Life takes an unexpected turn for French teenager Etienne (Jimmy Tavares) when his grandmother buys him a digital video camera for his 16th birthday. Suddenly, he's obsessed with recording life in Rouen, his preparations for the French Open figure skating championships, and his belief that this year will be the year he falls in love.
When he starts to play matchmaker for his widowed mother (Ariane Ascaride) by encouraging handsome geography teacher Laurent (Jonathan Zaccaï) to take an interest in her, he realises that his candid camera antics are actually making him more involved with what's going on around him than ever before.
Instead of being a detached observer, Etienne has invested more than he would like to admit in the people he's filming. And as the realities of his desires dawn on him, Etienne realises that everyone he's obsessively recording is male...
Written and directed by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau - who previously collaborated on gay road movie "Drôle de Félix" - this sweet-natured story of sexual awakening is a bright and light-hearted comedy with some witty insights into being a teenager.
What's disappointing, though, is the filmmakers' dramatically disastrous decision to shoot the whole film through Etienne's camera. Had this been staged as a video diary, with Etienne addressing the camera head on, the format might have allowed us to get to know the protagonist more intimately than we actually do.
But by hiding Etienne off-screen and giving us little more insight into his plight than that of any of the other secondary characters, "Ma Vie" gambles on keeping us interested in his journey. As the contrived final scenes prove, it ultimately has to manipulate events to allow him any means of discovering his true desires.
In French with English subtitles.
Ma Vie (Ma Vraie Vie à Rouen) (2003)
