My Life With James Dean is one of those idiosyncratic French oddball comedies which are very much an acquired taste, which very, fortunately, we absolutely love.
It’s the tale of a filmmaker Géraud Champreux (Johnny Rasse) who has been invited to a small Northern town by the local film curator to screen his latest indie film. His trip gets off to a bad start when a young boy steals his cellphone and not only is his host Sylvie van Rood (Nathalie Richard) missing, but the solitary two employees at the cinema profess to know nothing about the special screening.
Meanwhile, Géraud checks into the local hotel and he is at least relieved to find they are expecting him, although getting the rather eccentric receptionist to help is not easy.
Back at the cinema, the film has been found and the screening goes ahead playing to an audience of just one little old lady. What she thinks of the very explicit gay film that Géraud has made is never made clear, nor the fact why they are even exhibiting such a graphic film in this provincial place in the first place.
Next morning Mde van den Rood appears all apologetic as her roller-coast love life with her girlfriend had taken yet another turn for the worse, and meanwhile, Balthazar (Mickaël Pelissier) the very young cinema projectionist who Géraud had chatted too briefly, turned up to declare his undying love for the filmmaker.
Life gets even more complicated when the star of the film also turns up to explain that his relationship with Géraud is definitely over at about the same time, Géraud learns that Balthazar is prison bait, plus the little old lady who has been seeing the movie every night, is none other than Géraud’s estranged mother.
The plot is both crazy and silly but it has this undeniable level of warmth throughout that makes it such a joy to watch. My Life with James Dean is the third feature film from writer/director Dominique Choisy and as it is a very definite homage to classic French cinema, he’s a filmmaker after our own hearts.
