La Gradiva: a marvel of a first film (review)

Marine Atlan observes the tribulations of high school students on a school trip to Pompeii and dissects group dynamics and individual destinies with almost documentary precision. A stunning intimate fresco.

Grainy shots, faded memories of a woman long gone. The first feature film of Marine Atlan opens up to the past before hanging up the wagons of the contemporary – literally. A train crosses the Alps. On board, a final year class and the seeds of a tragedy. There is Tony (Colas Quignard), outgoing homosexual but secretly in love with his best friend, driven by the hope of finding traces of the family he never knew, bickering with a professor (Antonia Buresi) tired of his provocations. There is Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin), marginal torn between disgust for others and a deep desire to belong. There is James (Mitia Capellier-Audat) again, which hides its flaws under the somewhat shabby mask of a sandbox Don Juan…