Cocktail Molotov (1980) User Reviews

If only the movie were as "explosive" as its title...

[raop74 · 5/10 · 16 November 2001]

I actually like most French films, because they take their time to tell a story and there is a great deal of character development, unlike most of Hollywood's drivel. This movie disappoints because it doesn't have much of story or character development. The movie has three main characters, two boys (good friends), and a girl (the lover of one of them). The three wandering Parisian teens are completely shallow and selfish. They decide to go on a "kibbutz," a communal journey, in hopes of escaping their boring and supposedly depressing lives. SPOILERS AHEAD!!

You would think that their difficulties during their journey would enlighten them and make them grow up a little, but surprising it doesn't. Nor does it make them any more kindly towards others, especially their parents - the girl, Anne, particularly hates her mother, though it's never clear why. The story fails to get into any of their heads, so you don't feel any particular attachment towards any of them. I was slightly charmed by the actor who played Bruno in the movie. There's something interesting about him. Strangely enough, he looks very much like a young Dustin Hoffman. There's a love triangle that develops between the three teens, although it's never carried out. And pardonez moi, but the sub-titles leave a lot out at the end, as the movie's closing is a couple of sentences in French that fail to get translated into English...a big letdown.

Perfectly captures that adolescent longing for direction

[DLC95 · 9/10 · 5 March 2005]

I first saw this movie in a local art house when I was pretty much the same age as the main characters. I had just spent a year in France, and saw it when I got back to the States. I was, at the time, quite sensitive to the very different political tracks the two countries were pursuing at that time -- France had just elected its first socialist president, and the US had just elected Reagan. Against that backdrop, I was 18 and searching for direction myself -- a little lost, a little romantic, and starting to develop a political self, all at the same time.

The movie had a profound effect on me at the time, and I ended up seeing it two or three times, buying the soundtrack, etc. (Great soundtrack with Murray Head and Yves Simon songs.) It is really the story of these three teens' confusion about the same things I was confused about: love, family, politics, the meaning of life. The background metaphor of the kids taking off from Paris to Venice, just as Paris is erupting in serious student/worker revolt, illustrates wonderfully how the adolescent dramas we all get so engaged in can keep us from seeing the bigger picture around us. It also mirrored my own generational sense of having just barely missed out (by being too young) on my own events of '68. The ultimate directionlessness -- and perhaps pointlessness -- of their quest is painted both poignantly and matter of factly.

I saw this film again a few years ago -- it had not been available on video in the US during the intervening 20 years -- and I was anxious to see whether I would still like it, if it would still have some meaning to me. And I have to say that it has held up remarkably well. It is one of the best coming-of-age movies I have ever seen. (Of course, it is also one of the very few serious coming-of-age movies that focuses on a girl.)

Road movie that goes nowhere

[taylor9885 · 12 August 2002]

Diane Kurys made some good films in the 70's and 80's, but this isn't one of them. It's five years after the events of Diabolo-menthe, Kurys's first film, and Anne is about 18. She wants to get away from her devouring mother and live the life of a kibbutznik in Israel. It's the spring of 1968 and France is in chaos from the student uprisings, which she only half-supports.

Anne and her two school pals get only as far as Northern Italy, where their car is stolen. Short of cash, they must get back home to Paris, where another reality awaits her--she's pregnant. Simple story, no great interest in the telling of it. Elise Caron, who plays Anne, has a strong resemblance to Brian Jones, and she's not much of an actress. Francois Cluzet is very good as the smarter one of her pals. If you want a good Kurys film, try Coup de foudre or the really superb La Baule-les-Pins, which has one of Nathalie Baye's best performances.

Kurys and Cluzet gold

[anxiousgayhorseonketamine · 9/10 · 30 October 2022]

I think it was one of Diane Kurys first long features actually a second feature after Diabolo Menthe and was definitely François Cluzet's first appearance as an actor on screen

• The storyline vaguely connected to 1968 and teenage angst and society changing and there is the theme of teenage pregnancy therein too but it is really a buddy&road movie
• To think that this is a second film is really jaw-droppingly good Kurys goes on to make many good films later on
• But here we have everything the teenagers a bit dodgy to have a 25-year-old actor as a teen but then you have to work with who is around; also to me the problem is to try and make 1980 look like 1968 that is quite difficult
• What is captured perfectly here is the teen angst also in many ways showing different sides of the 1968 student uprisings there is even a nice look at one of the CRS recounting what it felt like for them to be there and how they were used as instruments of the State that was quite poignant too
• The way in which the three friends interact is really well done and of course it shows what a presence and a great actor Cluzet was and is to this day
• It is quasi impossible to find this film nowadays there are no DVDs I know of all I could find was a ripped copy of a VHS US issue online I do love to watch a film that way but really this ought to be put out again as it is a nice piece of social history and also a really sweet feeling film nothing really happens in the end The only big item in the story really is the pregnancy; but personally as someone who remembers those times I think it has been extremely well captured. Highly recommended viewing although good luck trying to find it.