User Reviews

I was prepared to be shocked and scandalized but this film treats its subjects in a rather unshocking manner. A college professor could use this film in class to teach about ethics and morality without terribly shocking the students. Only one sex scene which involves nothing weird and the things you'd rather not see are not shown. What remains are some lost French teenagers, a good soundtrack and lovely footage of Grenoble (I think). It's not a fabulous film but it's got good actors and keeps a critical distance from the really upsetting elements of human nature, as teenagers themselves are wont to do. The gender roles are boring - go see French films made by women if you're hoping to see actresses who do more than the Amelie ingenue act in front of the camera.

This film is rather fine. From the very first scene I loved it, and fell instantly in love with Delphine; the star and the best reason to see and savour this film. Maud Forget, who plays her, exudes such sensitivity it is really hard not to love her. Delphine is a shy young thing who sits at the back of the class, never speaking as that would be just too scary, next to her male friend who secretly loves her: although that much is obvious from the very first scene; so only really secret in that she doesn't know or is just too young to see it. Then she befriends the new girl to her class and her life changes completely. And this meeting is the key to the film, as Olivia essentially releases her from a self-imposed inhibited personality. And whereas before she was just a very beautiful girl now she becomes alive and moves so incredibly fast from what she was she can't believe it's the same person, and then she meets Laurent.

Laurent is a cutie: really, and it's easy to see why she falls for him: beautiful and charming and the relationship that moves the film from coming-of-age triteness to an unsettling emotional tour de force. It's so much more. It's about how much we should and/ or do sacrifice for love, and then we realise that Laurent isn't as cute as he appears: in fact he is an unfeeling emotionally manipulative user. He wants to escape France and go to Jamaica (which in English has a very amusing pun over the whole film!!) and the only way he can think of getting some money is to persuade her into prostitution: which isn't advised to anyone out there thinking of a career change! But hey if that's what you want to do then who am I to say.

So, without giving too much away the film is very good indeed. You sit for the first three-quarters wondering when this prostitution thing will come, and perhaps like how I did wonder if the description of it was wrong: as it takes so long to come. But this is the key to its greatness as by the time it eventually does you're thinking how she could descend into it when she is such a young cute thing. And when it does you're so much involved with the film you can't help but love her even more and just wonder how if at all it's going to be sorted. Go and see it if you ever get the chance, it will make you feel like falling in love. Preferably not with Laurent but with someone as utterly beautiful and as charming as Maud Forget: but hey that really would be asking for too much. There are too many Laurents and not enough Delphines. Who is a wonderful young actress, and one to look out for: she will be great, if not already. Anna Paquin anyone? In fact the whole cast is excellent. So all in all a very very good film. A perfect soundtrack too.

As a filmmaker the stunning cinematography, direction and a great soundtrack that includes the brilliant Lene Marlin track Where I'm Headed, Mauvais Frequentations seemed to be grip me. Although the DVD I own has no subtitles and I understand very little French, I was mesmerised by the way the film flowed and unfolded before me. The actors suited there roles superbly, adding to the unsuspecting dramatic script.

Mauvais Frequentations portrays how people can be exploited and how situations can get totally out of hand, movies like this should be made more often. 'Fluffy bunny' cinema is great but has no meaning, at the end of a film one should be able to contemplate upon the scenes you have seen in the movie If someone is into alternative cinema, Mauvais Frequentations might be just the thing to get engrossed in one cold night.

For more than half an hour, this is no more than a conventional and rather boring story about first love among young teens. Maybe the film makers realized this, adding a rude drama for the second half of the movie, which has very little to do with the first half.

It could work, in the same way a good thriller can take a long time before the horrors emerge - but it doesn't, not at all, because the development of the plot is simply not plausible in the characters. There is nothing in them, which convinces me that they would get themselves into that mess. Nor is there anything about them revealed in the second half of the movie, which would bring light to the sudden change.

It's like two movies in one, or maybe even three or four. One or two of them could be good, left alone, but not a chance when they're messed up with each other.

Did not know what to expect when I rented this film but I wound up just loving it.

The beautiful Maude Forget just brought out the poignancy of her character of a teenager coping with the angst of first love. Wonderful film.

A must see for anyone needing a break from the car chases, explosions and shoot-'em-ups. Beautiful scenes too in parts of France I would love to live (or retire) in. All in all... you won't regret seeing this film. You'll come away in love with Maude and haunted by the excellent acting of all the players.

I for one one know how to say anything in French other that "yes","yes sir","excuse me" and other sorted words/comments which wouldn't get me out of the French airport; but there's something about this movie as all good foreign films that made me fluent in the French language I was immediately wrapped up in the world of these two girls who fall for their boyfriends but despite the fact that their plan to leave all together comes down to the girls degrading themselves into the world of prostitution where the are subsequently seen as outcasts by their friends and classmates and seen as no more then whores by the boys who "use their services" the girls learn the hard way that not everything is the way it seems. In the end I feel sad for the loss of true love due to the circumstances by way of the only boy which really did love her in his own naive way but could not get the same love back from a girl who's hart was stolen by someone else who in the end would betray her trust. In the world we live in now growing pains are much more common by the ways perfectly portrayed in this film and in this ever changing world we could all learn something from the mistakes of these two girls but never the less this kind of life story is one better experienced personally.

Mr Ameris has done here an exellent movie. When I have seen it I didn't know what the story was , Ihave been very surprised ! But this story is from a real fact , in france so it is more terrible and it is what gives to the movie this special atmosphere... A good litle casting with not famous actors. This film speak about love-problems the teenagers have!

I watched this film without foreknowledge of the storyline other than that implied by the title. Having read the other reviews on this board I would like to add an elder male perspective. This is definitely not a film just for adolescents about adolescence. In fact I found the portrayal of the lead male character one of the best played (and surprising) performances I have seen in a considerable time. Unlike the other commentators (and since I did not know what was coming) I think there were sufficient hints as to the character's true nature as revealed in the last third of the film. This is a fine example of where European cinema empowers its younger generation to think while Hollywood generally denies the same audience the same right.

The French have strong tradition of literature and classy art films (even though they have also made as much crap as anyone else). However, I don't know if it's the influence of television, but last 10 or 15 years or so they have started making more and more films like this about "social problems"--that almost look like they could have appeared on the Lifetime channel in the US (at least if you took out all the nudity). Don't get me wrong this is a lot better than a Lifetime movie (thus the high IMDb rating and generally positive reviews), but like a lot of other recent French movies I've seen such as "Alive", "Student Services", and "Elles", it seems more interested in sending a "social message"--in this case about teen prostitution--than it is in being a coming-of-age film about a singular female character (the kind of film Catherine Breillat has really specialized in with films like "36 Fillette" and "To My Sister"). I obviously prefer the latter.

This is the story of two naïve teenage girls (Maud Forget and Lou Doillon)who are manipulated by their boyfriends into becoming prostitutes (performing oral sex on lines of guys in the bathroom stalls of local parks) in order to finance a trip to Latin America. This is all a little less than believable, not because such things don't happen in real life, but because of the actresses involved. Maud Forget is just really, really cute, but Lou Doillon (the daughter of British beauty Jane Birkin) despite her "unconventional" facial features, looks like a tall, teenage supermodel, which is basically what she was at the time. Just about any teenage boy in real-life would probably be very intimidated by girls like these, and not be manipulating them into low-rent prostitution. (Now, if they were being preyed on by older adult "modeling agents", I could see it). I'm always generally suspicious about movies where teenage girls are naïve and innocent, yet the boys about the same age seem overly clever and evil. It just doesn't ring true.

Maud Forget is really good in this, despite being only about 16 or 17 herself at the time, and to the extent this movie works, it is because of her. Doillon has had much more of her subsequent career, possibly because of her family connections (her father is a director and her half-sister is Charlotte Gainsbourg), but she is miscast and not particularly effective here. She can play "ugly" as she did in "Saint Ange" or a man-eating sex bomb as did in "Sisters" and "Summer Things", but she just doesn't do "ordinary" very well. This might be worth seeing, but I didn't like it as much as a lot of other people did.

What a movie... I just watched this movie once, a cold night making zapping with the TV and I saw this title (In my country they named it "The end of the innocence"), and I began watching expecting to be a tragic teenager drama... and French. What I saw totally turned me up. It begins like a normal teen movie and suddenly it begins to change its way. It ain't about a silly blonde haired girl, but about this shy little Delphin (I got to say that Maud Forget just stole my heart), who feels solitary, alone, bored, confused, and when meets her new school-partner Olivia begins to think about a new world, to find it out. Then the other Mauvaises Frèquentations appear. The apparition of her love changes the whole movie: she feels different, more open, more happy. And it is really emotional when you see all she does just for her loved one, how she looses her way. The conclusion, at least for me, is that this little Delphine just doesn't realize of nothing, learns nothing, as if it hadn't been a hard experience, and just waits for the next Laurent to come... but thinking a bit better about her friend.

Oh,and since I saw it for the first and only time I have been trying to get a copy of it but I had never able to. Does any of you know where can I get one?

I like French movies a lot, and I like racy content however, this movie is silly. Reality check: If Laurent was a destitute heroin junkie badly in need of a fix and Delphine was an abused run-away with no family to turn to for help, I might have had some chance of accepting this movie's plot. There are so many other better French movies out there, try Jean-Luc Godard instead of this.

This movie is great, theres only one sex scene in it but its so shocking to see stuff not allowed on the states and Mexico as well for a softcore scene with a minor,I liked the movie because it talks about growing up in an enviroment that can take you places you really dont want to be part of,This is not the classical story girl meets boy and boy gets girl, this is more like: Girl meets boy, boy likes girl, boy pimps that girl..etc. shocking stuff happens and lives change forever in this great tale about love and blows, youll like it too.