For the landmark French television omnibus Tous les garconset les filles de leus age, nine directors received the same assignment: make a coming-of-age movie set during the period of your own coming-of-age, and include a party scene. Among the standouts in this remarkable series (including André Téchiné’s Le chene et le Roseau, which became the blueprint for Téchiné’s César-winning feature film Wild Reeds, and Claire Denis’ stunning U.S. Go Home) was Olivier Assayas’ L’eau froide. In the film’s lengthy centerpiece scene, Assayas’ camera seems to glide and float amid a free-form bacchanal, capturing just how vital, how urgent, how epic it can feel to be a lovestruck teenager alone in a crowd at the edge of the night. Hey Criterion, when are you bringing this out on DVD?
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