La Gradiva

La Gradiva is the debut film from former cinematographer Marine Atlan, focusing on a group of French high-school students who are taken to Naples and Pompeii by their long-suffering teacher (Antonia Buresi). Our introductions to the students are not sympathetic; they are selfish, ignorant, and often unpleasant for their classmates to be around, while Mercier (Buresi) struggles along beside them, trying her best to get them to focus on the historical importance of the city around them - still ominously overlooked by Mount Vesuvius.

As we get to know the students, each one constantly battling to be at the top of the mercurial high-school social hierarchy, we dive deeper into their all-consuming personal struggles. Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin) is riddled with depression and low self-esteem, combined with the self-importance of a young woman who is significantly more intelligent than her peers; Toni (Colas Quignard) is convinced that he is descended from Italian nobility and that he will discover the key to his lineage in Pompeii. The film is designed as a series of intertwining character studies, observing each teenager without judgement as they navigate through the difficulties that come with a changing body and a developing mind. At the centre is their teacher, herself struggling with intense loneliness but still wanting to impart the value of their incredible surroundings.

La Gradiva (in reference to Wilhelm Jensen’s 1902 novella ‘Gradiva’) is a searingly honest portrayal of how complex being a teenager can be, making it a film that is as funny as it is frustrating, and as sparklingly beautiful as it is guttingly sad.