Summary
Véronique and Charlotte are two students who share a room together in Paris.
One afternoon, whilst Charlotte is waiting for Véronique in the Luxembourg gardens,
she is accosted by an attractive young man Patrick who soon manages to seduce her with
his charms. They agree to meet up later for a dinner date. No sooner has Charlotte
left the scene than Véronique appears, and Patrick manages to work his charms on
her as well. When they next meet, the two girls share the news that they have each
acquired a boyfriend named Patrick, little thinking that it is the same man...
Review
Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick, a delightfully witty and charming romantic
comedy, is one of Jean-Luc Godard’s earliest films, a short film, yet it betrays the skill
and innovative flair which the great director would unleash in his subsequent full length
films of the 1960s.
With its almost Shakespearean plotting, this is a more conventional film than its partner,
Godard’s other short film Charlotte et son jules. Both are centred around
the fickle folly of adolescent love in and around the chic Rive Gauche of Paris.
Both films also feature a lead actor who would become emblematic of French cinema in the
following decade - here, in a few short scenes, Jean-Claude Brialy establishes himself
as the master seducer.
The film was remade in 1992 by Etienne Faure, with a now middle-aged Jean-Claude Brialy
looking on sagely as a young Thomas Langmann attempts to repeat his own youthful flirtations.
© James Travers 2000
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