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MOVIES / ON DVD / GAMES OF LOVE AND CHANCE
Games of Love and Chance

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Games of Love and Chance (2005)

76%
83%
50%
N/A
N/A
N/A
76 %
Reviews Counted: 17 Fresh: 13  Rotten:4 Average Rating: 6.8/10
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Theatrical Release: Aug 26, 2005 Limited
Synopsis:
Abdel Kechiche's second feature, after the celebrated BLAME IT ON VOLTAIRE, firmly establishes the actor-turned-director as a major presence in world cinema. A grittily realistic portrait of life in a downtrodden Parisian housing project, GAMES OF LOVE AND CHANCE exhilaratingly... [More]
Abdel Kechiche's second feature, after the celebrated BLAME IT ON VOLTAIRE, firmly establishes the actor-turned-director as a major presence in world cinema. A grittily realistic portrait of life in a downtrodden Parisian housing project, GAMES OF LOVE AND CHANCE exhilaratingly captures the tumultuous ups-and-downs of adolescence. Krimo (Osman Elkharraz) is a tough-minded teenager who yearns for the day when his father will be released from prison. After breaking up with his girlfriend, Krimo begins to fall for the luminous Lydia (Sara Forestier), who he has known his whole life but has only begun to see in a romantic light. In order to get closer to Lydia, Krimo risks humiliation by joining the cast of the school play, an adaptation of Marivaux's A GAME OF LOVE AND CHANCE. The torment inflicted upon Krimo by the flirtatious Lydia is enough to make any kid crazy, but add a jealous ex-girlfriend and a neighborhood bully into the mix and his life seems downright impossible. Shocking France by winning four Cesar Awards (including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Female Newcomer), GAMES OF LOVE AND CHANCE deserves to find a worldwide audience. The cast of non-professionals is staggeringly assured--beginning with Elkharraz. But it is Forestier who leaves the deepest impression. Frank and unflinching yet heartfelt and tender, Kechiche's film is an electrifying achievement. [Less]

Genre: Foreign Films

Starring: Osman Elkharraz, Sara Forestier, Sabrina Ouazani, Nanou Benahmou

Director: Abdel Kechiche
Screenwriter: Abdel Kechiche, Ghalya Lacroix
Producer: Jacques Ouaniche

DVD Info

Release:

Apr 18, 2006

[DVD Details]

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Reviews

 
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1 - 18 (sorted by date)
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Viewers here can't help but respond to the raw emotions and acting ability of the largely nonprofessional cast.

Full Review | Comment
03/01/07 03:56 AM
Erica Abeel
Film Journal International
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
02/19/07 03:28 AM
Time Out
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Mostly a monotonous din of kids trashing one another.

Full Review | Comment
10/14/05 12:36 PM
Tom Keogh
Seattle Times
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Abdellatif Kechiche's beautifully observed tale of high-school kids in the projects outside Paris... plays like a Cassavetes project in a fresh, young mode.

Full Review | Comment
10/14/05 09:27 AM
Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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It is a provocative and potentially rich premise, to be sure, but the execution here is somewhat lacking.

Full Review | Comment
09/16/05 03:15 AM
Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter
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Full Review | Comment
09/04/05 03:15 AM
TV Guide's Movie Guide
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Games of Love and Chance plays like a French version of Jim McKay's Our Song. But, unlike McKay's superior American version, Kechiche is unable to transform the everyday lives of his characters into something meaningful.

Full Review | Comment
09/01/05 02:40 PM
Jordan Reed
Boxoffice Magazine
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This graceful and sympathetic look at how the lives of teenagers intersect with a work of literature won several César awards in France.

Full Review | Comment
08/31/05 04:53 PM
A.O. Scott
New York Times
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Kechiche extracts breathtakingly disciplined performances from all of his first-time actors, and truly magical ones from Forestier as the prematurely full-blown diva Lydia and Sabrina Ouazani as Frida, her motor-mouthed partner in theatrical crime.

Full Review | Comment
08/31/05 01:41 PM
Jan Stuart
Newsday
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A work of drama, it's more realistic than any TV reality show.

Full Review | Comment
08/31/05 01:24 PM
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
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Reading between the cuss words, the movie glimpses a sunny teen innocence just before it darkens irreversibly into adulthood.

Full Review | Comment
08/30/05 03:42 PM
David Ng
Village Voice
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The vérité fascinates, even if the artifice is obvious.

Full Review | Comment
08/24/05 01:09 PM
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
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the positive messages of The Game... make it worthwhile, especially for younger auds with a spirit of adventure to see something not created for the multiplex

Full Review | Comment
07/05/05 04:16 PM
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews
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expertly evokes these kids' world, where a cell phone is an all important possession, hip hop slang the language of the day and their couplings the main topic of conversation.

Full Review | Comment
06/22/05 03:42 PM
Laura Clifford
Reeling Reviews
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An innovative romantic coming-of-age tale set in a tough ghetto area outside Paris populated mainly by Muslim kids from North Africa.

Full Review | Comment
03/29/05 08:50 AM
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice
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This isn't La Haine, it's more like Raising Victor Vargas, another surprisingly positive-minded film about urban youth.

Full Review | Comment
03/21/05 10:15 PM
Kevin N. Laforest
Montreal Film Journal
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L’Esquive consistently teeters on the brink of tragedy but dares to end on a chipper note.

Full Review | Comment
03/21/05 06:33 PM
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine
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Has a lot of promise, but despite two raw, excellent performances L'esquive does not deliver.

Full Review | Comment
02/16/05 04:37 PM
Boyd van Hoeij
european-films.net
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Related Forums

REEL_REVIEWER
Games of Love and Chance has been reskedded to open August 31st at the IFC Center!!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 4/23/06


REEL_REVIEWER
Games of Love and Chance has been reskedded to open August 31st at the IFC Center!!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 4/23/06


REEL_REVIEWER
Games of Love and Chance has been reskedded to open August 31st at the IFC Center!!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 4/23/06


REEL_REVIEWER
Games of Love and Chance has been reskedded to open August 31st at the IFC Center!!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 4/23/06


REEL_REVIEWER
GAMES OF LOVE & CHANCE brings the suburbs of Paris to America on August 26, 2005!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 8/9/05
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