Marcel Carné, mythical French director of Quai des mists or Les enfants du Paradis, made a film in 1968 that caused scandal: Les Jeunes loups. This feature film is finally coming out in cinemas after 50 years of censorship.
Film cursed, censored, disavowed by its author Marcel Carne, The Young Wolves enjoys an exceptional release in a restored 4K version thanks to Malavida Films.
The story follows Alain, embodied by Christian Hay, whose beauty equals only ambition. Coming from a modest family, he does not hesitate to monetize his charms with bourgeois and aristocrats, women and men.
At the same time, Alain meets Sylvie (Haydee Politoff), lively and free young woman, with whom he falls in love. Their path crosses that of Chris (Yves Beneyton), hippie from high society, fully engaged in the momentum of the nascent revolt of May 68… and irresistibly attracted to Sylvie. Their trio will quickly come face to face with the ambiguities and dangers of a life that was too modern for its time.
Shot in 1968, this feature film is a real UFO in the career of Marcel Carné, legendary director of Quay of the Mists, North Hotel, The day begins Where children of paradise.
A BREATH OF FREEDOM
Aged 62 at the time, the director weaves a work that totally embraces the desire for the emancipation of youth, prefiguring the famous events of May 68. Indeed, Les Jeunes loups landed in theaters on April 2, 1968, causing a real scandal.
The wind of freedom blowing on this film aroused the wrath of the censors, who withdrew the film from the poster after only a few days of exploitation for amorality. The work paints an uncompromising portrait of the young people of the time, who dare to liberate themselves sexually, sleeping with women and men according to their desires.
A BEWITCHING BO
Magnified by an intoxicating soundtrack, Les Jeunes loups allowed Nicole Croisille (under the pseudonym of Tuesday Jackson) to obtain a monster success with the most memorable song of the film, I’ll Never Leave You.
Between explicit sex, nudity and fierce criticism of the bourgeoisie, this provocative feature film by Marcel Carné was finally eclipsed by May 68, the events of which took place just a month after its release.
The work then fell into oblivion, disavowed by its director himself, exhausted and exceeded by censorship. The filmmaker had refused to attend his film’s premiere at the time in protest against requests for cuts.
Actor Yves Beneyton, who plays Chris in Les Jeunes loups, remembers Marcel Carné’s anger.
“Generally, I have always managed to obtain, from the directors, a VHS copy of the films in which I have acted. As regards Les Jeunes loups, I had contacted Marcel Carné, but he did not want to hear any more about this film. He admitted to me that he had even asked the distributor to bury the film in his cellar”he confided in 2007 to the magazine I sing.
MARCEL CARNÉ, A WELL-TEMPERED CHARACTER?
The actor, now 76, also returned to the filmmaker’s uncompromising attitude during filming.
“Carné wrote that the film failed because of the atmosphere that reigned during the shooting. But one of my joys, with this film, is that we had on the set all the old cinema technicians of the years 30: an old make-up artist called Arakelian, a machino boss called Casi… I was delighted to work with all these legends of pre-war cinema”he recalls.
“But Marcel Carné spent his days screaming on set. To come back to Young Wolves, I can tell you that there was no bad atmosphere on this film.
The only bad atmosphere was him, Carné, who created it. A director is someone who must be loved by his team. And if there is a bad atmosphere on a shoot, you have to go back to the director. It’s that simple”said Yves Beneyton.
“In his Memoirs, Carné blames the failure of the film on the actors and the censorship. My eye! I think he was just asked to hide a breast in the pool scene”concluded the actor, who still has a grudge against the director who died in 1996 at the age of 90.
54 years after its release, Les Jeunes loups is back in force at the cinema, the opportunity to form your opinion on this cursed work of French cinema.
Note that the film, after decades in limbo, was scheduled in November 2012 during the Marcel Carné retrospective at the Cinémathèque française. An exceptional screening also took place on September 19, 2013 in Deauville as part of a cycle devoted to films shot in this city.