Adventures of Felix (Olivier Ducastel & Jacques Martineau, 2000)

[David Ehrenstein]

There's been a request to start a discussion of this delightful French film, and I'm only too happy to do so. A very special "road movie" from the writing and directing team of Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, Drole de Felix (it's original French title) centers on a gay, HIV+, half-Arab youth (Sami Boujilah) who on being laid off from work decides to hitch-hike across France in the hope of meeting up with the father he's neevr seen. Along the way he encounters people who are identified by chapter headings printed on the sceen as "My Little Brother," "My Grandmother," "My Sister" and eventually "My Father." Naturally this "made-up family" is as good (or better) than any "real" one. At the same time the film makes note of race relations, as well as sexual orientation and AIDS, in France today. It's quite unique in the way it takes what could be "heavy" issues and treats them with a becoming lightness and grace.

[Michael]

Sounds awesome. I can't believe how it's escaped my awareness till now. I will rent it immediately.

[jesus the mexican boi]

This might be as good a place as any to bring this up, since Michael pointed out that "Adventures of Felix" slipped under his radar. One of the complaints against BBM was its marketing strategy. What about the marketing of gay-themed films in general? The plot summary/description offered by David Ehrenstein of "The Adventures of Felix" doesn't come across in any of the marketing I've seen for the film (the DVD cover, the trailer). I'd say there's definitely a cop-out approach to marketing of such films (esp. foreign ones) to their target audience. They come across as hyperkinetic boy-toy roadtrips. I'd never have rented the movie based on the trailer or the DVD art. David's summation sounds downright intriguing. Why is it so hard to convey in the marketing?

Oh, and thanks for the heads up on Moodysson's SHOW ME LOVE. It's arriving via Netflix today.

[David Ehrenstein]

It's exceptionally hard to reduce a film like this to a "jingle." it's all about mood, tone and atmospehre -- not "plot." In one sequence our hero is pursued by racists who want to beat him up. But that's about it as far as "suspense" or"drama" goes. Moreover the film's conclusion doesn't involve any sort of "payoff." He hooks up with his lover again and they smooch a whole lot. Cue Blossom Dearie (whose "Tout Doucement" is the film's theme song) and roll end credits.

[Michael]

Oh, and thanks for the heads up on Moodysson's SHOW ME LOVE.

I'm eager to read your thoughts when you're done with the film. Thanks... and also make sure to rent Come Undone. A few days after watching it, not one second goes by without thinking about it.

[Michael]

I hope it is okay if I use this thread to discuss gay films in addition to Adventures of Felix.

Now still being floated inside the amber glow of Three Dancing Slaves. What luxurious boys and cinematography! I love the fact that the film thoroughly is seen through the eyes of a young gay Arab boy. No wonder why those greased-up small-town boys look the way they do in the film. Always sexualized and hot. This is the town I want to move to!

Three Dancing Slaves is split into three chapters, one for each brother, like Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers. My favorite chapter is of course Oliver, the youngest of the "clan". Such a sweet boy who talks to his dead mother. His "body devouring" talk with his lover is oddly romantic. Stephane Rideau whom I have a major crush on since seeing him in Come Undone plays a straight brother who works at a prosciutto factory. It was kinda weird to see him playing dull and flat, especially after that rapturous performance in Come Undone. I bet it's intended for him to be that way. The straight guys - the father and Christophe - are expressed as boring, colorless and oppressive. Not surprising since again the film is seen through the eyes of a gay boy.

I like Three Dancing Slaves. But it doesn't have the same emotional resonance and depth as the Lifshitz films, Come Undone and Wild Side which I saw very recently.

[David Ehrenstein]

It was kinda weird to see him playing dull and flat, especially after that rapturous performance in Come Undone. I bet it's intended for him to be that way.

I think it's intended to throw Rideau fans off. He is, after all, French gay cinema's number one pin-up boy.

Also the heart of the film is that his brother (the chief fuck-up of the lot) is madly in love with him and can do nothign about it.

Indeed it's a wilder, gayer Rocco and his Brothers in every way.

[Matt]

I only now just got around to Three Dancing Slaves (a horrible title, but not much better than the original French Le Clan). It's clear that Morel learned a lot from working with Téchiné, but it seems more of a piece with Lifshitz' style (not to mention ever so slightly derivative of Le Haine). It's a little exploitative with all the unmotivated full-frontal nudity (not that I'd raise much of a complaint), and the short shrift given Olivier compared to the generous helping of Marc is a little disappointing. Also, Morel's taste in music sucks. But overall, I enjoyed it.

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

Films like Le Clan and Ma Vie are precisely what is wrong with ´gay´cinema... they are so very trite and platitudinous! Gratuitous nudity, coming of age stories, ´big emotions´...

Were it not for the nudity what else is there to say in praise of ´Le Clan´?

It saddens me to say that the vast majority of ´gay´films are complete rubbish (by ´gay´I am excluding homoerotic films like Elephant, a flawed categorization, I know). Lifshitz is a pleasant exception. The best ´gay´film I have seen to date works because it has meaning regardless of the characters sexuality. It was made by (the as far as I am aware perfectly heterosexual) WKW...

[Michael]

For some reason, modern gay cinema consists of an unhealthy chunk of "coming of age stories" and I certainly can understand the frustration with that. This is exactly why I adore Lifshitz's Come Undone because it's done so uniquely (almost reinvented) and it also explores other issues, like hereditary depression which I find very intriguing. For his next film, Lifshitz is utterly brilliant for taking a different detour by making a "family" film. Another equally gorgeous film.

Were it not for the nudity what else is there to say in praise of ´Le Clan´?

Beautiful photography. Beautiful men. Sometimes that can be more then enough. But Le Clan was still frustrating to watch. I agree with Matt that the movie should have extended Olivier's story since he's really the heart of the whole movie. His story is too short. That is too bad because he's the most interesting of all the brothers. I also would like to know more about the Arab kid beause he's also interesting.. the movie had a lot of potentials but Morel apparently ignored them.

Can someone please make movie adaptations of Paul Russell's novels? Especially The Coming Storm and War Against the Animals.

[Matt]

Films like Le Clan and Ma Vie are precisely what is wrong with ´gay´cinema... they are so very trite and platitudinous! Gratuitous nudity, coming of age stories, ´big emotions´

I don't think Le Clan necessarily exemplifies what's "wrong" with gay cinema (I haven't seen the other film). In a way, it's fairly marginal as a "gay" film. It doesn't really make "gay" its subject, even though it's clearly filmed from a gay point of view (hence the gratuitous nudity). Watching it, I didn't think there was going to be any actual gay content until we got to Olivier's story. It's not a great film, or even a very good film, but I didn't find it offensive. To be honest, what's most trite about it is its portrayal of Maghreb youth in the banlieues which is what led me to my criticism of it being derivative of Le Haine - right down to the capoeira.

Anyway, if gay cinema has a villain, surely it's films like this and the overwhelming pile of identical "coming of age" movies.

Can someone please make movie adaptations of Paul Russell's novels? Especially The Coming Storm...

I'm all for this, too. Love that book.

[Michael]

Very thrilled that you love The Coming Storm. I assume that you haven't read War Against the Animals which I think is as wonderful as The Coming Storm.

[Matt]

I did read War but didn't like it as much. Perhaps I just didn't believe in the cross-class romance on top of the intergenerational romance on top of the HIV+/HIV- romance.

Have you read At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill? It's a fascinating amalgam of all things Irish (including heaping helpings of Flann O'Brien, James Joyce, and Oscar Wilde) that goes ever so slightly over the top in a couple of places but otherwise is fantastically written and very engaging. The author worked nights as a hospital porter for 10 years while he wrote it. He'll probably end up never writing another book.

[Michael]

I know what you mean about War. I had a similar reaction but it didn't bother me that much. All the happenings in the story were enormously distant from my experiences. What I enjoyed the most was the author's breathtaking rendering of the upstate NY background which I identified with totally.

At Swim, Two Boys is still in my to-read pile. I will move the book to the top of the pile. I just finished reading the reading copy of Stephen Beachy's Some Phantom / No Time Flat which was enthusiastically recommended to me by my friend Scott Heim (author of Mysterious Skin). Wow! Keep your eyes open for its release next month. I couldn't think of a better book to read for the fall approaching.

Also in my to-read pile: As Meat Loves Salt by Mary McCann. Wonder if anyone has read this.