Games of Love and Chance (2003)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

This French film is a quite disheartening look at life in the public housing projects outside Paris. In a crumbling neighborhood with a majority of immigrants from Northern Africa, a high school tries to produce a play by Pierre Marivaux (1688-1763). The heart of the film is the budding romance between the vivacious blonde Lydia (one of the few "native" French living in the neighborhood) and the shy and painfully inarticulate Krimo, who is ridiculized by his thuggish friends for taking a part in the play. All the kids speak in an unintelligible slang, which makes a contrast with the classical French of Marivaux. I wrote it was disheartening (despite not being a drama) because it shows that the marginalized inhabitants of the projects have an almost nil chance of breaking into the mainstream of French society. Thoughtful and worth seeing.

The first comparison that comes to mind is the movie "Kids", but that is a superficial comparison. Both movies employed non-actors and got great performances, but the similarities end there. L'Esquive is set in a Parisian housing project with a majority Muslim population. The slang translation (subtitled) is matched to the slang used in a New York City housing project. Part of the humor comes from this posturing and there is a lot to be laughing about. The performances are strong all around and although the story is simple (a girl drops her boyfriend and he becomes interested in another girl) the kids fill it with energy and drama. There is none of the extreme violence that a similar story, set in the States, would have. There is no bloody shootout at the end - this fact alone recommends it. Sara Forestier (Lydia) you might have seen (if you watch French film) and will see more of - possibly in American film. Osman Elkharraz (Krimo) also has a charisma that makes him a candidate for future roles. The film is a very energetic and fresh examination of kids growing up in a fishbowl, up to and including their harassment and abuse by the French police. If you have any interest in French film, here is a refreshing and funny movie. Enjoy.

I think this film deserve theirs Césars for a lot of reasons. The actors are excellent, especially Sara Forestier who's not from suburbs and has learned all words of this 'particular' vocabulary. The screenplay is very well, finally that's a play in a play ("le Jeu De l'Amour Et Du Hasard" written by Marivaux). This film shows almost the reality, is sometimes funny. The french teacher is disgusting, she is exactly what the director wants to fight : a society were there is no hope for an inhabitant of suburbs. As to her, Kremo is an idiot because he will never be Arlequin, he 'll never be in love and he doesn't even know how to play it. The film shows how wrong it is... The low point of the film is the sound, very bad, I think they wanted to be more realistic but that could be better, and realistic. This film is well to see, everyone can learn something.Even for french the language is hard to understand(sometimes we would have wanted subtitles!). I don't think the foreigners (particularly the ones who watch only blockbusters) will enjoy, or/and understand. But this freshly film is worth to be seen with attention.

This movie's a disaster. Yes, it shows french suburbs the way they are. But that's the only good thing you can say about it ; frankly, how can you be interested in seeing almost 2 hours of stupid suburban kids yelling at each other, insulting each other all the time ? French critics are ecstatic, this movie has won 4 cesars (french equivalent for the Oscars), but it's just a dull vision of dull people. I've seen enough of that verbal and physical violence myself to get any pleasure from this deeply boring movie.I've read critics saying it was a refreshing vision about french suburbs. I guess they think it's refreshing because you don't see drugs or guns, and it is "in" to say that these kids have some sort of raw inner strength only waiting to be applied to something good. Yeah, think again, they're really that violent at each other, but they don't study Marivaux in real life...Watch it at your own risks.