DIRECTOR/WRITER: Claire Simon

REVIEWS

“For Claire Simon’s new documentary, Young Solitude, in which she observes and listens to ten students (eight girls and two boys) in a suburban high school near Paris, the director takes an exceptionally immersive approach: she does her own camerawork and recruits some of the participating students to record sound. The film shows the teen-agers (in the French equivalent of the eleventh grade) speaking to one another with a revelatory frankness about relationships—especially with their parents. With a blend of self-aware sociological context and psychological insight, the ethnically diverse group of students, almost all of whose parents have divorced or are otherwise separated, lay bare the wounds they’ve suffered from their parents’ remoteness, distraction, or personal troubles – and the effect of their family lives on their own relationships and future plans. Simon elicits discussions of a novelistic depth; her assertive images give the students’ words physical impact.”

​— Richard Brody, New Yorker

“Although Young Solitude chronicles the dog days that many adolescents experience, such a title can be deceiving for a film that ultimately shows how kids will stick together to confront pain and isolation. They are, in fact, very from from being alone, and Simon… has an intimate approach that focuses mostly on their relationships, showing how they tell their stories to each other.”

— Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Palmerston North     
Monday 3 August, 6.00pm

Auckland     
Monday 31 August, 6.30pm (suspended)

Hamilton     
Monday 24 August, 8.00pm

Dunedin     
Wednesday 16 September, 7.30pm

Wellington     
Monday 5 October, 6.15pm
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French Cinema presented with the cooperation of the Embassy of France and Institut Français