Cold Showers

Cold Showers
Cold Showers
	Promotional poster
Directed by	Antony Cordier
Written by	Antony Cordier; Julie Peyr
Produced by	Pascal Caucheteux; Sébastien Lemercier
Starring	Johan Libéreau; Salomé Stévenin
Cinematography	Nicolas Gaurin
Edited by	Emmanuelle Castro
Music by	Nicholas Lemercier
Distributed by	BAC Films
Release date	22 May 2005;
Running time	102 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Budget	$1.9 million
Box office	$785.000

Cold Showers (French: Douches froides) is a 2005 French drama film directed by Antony Cordier. It was a Directors' Fortnight Selection at 2005 Cannes Film Festival. The film tells the story of three teenagers – Mickaël, Vanessa, and Clément – who face changes and problems over a period of three months as they enter adulthood. The film attracted controversy on its release due to the full-frontal nudity of several young actors.

Plot

Mickaël is from a poor working class family. His father Gérard is a taxi driver who lost his license and job due to drunk driving. His mother Annie works as a janitor in the high school gym. While not an exceptional student, Mickaël excels in judo. His life is focused on the sport, on his judo coach, and on his girlfriend Vanessa. One of Mickaël's teammates, Clément, is from a wealthy family. His father Louis and his mother Mathilde are upper-class. Louis decides to sponsor the judo team. He buys the team uniforms, and asks Mickaël to work with Clément to perfect his technique and prepare the judo team for a French championship.

Mickaël and Clément relate to each other well. While Mickaël is a winning player, Clément is smarter and understands the intrinsic rules of the game better. An incident occurs that forces Mickaël to take the position of a wounded teammate. To do so, he must lose eight kilograms to qualify for the championship team. Mickaël struggles to lose the weight, as he is already in ideal physical condition. This places stress on both Mickaël, his family, and his teammates.

Mickaël and Vanessa include Clément in their camaraderie, a situation which evolves as the three have group sex in the after-hours gym. Vanessa greatly enjoys it, Clément is smitten, and Mickaël has troubling doubts. When the three decide to try it again in a hotel room, Mickaël is so conflicted that he does not join the other two. He only listens, feeling inferior to the smarter, wealthier Clément.

The judo team plays the championship and Mickaël's delicate sense of self worth is restored for a moment. It is the manner in which the trio of teenagers resolve their antics^{[clarification needed]} that closes the film.

Cast

Johan Libéreau as Mickael
Salomé Stévenin as Vanessa
Pierre Perrier as Clément
Florence Thomassin as Annie
Jean-Philippe Ecoffey as Gérard
Aurélien Recoing as Louis Steiner
Claire Nebout as Mathilde Steiner
Julie Boulanger as Valentine
Steve Tran as Tranh
Denis Falgoux as the judo coach
Magali Woch as Mickael's sister
Camille Japy as Coach's wife
Dominique Cabrera as the nurse
Sarah Pratt as the examiner

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for this film contains songs by Julie Delpy and Galt MacDermot. The score is composed by Nicolas Lemercier. The main song of the film is called "Central Park".