poison friends

At the start of the new college semester, Eloi and Alexandre encounter Andre, the most brilliant student in the lecture hall. Fascinated by his ease and charisma, they quickly fall under his spell. Andre offers them friendship in exchange for complete loyalty to him. Eloi and Alexandre devotedly serve until the day that Andre abandons them, forcing Eloi and Alexandre to stand on their own.

“The movie is largely unclassifiable -- at once a psychological study, an exceedingly dry comedy, and a moral tale in which stories are purloined and frauds perpetrated.” (J. Hoberman, Village Voice)

“Pic is deft, entertaining and, in its reverence for name-dropping scholarship and the paths by which the chosen few make a name for themselves, thoroughly Parisian.” (Lisa Nesselson, Variety)

“Has a degree of energy, an appetite for strong feelings and big ideas, notably missing in American movies about the young and overeducated, which tend to specialize in mumbled ironies and tiny epiphanies.” (A.O. Scott, New York Times)

“Promoted as an intellectual suspense thriller, Emmanuel Bourdieu's second feature film is a chilling plunge into the dark pools of group think and a scalding examination of the vulnerability of the unformed identity.” (Jan Stuart, Newsday)