opportunity to slip away without having to subject Pauline to corporal punishment while describing his encounters with toothless women of the night. But Elisabeth is determined to expose Neuville as a cowardly rogue and she slips one of Pauline's unposted missives into Neuville's jacket, which she allows Nicolas to discover. Appalled by the contents of the note, he challenges Neuville to a duel as he is re-enacting another of his heroic rearguards for Pauline, her mother and their female friends. 

Unable to find a way of avoiding the showdown, Neuville spends an age selecting his pistol and is mightily relieved when Pauline rushes into the dawn glade to plead with him to spare her spouse. When Nicolas orders her out of the firing line, Pauline reminds him of the fact that he has shown no interest in her honour when she was being ogled by others. Indeed, she makes such a scene that Neuville has to take Nicolas to one side and suggest that he slaps his wife's face in order to reassert his masculinity. As Elisabeth watches from behind a tree, she is amused by the way in which Neuville again turns the shortcomings of others to his own advantage. But she has misgivings when she is kept awake by Pauline and Nicolas's loud and energetic love-making, complete with her gasped requests for him to claw her like a tiger. 

The revelation that her parents intend to invest in Neuville's non-existent mine proves too much for Elisabeth, however, and she orders him to dissuade them or risk her exposing his entire charade. But he calls her bluff by asking the Beaugrands for her hand in marriage and they readily offer their congratulations, even though Elisabeth's father has to ask her to leave the room after she throws a tantrum denouncing Neuvillle as a charlatan. Indeed, he even gives Neuville the chance to renege on his promise when Elisabeth invites campaign veteran Général Mortier-Duplessis (Féodor Atkine) to lunch and attempts to upstage him when she realises that she has brought him face to face with a man who has the power to court martial him as a deserter. 

Touched by Elisabeth's efforts to deflect the conversation away from the Battle of Aspern-Essling by accepting his proposal and summoning musicians so that the guests can dance, Neuville becomes serious, as he describes how Napoleon's bid to cross the Danube ended in slaughter. Yet, when he concludes that he had fled in terror after seeing his comrades ripped apart, the general merely roars with laughter at his humility before dashing off to deal with some Cossacks who have reportedly been seen in the area. 

Feeling guilty for landing him in such a situation, Elisabeth takes Neuville's hand beneath a shady tree in the garden and apologises. They kiss, but she doesn't feel any passion and inquires whether he would settle for them being partners in a pyramid scheme built around the diamond mine. Reluctantly, he agrees to a 51-49% split (as it is 1812 and not the Dark Ages). But they are disturbed by news that a Cossack band has strayed on to the estate and is lined up to attack. 

Everyone has faith that Neuville will be able to organise a successful defence of the chateau after his exploits at Pondicherry. But he makes for the stables as soon as he has armed the family and servants with muskets and is only shamed into standing and fighting by Elisabeth's dismay at his shameless pusillanimity. As she gazes from the window of a barricaded bedroom, however, she fears for his life, as Neuville walks steadfastly towards the charging Cossacks. He kills one with a sure shot, but seems doomed to die before Mortier-Duplessis unleashes his cannon and the intruders flee in panic. 

A wayward cannonball bursts close to Neuville and Elisabeth fights back the tears. But he rises through the clearing smoke and brushes himself down, as though nothing untoward had happened. Realisng he is her hero after all, Elisabeth consents to matrimony. As they enjoy their first dance, however, a messenger arrives with orders for Neuville to report to Leipzig and the guests gather to wave him off. But, as the escort turns left at the gates, Neuville gallops off in the opposite direction and Elisabeth is delighted that her husband has more sense than bravado. 

Representing a massive improvement on Tirard's last collaboration with Jean Dujardin on the height disparity romcom, Up for Love (2016), this confirms the impression given with Molière (2007) and the René Goscinny-inspired trio of Petit Nicolas (2009), Astérix and Obélix: God Save Britannia (2012)  and Nicholas on Holiday (2014) that Tirard seems more at home in the past than the present. Writing with Grégoire Vigneron, he parodies the same social mores that inspired contemporary English writers like Jane Austen. But the satire is nowhere near as astute, while the plot needs a couple of extraneous prods to restore its flagging momentum in the third act. 

Nevertheless, this is consistently amusing, with set-pieces like Neuville's elaborate examination of the duelling pistols and Elisabeth's petulant post-proposal outburst being the comic high points. The ever-dependable Dujardin also conveys the pitiless horror of Napoleonic combat with tone-shifting poignancy during the luncheon sequence. But much of the bluster is as blatant as the slapstick and it's only the excellence of the ensemble that prevents this lapsing into clumsy lampoon. 

Tirard's direction is steadily apposite, although it occasionally twinkles like Mathieu Lamboley's catchy score. But, beside Dujardin and Laurent's spirited byplay, the picture's greatest strength lies in its production values, with the photography of Guillaume Schiffman (who teamed with Dujardin on his Oscar-winning turn in The Artist, 2011) showing off the magnificent interiors scouted by designer Françoise Dupertuis and Pierre-Jean Larroque's elegant costumes to excellent effect.

When one hasn't made a film since debuting in the mid-1990s, a sophomore outing can feel more like starting afresh than picking up from where one left off. In making Postcards From London, therefore, Steve McLean understandably feels the need to show the British film industry what it's been missing since he made a modest splash with Poscards From America (1994), which was adapted from the autobiographical writings of AIDS victim David Wojnarowicz. However, in seizing the overdue opportunity to showcase his artistry and intellect, while also name-checking his idols and influences, McLean has fallen into the first-timer trap of straining too hard to make a good impression. Consequently, his laudable ambition to recreate a Soho that no longer exists (and, perhaps, only existed in his dreams), can sometimes seem more than a little arch and self-satisfied. 

Arriving in London from Essex with the half-hearted blessing of his bemused parents, 18 year-old Jim (Harris Dickinson) is taught a few harsh lessons in life on the streets by a hustler (Jerome Holder), a mugger and a brassy barmaid (Emma Curtis). She tells him that he won't be lacking friends for long, as he has the face of an angel and his beauty is soon noticed by a quartet of escorts, who occupy booths in a neon-lit nook among the warren of shadowy alleyways. 

Calling themselves `the Raconteurs', David (Jonah Hauer-King), Jesus (Alessandro Cimadamore), Marcello (Leonardo Salerni) and Victor (Raphael Desprez) take Jim under their wing and explain their mission to drag male prostitution into the 21st century, while paying homage to the artists who have gone before. Sitting in a bar filled with sailors straight out of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1982 adaptation of Jean Genet's Querelle, Jim tries to hold his own, as the Raconteurs drop the names of their icons with a playful prissiness that takes the curse off their pretentiousness. David also explains that they specialise in older clients, who enjoy a post-coital discussion about culture as much as they relish the sex with a handsome young stud. 

Encouraging him to market himself as `The Boy With a Basket of Fruit', a character from a painting by Caravaggio, Jim poses for a snapshot he can pin up in call boxes and mugs up on the artist's life and work. David is impressed by his willingness to learn and suggests he will go a long way, as he is as mentally agile as he is well endowed. However, when his first john, George (Silas Carson), takes him to the National Gallery to see Caravaggio's `The Entombment of Christ', Jim is overcome by Stendhal Syndrome and collapses. However, a neat transition shows him posing as the dead Jesus along with his mother (Johanne Murdock), David and the barmaid, who tick him off for refusing to accept money after sleeping with George. 

He also returns the cash given to him by Tony (Trevor Cooper) for posing as St Sebastian, despite being reminded by his new friends that he is a sex worker and not a miracle worker. Feeling sorry for the old man in a toga and laurel wreath pointing a toy bow and arrow, Jim wonders if he should stop escorting because he is too sensitive to deal with all the pain and loneliness he encounters. So, David introduces him to Max (Richard Durden), a Francis Bacon-like artist who encourages him to tap into his inner George Dyer and become his muse. 

However, the Raconteurs are concerned about the fact that Jim keeps fainting in the presence of art and David refers him to a doctor (Leo Hatton, who had earlier played a prostitute who propositioned Jim on his first night in Soho). She blindfolds him during initial questioning before asking him to describe what he sees in `The Musicians'. However, he passes out and finds himself holding a lute in the composition with David, Marcello and the hustler and being berated by Caravaggio (Ben Cura) for chattering when he is trying to concentrate. When he comes round, the shrink informs him that he is suffering from a rare condition, but she can't tell him what it is because his session has elapsed.

She does warn him to stay away from Baroque art and the Raconteurs break the news about Stendhal Syndrome. They also tell him a little about the French novelist and Max decides to paint him in scenes from The Charterhouse of Parma after slashing his earlier canvases. But Jim begins to drift away from the cabal and, on meeting Stuart (Stephen Boxer) at the urinals in the bar, he explains that he feels less like George Dyer and more like Andy Warhol's muse, Joe Dallesandro. They dance, but he is distracted by the sight of Paul (Leemore Marrett, Jr.), the Raconteur who got away, who is drinking at the bar. He used to be the best rent boy in the business, but he realised there was a wider world to conquer than Soho. He warns Jim about letting his friends hold him back and, when he credits them with teaching him about the finer things in life, Paul avers that the best thing about art is the cash you can get for it.

He surmises that Jim's sensitivity to fine art will enable him to spot forgeries, as he won't be so stricken by a pale imitation. After they sleep together, Paul asks Jim to evaluate a painting and calls his client when the teenager crumples in a heap on the gallery floor. In the ensuing reverie, Jim finds himself in a tableau of `The Martyrdom of St Matthew' and being challenged to a duel by Caravaggio because he is tired of him disrupting his studio. On coming round, Jim finds a nick on his throat and Paul expresses concern about the way he disappears into the world of the paintings he sees.

Back in Soho, however, the Raconteurs are furious with Jim for associating with Paul and warn him that he is selling his soul to the devil. A couple of wide boy modernists (Rhys Yates and Archie Rush) tell Jim that he needs to break the cycle and should embrace the Shock of the New and cure himself of Stendhal Syndrome by looking at some modern art. However, when Paul calls him, Jim goes to the gallery to help an art dealer (Georgina Strawson) verify some paintings. 

Exhausted by the constant fainting, he returns to the bar and feels overcome on seeing the display of cardboard boxes that the hustler has created in his corner of the alley. Recognising him as a street artist, Jim gives him the money he has just earned and insists that he is much more than just a wheeler dealer. Back in the bar, Jim joins the Raconteurs in a dance. However, he has realised that he has served his apprenticeship and that, now he is able to detect beauty, the time has come to create his own. 

Steve McLean started out by rubbing shoulders with some of cinema's biggest names in contributing Jimmy Somerville's `From This Moment On' segment to the Cole Porter anthology, Red Hot + Blue (1990). According to his credits on the BFI website (as opposed to the ever-unreliable IMBD), McLean had also produced a 1999 film entitled Wasted and a TV documentary called White Man's Disease (2000). Yet he struggled to find backers for potential projects and spent 15 years in the restaurant trade before finding his way back behind the camera. One can confidently predict, however, that he will only have to wait a fraction of that time before he is back in the studio.

For all its smug aestheticism and stylistic flounces, this is an intriguing and intelligent work. McLean might have reined in the references to such gay icons as Oscar Wilde, Arthur Rimbaud and Pier Paolo Pasolini and could have opted for less flamboyant visual inspirations than Derek Jarman, Wong Kar-wai and Vertigo vintage Alfred Hitchcock. But he commits to his creative vision and is superbly served by cinematographer Annika Summerson and designers Ollie Tiong, Sally King and Fiona Albrow, who have created a soundstage Neverland that recalls the one that allowed Pablo Behrens to recreate the same milieu with such fidelity and finesse in his chic adaptation of Colin Wilson's 1961 novel, Adrift in Soho.

As he did in Eliza Hittman's Beach Rats (2017), Harris Dickinson proves a magnetic presence, as he provides a thoughtful variation on the kind of characters played by Peter Pittaros and Lewis Wallis in Andrew Haigh's Greek Pete (2009). Some of the supporting turns are more stilted or florid, but Trevor Cooper amuses as a crusty moustachioed type trying to fire sucker-tipped arrows at his fantasy Sebastian. Ben Cura also stands out as a Caravaggio who has enough on his plate with murders and exiles without having to worry about pretty boy models who won't keep their yaps shut. 

There are moments when idiosyncrasy becomes submerged by self-indulgence and the surfeit of artifice also means that the meandering narrative rarely registers on an emotional level before rather fizzling out. Moreover, too many of the highbrow bon mots land with a thud instead of a Noël Coward-like caress. But this is admirably ambitious for a comeback project (which would make a magnificent theatrical piece) and it often sounds as good as it looks, thanks to Julian Bayliss's score and the tracks selected by music supervisor Christian Siddell.