A Toute Vitesse

Morel came to film-goers' attention with his performance in Les Roseaux sauvages (as, indeed, did the very able Bouchez), and his directorial debut is clearly influenced by Téchiné's film. A rather unfocused, often overly elliptical study of a group of young French provincials - some from North Africa - falling in and out with each other, the film's hardly the most original account of teenage loyalties, ambitions and hedonism, but like other French films of recent years, it does attempt to treat both racism and homosexuality with some frankness. The performances, too, are strong; a pity, though, that the film finally plunges into melodramatic contrivance.