Love Me If You Dare
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| Love Me If You Dare | |
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| Directed by | Yann Samuell |
| Produced by | Christophe Rossignon |
| Written by | Jacky Cukier Yann Samuell |
| Starring | Guillaume Canet Marion Cotillard |
| Distributed by | Paramount Classics |
| Release date(s) | 17 September 2003 (France) |
| Running time | 93 min. |
| Language | French |
| IMDb profile | |
Love Me If You Dare (French title: Jeux d'enfants — "Children's Games" in English) is a 2003 French film directed by Yann Samuell.
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[edit] Plot
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It would be correct, but highly misleading, to say that Jeux d'enfants is the story of a game of truth or dare gone wildly out of control. The games (jeux) begin when Julien and Sophie are children (enfants), but as they grow older they intensify and become more twisted and dangerous. Although they are in love with each other, the game later dictates their future, and the dare even goes as far as hurting and tricking each other. Tells a story of two adults who never wanted to grow up and are getting this big burst of adrenaline out of this game. Their likewise escalating love strives to be expressed in a way other than through the games.
The overarching theme is of a struggle between childhood playfulness and the expectations of the adult world: the characters age significantly over the course of the film, and Julien is forced — several times — to pick between the rose–coloured world of fun represented by Sophie, or the expectations, demands, and successes of the adult world represented by his father and his eventual wife and children. Sophie, meanwhile, is content to live her life — as she puts it "a cream puff", becoming a trophy wife to a successful football player. Nonetheless, she keeps returning to Julien, despite her superficial satisfaction with what she has.
[edit] Cast
- Guillaume Canet – Julien Janvier
- Marion Cotillard – Sophie Kowalsky
- Thibault Verhaeghe – 8 year old Julien
- Joséphine Lebas-Joly – 8 year old Sophie
- Emmanuelle Grönvold – Julien's mother
- Gérard Watkins – Julien's father
- Gilles Lellouche – Sergei Nimov Nimovitch
- Julia Faure – Sophie's sister
- Laetizia Venezia – Christelle Louise Bouchard
- Élodie Navarre – Aurélie Miller
- Nathalie Nattier – 80-year-old Sophie
- Robert Willar – 80-year-old Julien
- Frédéric Geerts – Igor
- Manuela Sanchez – Teacher
- Philippe Drecq – School headmaster
[edit] Imagery
Keystone to the film is a small tin box in the shape of a carousel. In a flash–forward segment, the film opens with a shot of a construction site, with the box partially enveloped in concrete. Once we return to the present, we see Julien initially receives it from his mother, and upon seeing Sophie being mistreated by other children at school, presents it to her. He hopes she'll lend it back on occasion, but she demands he do something daring to prove he really wants it. Thereafter, the two are engaged in a playful rivalry: whoever has the box can force the other to perform a dare to get it back. The film ultimately ends with a nearly identical shot to the opening, with the box once again partially enveloped in concrete.
The film's visual style also reflects the setting: while Julien and Sophie are children, the world is slightly fuzzy, and everything is bright and colourful. As they grow older, the film becomes sharper, and the colour more realistic. In a hypothetical scene of the two as an elderly couple, the film again becomes fuzzy, but now has a definite sepia tint.
The song "La Vie en Rose" permeates the film and dominates much of the soundtrack. Several distinct versions are used, including the Édith Piaf original, the Louis Armstrong cover, a supermarket muzak rendition, and a handful of instrumental cuts. Coincidentally, Marion Cotillard went on to win an Oscar for her portrayal of Piaf in the film La Vie en Rose, also called La Môme.
