‘Full Speed’ a Stylish Tale of Young Lives and Racism

Gael Morel’s engaging “Full Speed” opens in a sylvan setting with two handsome youths--one blond, the other swarthy--looking lovingly into each other’s eyes. Suddenly the blond youth is shot to death.

We move two years ahead, and again meet the surviving youth, the Algerian-born Samir (Meziane Bardadi) and through him a circle of friends living in a French provincial city surrounded by beautiful countryside.

They are Jimmy (Stephane Rideau), a lean, rugged young man whose emotions run close to the surface and whose loyalties run deep; Jimmy’s best friend Quentin (Pascal Cervo), who, though not yet 20, has written a best-selling novel about disaffected youth; and Julie (Elodie Bouchez), a recent college dropout involved with Quentin and living in her absent family’s large and charming country house, the film’s key setting.

You can already tell that this is familiar territory for French films--and indeed those of many other countries--but Morel has a commanding way of revealing these young people to us and to one another through their constantly shifting allegiances and interactions.

The pivotal Quentin is a nasty piece of work: He has sex with Samir--who promptly falls in love with him--just so he can get Samir to talk about his murdered boyfriend, apparently figuring he might be able to put the story to future use. In the meantime, Julie finds herself drawn to Jimmy, better-looking and far more likable than Quentin.

These young people are deeply into living for the moment, pessimistic or unsure of their futures. All the while Morel is widening and deepening his perspective, connecting his young people to the larger community, which is infected with an ugly and dangerous racism nakedly directed to the Arabs living there. Morel implicitly suggests that France is speeding toward a self-destruction that may take its young people with it.

Morel is a master of stylish economy and swift pacing and extracts total and unself-conscious portrayals from his people. They all excel, but Rideau actually reminds you of James Dean in his passion and vulnerability. “Full Speed” is fully realized.

If it reminds you of Andre Techine’s superb 1993 “Wild Reeds” (which starred Rideau, Bouchez and Morel himself), it should. Techine has been a mentor to Morel, who has created a remarkable contemporary companion film to Techine’s study of coming of age at a time when France was torn by the Algerian War.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: It includes scenes of extreme brutality, some sex, strong language.

‘Full Speed’

(‘A Toute Vitesse’)

Elodie Bouchez: Julie

Stephane Rideau: Jimmy

Pascal Cervo: Quentin

Meziane Bardadi: Samir

A Strand Releasing presentation of a Magouric production. Director Gael Morel. Producer Laurent Benegui. Screenplay by Morel; adaptation by Morel, Catherine Corsini, Benegui. Cinematographer Charles Gassot. Editor Catherine Schwartz. Music selected by Big Cheese Records. Set decorator Frederique Hurpeau. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

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* Exclusively at the Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (213) 848-3500, and at the University 6, Campus Drive opposite UCI, (714) 854-8811.