French film critics have responded with unusual consensus to "La Gradiva," Marine Atlan's first feature, which opened in French cinemas on Wednesday, October 21. The naturalist drama follows a class of twenty lycéens travelling near Naples with their Latin teacher to visit the ruins of Pompeii, and it has been warmly received across the French press, according to Le HuffPost.
The film centres on three students. Toni (Colas Quignard), described as a turbulent and charismatic teenager, uses the trip to investigate his Italian roots, while his desire-tinged relationship with his best friend James (Mitia Capellier-Audat) is thrown off balance. Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin), meanwhile, struggles to find her place in the group and carries a anger, directed in part at the power dynamics James establishes.
Why it matters
"La Gradiva" arrives with a run of recognition behind it. It won the Grand Prix at the Semaine de la Critique during the Cannes Film Festival, and it was recently among five finalists considered to represent France at the Oscars; that honour ultimately went to "Minotaure" by the Russian director Andreï Zviaguintsev. For a film made outside the usual industrial mould, the breadth of the critical welcome is notable.
Atlan, 37, told AFP she was taken aback by the response. She said the production cost less than three million euros, used non-professional actors and had no star names attached. "It seems a little unreal," she said, according to the agency.
The director, previously known for her work as a cinematographer, also described a difficult production, including two years of casting. She recalled being told repeatedly that the project would not work, that it was too long — it runs 2 hours 25 — or that its form was too strange and too slow. She said it was heartening to see that such new forms can still reach audiences.
What the critics saw
Télérama highlighted the packed itinerary of the trip — walks through Neapolitan neighbourhoods, an instructive stop at the Villa of the Mysteries, a museum visit, a nighttime excursion and a collective party — describing a stay full of learning, euphoric discoveries and cruel disappointments. The magazine said Atlan delivers a striking concentration in which ancient history echoes what the teenagers are going through, and awarded the film four "T" marks.
Le Monde read the teen-movie as playing on the gulf in time between the southern Italian city and its young visitors, with the students' hyper-contemporary world set against the layered antiquity around them. The paper singled out an image of a slight pupil in an electric-blue tracksuit standing in Naples' archaeological museum.
Libération framed the film around faces, light and speech, calling it a question posed to the language of 2026's youth — which it described as unlike any other — and to language itself. The paper coined a "palme d'aura" for it, a nod to a schoolyard game mixing absurdity and memes.
Le Parisien, according to the HuffPost roundup, said the film brilliantly captures the youth of 2026, including Parcoursup anxieties, dating apps and a sharpened political awareness. Franceinfo praised staging that shows social determinism still at work, and the force of universal questions particular to an age full of doubt.
Le Point, Le Figaro and Ouest-France also covered the release as part of the week's cinema offerings, with Le Point describing the film's portrait of adolescence as vital and fragile.
A small film in a crowded week
The attention stands out in a week that also brought "Marie Madeleine," "Karma" and "L'Ile des souvenirs" to French screens. That a modestly budgeted, non-professional-cast film has drawn this level of agreement is the kind of outcome the industry struggles to predict — a point Atlan herself made, noting how hard it remains to foresee where a film will go.
What happens next will be measured at the box office, where the critical chorus will meet its first real test.
