After the huge success of "La Boum", directors got out of their way to make rip-offs in order to cash on the teenagers' love for the original. Most of them didn't materialize, though, and the few ones that did were as awful as expected. In the year of La Boum's sequel release, director Michel Gérard tried his hand at creating an original teen comedy, which,to my mind, deserved what it got, and nothing else.
The plot revolves around a teenager, Julien, trying to make his classmate Nathalie notice him. In his quest for winning her heart, he has the help of his friends, who do their best at aiding the love-struck teen. His parents, confused, watch their son as he tries to impress the girl of his dreams, and so the story unfolds.
While this comedy is simple, this is not surprising when considering it was made by Michel Gérard. He was a director known for his comedies of average quality, who had his breakthrough with "Arrête ton char, bidasse!", a military comedy about four French soldiers trying to seduce the beautiful German girls during their military service in the country. His other works included, among others, "Les jolies colonies de vacances", a pleasing movie about children's antics in a summer camp, and "Retenez-moi ou je fais un malheur", in which Jerry Lewis played a clumsy detective. Most of his comedies where characterised by simple plots, and quite mediocre gags, and it was maybe for this that he wasn't very successful, with "Arrête ton char bidasse" being the only film of his surpassing one million admissions.
With "On s'en fout, nous on s'aime", Michel Gérard made a nice addition to the teen movie genre. The characters are sympathetic, especially poor Julien, played by Didier Clerc. It seems that this was he first and only role, since I haven't found traces of him in other films. Veteran actor Darry Cowl interpreted Clerc's father, who was amusing to see in his general confusion. He seemed to always have his mind somewhere else. Interesting to note is the presence of Sheila O'Connor and Alain Beigel. Both made famous through "La Boum", it was with films like this one that they tried to continue their careers. Their performances, though, here, are short, and leave no lasting impression on the viewer.
The music has no special qualities, but it is pleasing and typical of a teen film of the era. Gilbert Montagné, a then-popular singer, who always appeared on TV and in public wearing sunglasses, sung the title song. Compared to other slows of the time, first of them "Reality" from "La Boum", it is average, but not all the films of the time had the luck to be given a musical score by Vladimir Cosma.
What makes this film different from other "La Boum"-like films is the fact that it doesn't seem to be intended as a direct rip-off. The story isn't very much reminiscent of the former movie, and Michel Gérard had already made films centered around children, so this could just be another one of his efforts at depicting teenagers' lives in a comedic way.
"La Boum" rip-off or not, this movie was pleasing to me. While not exactly a masterpiece, it was a nice teen film that treated it's characters with respect, and, while lacking the passion present in Pinoteau's work, it offered some funny moments stemming from the actors' performances. Generally speaking, I would not consider this film a comedy. It was mostly on the romantic side, centering around teenage love. If watched through this lens, "On s'en fout nous on s'aime" doesn't have anything particularly negative. It's just a commercial movie directed at those sensitive teens who had just finished watching "La Boum 2" and wanted more. And with this film, they would get.
The tone of the film is perfectly shown by its poster: Composed of newspaper extracts describing strikes, oil shortages and recession, it is torn in the middle by a motorcycle with the two teenagers on it, with a title belonging to a time of carelessness now over; "We don't care, we love each other".
So innocent a message, such different a time, and yet, such a dear one.
