to cast the inexperienced Nina as the female lead in 'Romeo and Juliet', a role his deceased daughter played. By now considered by some to be a major director of the post-New Wave, Téchiné won the Cannes Festival Best Direction Award while helping launch the career of Juliette Binoche. Le lieu du crime (1986) Le lieu du crime (1986) (Scene of the Crime) The story takes place in the rustic vicinity of a small provincial town, where a young boy helps an escaped criminal. The highly troubled youth, disaffected by his parents' divorce, lives with his mother and grandparents while the father lives nearby. The escaped convict commits murder to save the boy from harm but gets involved with the mother. By the time the boy is to have his first communion, the mother—trapped in a humdrum existence—has fallen in love with the convict and wants to run away with him. Les innocents (1987) In Téchiné's next film, Les Innocents (1987), a young woman, born and raised in Northern France, is visiting the Mediterranean city of Toulon for the first time. She is prompted by two events: the wedding of her sister, and the disappearance of her brother, a deaf-mute who supports himself as a pickpocket under the tutelage of a young Arab and an older bisexual married man with a weakness for young Arabs. The girl meets them and finds herself attracted to the young Arab and the older man's son, who is bisexual like his father. She is soon torn between the two in a romantic and sexual dilemma that mirrors France's political turmoil over its growing Arab population. J'embrasse pas (1991) J'embrasse pas (I Don't Kiss) (1991) is a bleak, melancholic portrait of a young man searching and failing to find meaning in his life. An idealistic 17-year-old leaves his home in the rural southwest of France, hoping to make a career as an actor in Paris. After an auspicious start, he soon discovers that he has no talent as an actor and loses both his job and his room. In the end, he has to make a living as a male prostitute. He falls in love with a young prostitute, but the relationship has terrible consequences for him. My Favorite Season (1993) My Favorite Season (Ma saison préférée) (1993) is a dark and somber story of middle-aged estranged siblings, a provincial lawyer (sister) and a surgeon