There are so many fantastic French coming-of-age films that to direct one, especially one as self-consciously grand as Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva necessitates contending with that most hallowed of national traditions. In some ways, La Gradiva is an epic-sized version of countryside group portraits like Graduate First or Wild Reeds, following a class of French high school seniors on a field trip to Pompeii just before they receive their college admissions results. Amidst the ruins of the ancient city, the film is about a group of children on the cusp of adulthood who in the process of connecting with ancient tragedy, find themselves confronted with their own mortality.