Cold Showers

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Cold Showers
Directed by	Antony Cordier
Produced by	Pascal Caucheteux, Sébastien Lemercier
Written by	Antony Cordier, Julie Peyr
Starring	Johan Libéreau, Salomé Stévenin, Pierre Perrier
Distributed by	Bac Films (France)
Release date(s)	22 May 2005
Running time	102 minutes
Language	French
IMDb profile

Cold Showers (Douches froides) is a French 2005 film directed by Antony Cordier. It is a Directors' Fortnight Selection at 2005 Cannes Film Festival. The film tells the story of three teenagers, a girl, Vanessa, and two boys, Mickael and Clement, who face changes and problems in the period of three months as they enter adulthood.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Soundtrack
4 Awards and nominations
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Mickael (Johan Libereau) is from a poor working class family - his father Gérard (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) is a taxi cab driver who lost his license as a result of a DUI, and his mother Annie (Florence Thomassin) is a cleaning woman in the high school gym: they live on the edge of poverty. Not a great student, Mickael excels in judo and his life is focused on his sport and on his girlfriend Vanessa (Salomé Stévenin). One of Mickael's teammates Clément (Pierre Perrier) is from a wealthy family: his father Louis Steiner (Aurelien Recoing) is confined to a wheelchair and his mother Mathilde (Claire Nebout) is a woman of the world and society. Louis decides to sponsor the judo team, buys them outfits, and asks Mickael to work with Clement to perfect his technique and prepare the judo team for a French championship.

Mickael and Clément relate well and while Mickael is a winning player, Clément is smarter and understands the intrinsic rules of the game better. An incident occurs that forces Mickael to take the position of a wounded mate and in doing so he must lose eight kilos to qualify for the championship team. The struggle to lose weight (he is already in ideal physical condition) places stress on both Mickael and his family and teammates. Mickael and Vanessa include Clément in their camaraderie, a situation which evolves into a ménage à trois as the three have sex in the after hours gym. Vanessa reacts as though this is the greatest physical feeling ever, Clément is smitten, and Mickael has troubling doubts. When the three decide to try it again in a hotel room Mickael is so conflicted that he does not join the other two, only listening to their cavorting in the bathtub feeling inferior to the smarter, wealthier Clément. But on the judo side, the team plays the championship and Mickael's delicate sense of self worth is restored for a moment. It is the manner in which the trio of young adolescents resolves their antics that closes the film.

[edit] Cast

Johan Libéreau – Mickael
Salomé Stévenin – Vanessa
Florence Thomassin – Annie
Jean-Philippe Ecoffey – Gérard
Aurélien Recoing – Louis Steiner
Claire Nebout – Mathilde Steiner
Pierre Perrier – Clément
Denis Falgoux – the coach
Magali Woch – Mickael's sister
Camille Japy – coach's wife
Dominique Cabrera – the nurse in school
Sarah Pratt – the examiner
Julie Boulanger – Valentine

[edit] Soundtrack

The soundtrack for this film contains songs by Julie Delpy and Galt MacDermot. The score is composed by Nicolas Lemercier. The main song of the film is called "Central Park".