It's unfortunate that Jerome Bonnell saddled his film with a title that calls to mind Eric Rohmer's 'Claire's Knee' because having done so he is doomed to suffer comparisons with the veteran film maker. It's true that the film itself, light as a soufflé, fragile as a soap bubble, is working the same side of the street as Rohmer but this is a wonderful, charming film in its own right. I saw it on its initial release knowing nothing about it or anyone associated with it on either side of the camera and I rejoiced in its freshness, pain, laughter and tears. I now know, having just acquired the DVD that it is the work of a 23 year old writer director, Jerome Bonnell, which makes it all the more admirable. I was recently reminded elsewhere on the IMDb site that not all French films are masterpieces, during the same debate an avid supporter of the New Wave spoke of the Godards and Truffauts of this world wanting to write with a camera. To the first I would reply that of course not all French films are masterpieces but you'll wait a long time before the accountants who run Hollywood would even consider putting two cents into a story as fragile as this and to the second I would reply forget trying to write with the camera give me a guy who writes with his heart a la Bonnell. You can't spoil this film by discussing the plot, you can only enhance it and whet the discerning appetite, nevertheless I'm about to give the plot a once-over-lightly so look away now if you must. Siblings Julien and Emma have recently lost their mother and live with their father, who writes children's fiction, in rural France. Julien is a gifted pianist but has lost the taste for music in his grief. He enjoys a platonic relationship with Alice, five years older, who he has known all his life and does his best to be supportive in her lifelong quest to keep choosing the wrong men. One day he sees a young woman, Olga, working in a bookstore and is instantly smitten. Throughout the summer he fantasizes about winning her even going so far as to engage in a gauche plot to impress her. Meanwhile Emma is torn between her instinct to look after her widowed father, experiment with lesbianism - which she gives up as a bad job - and earn some money. All of these events, inconsequential as they are take place towards the end of summer and long before halfway we are praying that eventually Julien and Alice will see what we, the audience, have seen almost from the word go, that they belong together. And that's about it with the possible exception of the odd bit of business involving minor characters; no high-speed car chases, no crack houses, no teenage cannibals, just quiet, gentle observation of the Human Condition. A MINOR masterpiece certainly. 10/10
