A brief extract of four kids' lives somewhere in France. Quentin, who won a writers contest and now pays more attention to his career as an author than to his friends, beautiful Julie, his girl-friend, much more mature than she looks, falling in love with Quentin's very best friend Jimmy, who is kind of stuck in his unability of self-expression and grown up under bad social circumstances. And there is the shy boy Samir, exiled from Algeria, who lost his "brother" and only friend some time ago. Samir heavily falls in love with Quentin, but he can't handle it...
Acting
Élodie Bouchez's eyes do more work than most scripts.
Cinematography
Lyon's suburbs never looked this suffocatingly beautiful.
Direction
Morel captures that specific 90s French chaos energy perfectly.
Director
Gaël Morel
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Gaël Morel's directorial debut at age 24, and he cast Élodie Bouchez after directing her in Wild Reeds — they were a real-life couple at the time.
The 'banlieue' setting deliberately echoes La Haine's release the year prior, but where that film exploded with rage, Full Speed simmers with quiet, queer melancholy.
FR
