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Forever Young
Movie

Forever Young

2022 • Unknown

Woke Score
5
out of 10

Plot

At the end of the 1980s, Stella, Victor, Adèle and Etienne are 20 years old. They take the entrance exam to the famous acting school created by Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Romans at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre. Launched at full speed into life, passion, and love, together they will experience the turning point of their lives, but also their first tragedy.

Overall Series Review

Forever Young (Les Amandiers) is a semi-autobiographical French-Italian drama that plunges into the tumultuous world of a prestigious Parisian acting school in the late 1980s. The film focuses on a group of ambitious, emotionally volatile students, primarily the director's alter-ego, Stella, as they undergo intense artistic training under the demanding, gay director Patrice Chéreau. The narrative highlights the students' passionate, self-destructive personal lives, marked by drug use, complex sexual relationships, and the looming tragedy of the AIDS crisis. The core dramatic conflict revolves around the artistic process and Stella's toxic relationship with a talented but unstable fellow student and addict. The overall effect is a period piece that is nostalgic for the energy and risk of the era's avant-garde theater scene, with a moral and social universe entirely defined by personal passion and subjective trauma, divorced from traditional civic or spiritual structures.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics3/10

The film centers on the personal and artistic merit of its characters rather than on racial or intersectional hierarchy. The main conflict stems from artistic ambition, personal drama, and class difference, not from systemic oppression or race-based privilege. Casting reflects the historical setting of a prestigious French drama school in the 1980s, focusing on the character's emotional capacity for the craft.

Oikophobia2/10

The movie is a nostalgic and affectionate homage to a specific, legendary French artistic institution, the Théâtre des Amandiers, and its director, Patrice Chéreau. The narrative celebrates the energy, passion, and risk-taking associated with this French cultural history. It depicts a chaotic environment but does not frame the home culture or its institutions as fundamentally corrupt or racist, reflecting a gratitude for the artistic opportunity provided by the ancestors of the theatrical world.

Feminism6/10

The female protagonist, Stella, is portrayed as a gifted and magnetic talent, a central focus that aligns with the 'Girl Boss' archetype. The male lead, Étienne, is an unstable heroin addict who is emotionally abusive, embodying the 'toxic' male figure. The story shows female fulfillment is found exclusively in career and high-stakes personal drama. One storyline involves a character with AIDS who is pregnant, which treats motherhood and the nuclear family not as a vital institution but as a locus for tragedy and chaos stemming from 'freewheeling sexuality.'

LGBTQ+8/10

Alternative sexualities are a central, normative part of the story's setting. The director of the school, Patrice Chéreau, is an 'unabashedly gay' figure who is venerated as a creative leader. The plot centers on 'freewheeling sexuality' and 'incestuous liaisons' among the students, with the tragedy of the AIDS crisis forming a significant emotional and historical backdrop to the narrative. The traditional male-female pairing is frequently undercut by highly fluid sexual arrangements.

Anti-Theism7/10

The film features a morality that is entirely subjective and relativistic, with characters operating without any reference to a higher moral law or objective truth. Faith or traditional religion is completely absent from the narrative, neither celebrated nor attacked. The emotional and ethical world of the characters is defined solely by personal passion, trauma, drug use, and the dramatic intensity of their own internal lives, creating a spiritual vacuum.