Eva Husson titled her directorial debut “Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story),” but it’s evident from the trailer here that what she’s talking about is a teenage version of love. No less fraught with emotion, but certainly more focused on sexual awakening.
In this French film, “George, a pretty teen girl,” the synopsis reads, “falls in love with Alex. To get his attention, she initiates a game with their friends, discovering, testing, and pushing the limits of their sexuality. When the nature of their activities is revealed, each of them deals with the scandal in radically different ways. Faced with the implosion of their value systems, they move on by reassessing their priorities, finding love and their real desires.”
The trailer below evokes a sense of Larry Clark’s “Kids” mixed with Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides.” Meaning “Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)” might end up testing every parents’ worst nightmare. But one can’t deny how lovely Husson has made sexual discovery look.
“Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015, and recently screened at the 21st edition of The Film Society of Lincoln Center and UniFrance’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. It opens in the U.S. on June 7.
