French film about a teenage boy working in a restaurant

Hello,

I'm looking for a film that is most likely French (could, at a stretch, be Italian) that I saw in the late 90s or early 2000s. I'm fairly certain that is was made in the 90s, but could have been very late 80s (at the earliest) or very early 2000s (at the very latest). I don't remember the title (obviously) or any actors. A brief summary of the plot is as follows:

A teenage boy is all alone in the world (I think a relative dies or something). He takes a job as a busboy in a restaurant on a pier (could be the Mediterranean). There he makes friends with a man (who may be a chef or bartender or something). The owner of the restaurant (played by a large man who, I think, has long hair and a beard) is going through serious psychological issues and his restaurant takes a dive. His wife leaves him, the staff leave one-by-one, until it's only the boy, the man and one other young woman remaining. Eventually, the man leaves and later so does the woman - leaving the restaurant with just the owner and the boy. There are no customers or anything by this stage.

The film ends with The owner going completely crazy and setting the restaurant on fire and murdering the boy. The boy's body is taken to the morgue. The final scene is a nice looking car (maybe a Mercedes) driving out of the morgue with the boy's coffin on the roof. The car stops and the window winds down to reveal who claimed the body of this boy who has no one. It turns out it was the man he befriended (chef/bartender) who will now give him a burial when no one else would/could.

Thanks in advance.

Was this a thriller/horror kind of thing? (the plot sounds very grim).

Also, are we looking for a mainstream release, or more of an independent 'art house' type film?

Hi. I don't remember any suspense or gore in the film. There is only one scene that I remember (where the boy gets murdered) that is high-adrenaline, so I can't really class it as a thriller or horror. I would class it more as drama. But yes, the plot is fairly grim.

I think it was more likely an independent film, but I don't know for sure. I saw it on TV.

How is the murder of the boy committed? -- maybe it will help in the search to know this detail.

The boy gets attacked by the restaurant owner inside the restaurant. He either jumps or falls off the pier and lands hard on the sand. This causes his legs or spine to break and he cannot run away. He tries to crawl away on his arms but the owner catches him. I don't remember exactly how the boy is murdered (strangulation maybe?). The owner (I believe) then commits suicide (possibly off-camera).

I've been thinking about it and I seem to recall the restaurant owner looking a bit like Michael Lonsdale. I've been through his IMDB page but couldn't find what I was looking for (some films don't have pictures or descriptions). It may not be him, but that *KIND* of look.

Also reminds me a bit of Eric Cantona with a beard and long hair. Or an older, pudgier version of Sebastien Chabal.

I feel confident this thing will be identified. It's satisfying when an obscure film is brought to light. So,---I'm still on it adz (whenever I have a bit of free time). Never give up!

I've been trying to remember more, so here's another piece.

I remember that towards the end of the film (maybe final quarter), when all of the staff leave except for just the boy and the young woman (possibly at this stage the man could be here but I can't remember), it's falls to the young woman to cook food for the restaurateur. I don't think that she can cook very well and confesses to the boy (and maybe the man too) that the squid ink pasta she just made was with stationery ink (for pens, not from a squid) and he just ate it with no comment. At some point, she leaves this job and it falls to the boy to cook something. He's very young and doesn't know how to cook anything. Now I can't remember whether he simply says that he can't cook anything or attempts to provide something that won't qualify as (and can't be mentally stretched to) restaurant food. This is what causes him to flip out completely as (if I remember correctly) he can no longer maintain his illusions. He then murders the boy in the manner that I described above.

Okay, maybe that's a clue that might lead somewhere. Is squid ink pasta an Italian dish? Perhaps this movie will turn out to be something produced in Italy after all, and not France. The hunt continues!

I mean it's usually more Italian than French, but I'm sure many French restaurants around the world would serve squid ink pasta dishes. So, I don't know.