LA GRADIVA Discovery

A high school trip to Naples and Pompeii becomes a defining passage into adulthood in César-nominated cinematographer-turned-director Marine Atlan’s remarkable first feature, in which the dormant emotions of a group of Parisian teenagers are stirred by an ancient landscape marked by desire, loss and tragedy. At the film’s volatile center are a trio of expertly drawn characters: outwardly gregarious Toni (Colas Quignard), on a mission to trace his family history, while drifting between casual hookups with local men; his mysterious Casanova-like best friend James (Mitia Capellier-Audat); and the quietly observant Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin), a high achiever with low self-esteem and her own secret desires, who slowly becomes the unexpected center of a messy triangle. Under the not-so-watchful eye of the group’s world-weary Latin teacher (Antonia Buresi), friendships shift, attractions intensify and private insecurities surface, as the trip evolves into a quietly devastating portrait of adolescence. The film’s complex protagonists are treated not as teenage tropes, but as fully rounded people whose hopes, dreams and fears are as real and consequential as those of any adult. Atlan creates a film of extraordinary visual and emotional precision, balancing an intimate, naturalistic observation of her largely non-professional young cast with an expressive, almost dreamlike sensibility, blending the poetry of a Pasolinian portrait of youth with a touch of Sirkian melodrama. LA GRADIVA was the surprise winner of the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize and has been celebrated as one of the year’s major discoveries — a richly textured coming-of-age film whose compassion, formal confidence and emotional depth linger long after its striking final images. –Abbie Algar