DIARY OF A YOUNG FOOL

The French screen tradition of ill-fated outlaw antiheroes, from “Pepe Le Moko” to “Breathless” and beyond, continues. DIARY OF A YOUNG FOOL traces the fateful career arc of an impressionable 18-year-old idler named Frederic, who prefers parties and drugs to studies and drudge. A seemingly minor narcotics offense lands Frederic in Saint-Quentin Prison (another Tarentino homage? we doubt it) outside of Paris. There he falls in with two older, hardened criminals who promise the new arrival an easy fortune after their release. Once he serves his time Frederic falteringly tries to go straight, but the wild existence promised by his cellblock buddies is too seductively appealing. Reunited, the three plan the crime of their lives . . . Watch for director and co-writer Patrick Aurignac portraying one of Frederic's, er, business associates, in this realistic, unromanticized, yet sympathetic story of youth led astray. In French with English subtitles. – Charles Cassady