Teen angst anchors jazzy French period piece

Imagine a cross between the ugly duckling of fairy-tale fame and Peter Finch's character in "Network," and you have an approximation of the frustrated 16-year-old girl who stomps and sulks through "The First Time I Was Twenty."

"I demand a right to beauty," the pudgy Hannah declares early on. For a French teenager in the early '60s, this is as close to "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" as you can get.

Hannah's an iconoclast and a rebel-in-training, but she has such an abundance of talent and grit — and "The First Time I Was Twenty" brims with so much love and bonhomie — that it's clear from the outset there's no real danger she won't find her way just fine in life.

That is, if she could only fast-forward through adolescence.

A thoroughly charming movie adapted by Lorraine Levy from Susie Morgenstern's autobiographical coming-of-age novel, "The First Time I Was Twenty" screens four times in the S.F. Jewish Film Festival. Co-presenting are the Alliance Francaise de San Francisco and the Club 18 Teen Program at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.

The festival has made a specialty in recent years of seeking out French flicks with Jewish themes that wouldn't have crossed the Atlantic otherwise. With anti-Semitism in France more of an issue than it's been in decades, the film arrives at a Jewish fest with certain expectations and weight that, in this case, prove unwarranted.

"The First Time I Was Twenty" is a highly enjoyable and well-executed period piece whose theme of teenage identity is universal. That's hardly cause for complaint, but moviegoers looking for a powerful comment on French anti-Semitism will find a frothier film than they anticipated.

Hannah makes waves and provokes enmity not so much as a result of her Jewishness but because she's a girl. She'd probably encounter less resistance if she was a slender, soft-spoken beauty, but she's none of the above.

She has willfully put herself on this rocky road by embracing jazz and becoming a passionate and talented stand-up bass player. It's her dream to become the first female student to join her suburban school's prestigious jazz combo.

Pioneers rarely have an easy time, especially amid the suburban complacency that comprises Hannah's environment. Her sisters are pretty but seemingly shallow and unambitious, and her parents just don't get her.

Marilou Berry propels "The First Time I Was Twenty" with a feisty performance that lets Hannah's warmth and vivaciousness emerge along with her stubbornness and anguish. The actress, who did a marvelous turn as another unattractive (at first blush) young artist in the excellent Gallic import "Look At Me," might start thinking about typecasting.

Although vastly different in tone and theme, this film recalls the 2002 festival entry "God Is Great and I'm Not," which also benefited from the presence of a French newcomer who had recently wowed American audiences — Audrey Tautou of "Amelie."

Hannah's angst is perfectly balanced by the film's deliciously amusing '60s production design and sparkling jazz and pop soundtrack. A little rambunctious but mostly sweet, "The First Time I Was Twenty" is filled with pleasures for viewers of all ages.




"The First Time I Was Twenty" screens at 6:15 p.m. Monday, July 25 at the Castro Theatre in S.F., noon Wednesday, Aug. 3 at the Roda Theatre in Berkeley, 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4 at the Mountain View Century and 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6 at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Tickets: $8-$11. (925) 275-9490 or www.sfjff.org.