The strength of Jacques Doillon’s cinema is in the mise¬en-scène and the directing of the actors. He keeps seeking new challenges in this area. For instance for his film l’Amoureuse (made in 1987 for television, but recently given a cinema release in France), he worked with a group of young students at drama school. For Le Jeune Werther (only remotely based on Goethe; the film starts where the book ends) he chose even younger ‘actors’; his performers are secondary-school students, both in the film and in reality. Doillon took a risk by expanding on a very stylised mise-en-scène with these inexperienced young amateurs. The tension between the naturalness of the actors and the artificiality of the film language used gives this film its special atmosphere.
