Travolta and me

Christine is a 16-year-old girl who dreams of Travolta after seeing Saturday Night Fever. Nicolas is a serious 17-year-old boy who devotes his time to Nietzsche. One day the boy and the girl get on the same bus. Nicolas makes a bet with a friend that he can have any girl he wants. Immediately he makes a pass at Christine. For him it's only a bet, but for her it is true love. They have a date the next day, but poor Christine has to look after her parents' bakery. She will do anything to see Nicolas again.

COMMENTARY
Sixteen-year-old Christine's life is ruled by extremes, since a teenager's capacity for boredom or love is bigger than anyone else's. It's now or never, there is no in between. The slightly older Nicolas makes a bet with a friend that he can get any girl just by wanting her. Christine becomes the one randomly chosen to prove his point. Nicolas quotes Nietzsche and Rimbaud and seems so attractive to Christine that she is literally prepared to walk through fire in order to meet him. In twenty-four hours she is transformed from a moody daydreamer to a furious rebel, from You should be dancing with the Bee Gees to The Clash and White riot, via Rolling Stones and Nina Hagen.
The film should be a source of inspiration for today's sixteen-year-olds, who with their flared trousers, hideous crochet vests and platforms look like replicants from the Swedish TV-series from the 70's Lara for Iivet. Personally I went to see Saturday
Night Fever, at the movie theater Sergei here in Stockholm, probably dressed in a waist-length quilted jacket with star-spangled wristlets and a pair of outrageously tight Wrangler jeans. For a couple of years my hips were constantly bruised by jeans which were too tight, and the newspapers wrote alarming reports on women's diseases and infertility. My existence as a teenager seemed as tight as my jeans at the time. The same is true for Christine: a glance or a careless smile from a slightly older guy on the bus or in the corridors at school, may cause sleepless nights, fierce rows with unsympathetic parents and dizzy joy or tears from bitter disappointment.
Patricia Mazuy manages to convey the fear coupled with the arrogant megalomania that is so typical of the late teens, and she does so in a subtle way. When Christine and Nicolas meet in a sexual act, their desperate longing for acknowledgement prevents them from experiencing any feelings of true intimacy. On the contrary, loneliness and alienation grow stronger, and Nicolas chooses to seek refuge in the ultimate solution ...
The timeless suffering and search for freedom during the teenage years, together with the period clothes and the soundtrack, makes Travolta et moi an interesting document of an era that everyone is able to identify with. With the reservation that when it comes to young men quoting Nietzsche and Rimbaud, they probably only exist in France ... ':'
Anneli Hoynii

Orig. titel
Travolta et moi: Medverkande
Leslie Azzoullat: Manus
Yves Thomas, Patricia Mazuy: Foto
Eric Gautier: Musik
Yarol Poupaua: Talat språk
French