It was the US premiere of the new film by French director Michel Gondry (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). The We and the I was acclaimed at the Directors’ Fortnight at the last Cannes festival. The film is controversial: 40 teenagers from the Bronx, all amateur actors pour their violence, resentment, questions, silliness during this very long bus ride through the Bronx (It the Bronx THAT spread out!) on the last day of the school year. There are a lot of four letters words, a lot of provoking gestures or thoughts. But as the bus moves on, as students descent, the atmosphere gradually quiets down, and the remaining teenagers on the bus are faced with themselves, with their realities. It is very, very strong. The highlight of the evening was the Q & A after the movie with six amateurs/actors/kids and the two writers. The kids talked about their experience “Man, it was hot on that bus!”- Their discovery of filming -they raved about Michel Gondry who was not an… imbecile and listened to them, about their sense of empowerment – they had a real input on the script which became interactive in the end. They all live in the Bronx, are involved with “programs”- anti HIV, community programs that imply acting. -, They all dream and their dream came true: they went to Cannes! How cool is that! They all are totally emotional, totally genuine. And if you think about it, their problems are just problems of teenagers, and not so far from problems of Upper East Side teenagers. It is all about bullies and bullied, about love and hate, about crossing the Rubicon or not, about fragile -oh! So fragile minds- of teenagers, about finding oneself. Obviously their environment has no, or very little structure, and this makes it so difficult for them. Yet, the freedom they have allows them to truly look at themselves if they want to do so. They talk, they communicate, and they live! Great movie released in the US in March.
Thanks once again Michel Gondry for daring and forcing us to grow and look around!
Pascale Richard 