André Téchiné's Strayed

[arsaib4]

.

[Chris Knipp]

I am a big fan of Téchiné and though this may not seem one of his very best -- Les Voleurs, for instance, is more complex, Wild Reeds more balanced and clear in its examinaition of relationships, I Don't Kiss more complete as a coming of age story-- it has a kind of neatness and perfection about it --- a sense of completeness and unity of time -- and yet it's a picture of chaos and, as often in his work -- also a portrait of bent or complex or restructured relationships. Hence Ulliel's character, the feral Yvan, is master and older brother, perhaps father as you say, but also child and lover. The most lost and doomed of all, however briefly he is for a time nonetheless the only one who can protect and preserve order. And then after a few days, it all changes. What we see is an interlude which at the end has vanished without a trace, leaving behind a sense of the chaos and destructiveness of war, but also of how upheaval can create life as well as destroy it. Both are reflected in Miss Béart's sad and beautiful face.

Given Ulliel's interesting appearance in this film, I was disappointed that he is used as little more than a stick figure in Jeunet's Very Long Engagement.



I reviewed the film online after seeing it in New York last summer http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=321.

[arsaib4]

There were numerous other aspects of Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles I didn't like so improper use of Gaspard wasn't that noticeable to me, but you're right. Frankly, given the budget and the "intended" audience I'm surprised that they didn't go for a more popular actor. But then, I guess the film was more or less a showcase for Amélie de Montmartre and her charms than anything else.

After a few years I'm finally noticing some young male actors emerging in French cinema. (Of course they have no shortage of leading ladies and the auteurs still love them.) But a few more youth pictures are being made so the demand is there I guess. Benoît Magimel obviously is in a different class right now than any other. Too bad that Depardieu's son Guillaume suffered such a tragic setback. His leg had to be amputated due to an infection resulting from a motorcycle accident and later on he was imprisoned for threatening someone with a gun. I really liked him in films like Pola X and Peau d'ange.

[Chris Knipp]

I think for the boyfriend in Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles they needed a really young-looking actor so a more popular one might not have filled the bill as well. It seems -- and French women have told me -- that the French have tended in movies (to the disappointment of the ladies, and of gay men) to go in rather heavily for lovely women while preferring middle-aged gnarly-looking men like Depardieru senior and Daniel Auteuil and so many others; but you are no doubt right in noting a counter trend due to the development of more youth pictures in France. I can think of some well established younger French movie actors who don't fit the ugly male category, such as Mattieu Kassowitz (37) and Vincent Cassel (38), or among younger ones, Stéphane Rideau (27) of Wild Reeds, and several others I can't remember the names of who've been in gay coming-of-age movies. That's sad what you say about Guillaume Depardieu; I know him only from Tous les matins du monde, where he was certainly young and also beautiful. It was a stretch to cast him as the young Marin Marais were he not the son of the man playing the elder Marais. I was wondering what became of Manuel Blanc (36), the lead in Téchiné's J'embrasse pas, and see on IMDb that he's been in 20 films since then -- none of which I've seen! So it goes, if you live here and not in France and don't ardently pursue import dvd's or festivals. Of course Benoît Magimel (31) is huge after the Cannes best actor award for La pianiste, and he was important in Les voleurs (he's a very strong actor), but I've only seen him a few times, despite knowing his name.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp

I was wondering what became of Manuel Blanc (36), the lead in Téchiné's J'embrasse pas, and see on IMDb that he's been in 20 films since then -- none of which I've seen! So it goes, if you live here and not in France and don't ardently pursue import dvd's or festivals. Of course Benoît Magimel (31) is huge after the Cannes best actor award for La pianiste, and he was important in Les voleurs (he's a very strong actor), but I've only seen him a few times, despite knowing his name.

Looking at Manuel Blanc's filmography I don't see anything special really; a lot of TV work and some small local films. However he's in Werner Schroeter's Deux which is playing at Film Comment Selects as part of Bulle Ogier's retro co-starring Isabelle Huppert.

I didn't get to see Chabrol's latest La Demoiselle d'honneur in Toronto but people were raving about it. There was a story in the local paper that Huppert was so impressed with Magimel's performance in La Pianiste that she specifically recommended Chabrol (who's like a family member to her) to cast him in his films and after La Fleur du Mal this marks the second occasion. I'm looking forward to it. It seems like Magimel is trying to balance between the more auteur driven films and commercial products like Rivières Pourpres II with Jean Reno: the other French male actor who likes to embarass himself all over the world.

[Chris Knipp]

You may be right about Manuel Blanc--indeed there are a lot of tv items and it doesn't look like an outstanding résumé; however, there just might be something good lurking there, one can't be sure from perusing a list. Speaking of "embarassing himself" as you put it, Vincent Cassel was rather embarassing in Ocean's Twelve, I thought. That dance under the laser beams was damn silly. Think of him in Sur mes lèvres--there, he was so cool! I'm glad Huppert was vouching for Magîmel, but I fear much of French filmmaking is in-groupy, a small world where it's all too often matter of who you know.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
You may be right about Manuel Blanc--indeed there are a lot of tv items and it doesn't look like an outstanding résumé; however, there just might be something good lurking there, one can't be sure from perusing a list. Speaking of "embarassing himself" as you put it, Vincent Cassel was rather embarassing in Ocean's Twelve, I thought. That dance under the laser beams was damn silly. Think of him in Sur mes lèvres--there, he was so cool!

I've seen a couple of those films starring Manuel Blanc on TV5 that's why I said what I did. I decided not to see Ocean's 12 but I did see Cassel recently in Agents Secrets which is as awful as thrillers get, however, the French did spend some money dressing it up nicely. But he has done enough good work to justify his position as one of the leading actors there.

One actor we have failed to mention is Guillaume Canet whose stock seems to be on the rise from I've read. He has done a few "name" films so you'll probably recognize him.

[Chris Knipp]

You didn't tell me before that you got TV5, that must be a great source of info on current French culture. Now that I'm studying French again after many years my neighbors, one whom is French, say I ought to get it, but I don't like to watch TV or cable so...

I don't know about this other actor, Canet. I'll just have to go to France more often; I plan to. I have not seen Chéreau's Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train. I have not seen Narco; have you? Is it any good? Vincent Cassel has had good roles -- Le pacte des loups, Irréversible, Sur mes lèvres, and others. If he's in potboilers, some of them are now international, and highly paid: it happens to many actors; they have to make a living; or they are seduced, I don't know.

We haven't mentioned Clovis Cornillac, who last September opened in Paris in both Mensonges et trahisons et plus si affinités, and La femme de Gilles, playing Gilles (I reviewed both on my website -- Mensonges et traisons at http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=361 and La femme de Gilles at http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=363&sid=b1f28b04ce7ad3e8ad340b2b1993b900) --
both very different and very good roles; and now he's visible in Une longe dimanche de fiançailles as "Benoît Notre-Dame." An actor of great energy and versatility; as Le Monde said, if he gets a "grand rôle," he's going to be a big star.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp

You didn't tell me before that you got TV5, that must be a great source of info on current French culture.

TV5 (http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/cinema/cinema_semaine.php) is certainly a wonderful channel to have. I mean just look at some of the fine films showing this week (once in a while they even present them with subtitles). I've copied a lot of films that are otherwise only available on French (Secam) vhs or not available at all. It's not terribly expensive either--about $10 monthly.

I don't know about this other actor, Canet. I'll just have to go to France more often; I plan to. I have not seen Chéreau's Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train. I have not seen Narco; have you?

I haven't seen Narco, but I have seen Chéreau's film (Canet has a very small role). While I don't love it as much as some of the others from the filmmaker, the first half an hour or so of Ceux Qui M'aiment Prendront le Train can be viewed as a masterclass in video and sound editing. It's simply phenominal for the senses and a lesson for all the MTV hacks out there. Chéreau ends up introducing a few too many characters later on but it's still a pleasure watching such physical actors as Valeria Tedeschi, Pascal Greggory, Charles Berling, Bruno Todeschini and others. As always with Chéreau, the music is great too; I think you'll like it (DVD from Kino is less-than-stellar quality wise).

[Chris Knipp]

I can't see myself ordering TV5 -- yet -- but I'm sure it's great. I admire French TV. I'll keep the Chéreau dvd in mind, another Netflix possibility, I take it. Again, thanks for all the good info.

[Chris Knipp]

The music of Ceux Qui M'aiment Prendront le Train (which I found for rental, as noted on another thread, and so have watched now) is indeed great, and it is, as you say, amazing how he weaves his way thorough all those people on the train. Interesting to compare this one with De Pallières' Adieu, also focused on a group of people attending a funeral. While Chéreau's film is immensely interesting (if, as you suggest, diffuse), Adieu has a lot more meaning to it, I think, and leaves one with more to ponder and with a more powerful mood. But I'd like to have seen Ceux Qui m'aiment.... on a big screen, because like so much of Chéreau, it's grand and operatic.

[arsaib4]

I'm glad you saw it and liked it. Yeah, I'd also like to see it on the big screen. I wouldn't mind seeing the 160+ minute version of Chéreau's La Reine Margot either which was shown at Cannes where it won the Jury prize. The film is known to contain much more depravity and in this case I wouldn't mind since it's historically accurate. The butchered version released here by soon-to-be-gone Weinsteins runs about 20-minutes short of the original.

[Chris Knipp]

I've seen few of Chéreau's films -- but he hasn't really done many over a considerable period -- yet the ones I've seen have made a big impression. His style and outlook -- gay, operatic, baroque, intense, yet curiously austere and elegant -- are very distinctive and consistent. It adds interest that he has actors he uses repeatedly. Interesting that the brooding heartthrob Vincent Perez is a transvestite in this one. I've now also seen Son Frère, and I was even more impressed by its powerful, elegant treatment of terrible illness and the bond it creates between previously estranged brothers. It has the same kind of desperation and vividness I first experienced in L'Homme blessé, which as I've told Oscar, became an obsessive interest to me when I repeatedly saw it in a theater in the early Eighties. La Reine Margot is a lush overdose of shocking and gorgeous imagery, the complete version would be nauseating but compulsive viewing I'm quite sure.

[arsaib4]

I was afraid that Son Frère might be a bit extreme for your taste but I'm glad to see that you acknowledged its emotional profundity. I can't think of too many filmmakers who treat their non-hetero characters with the same respect, as they would any other, like Chéreau does. Vincent Perez's character was actually an anomaly for Chereau, especially the way he was portrayed. But it certainly seemed that Perez was having some fun.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes. I agree. Son Frère is indeed a very fine film. In its way so is Ceux qui m'aiment.... The Perez kind of character is always an "anomaly" but maybe not an anomaly for Chéreau, a gay director. At least I have always assumed he is gay. I would be very surprised if he were not. About Téchiné I don't know, but I like his treatment of 'non hetero' subjects too, and mixing them in with 'hetero' ones. Son Frère succeeds with me because of its elegance and restraint: those qualities relate to the idea expressed by Emily Dickenson's famous line, "After great pain a formal feeling comes." A key moment is the one when Thomas's body is shaved in preparation for the operation to remove his spleen. This as a way of expressing Thomas' medical state of extremis is a brilliant choice. It's very simple, rather shocking, yet somehow beautiful; it's realistic, but also symbolic, classic. Terribly real, it's also surreal. If Jean Cocteau could have used such a scene in his time, he would have.

I would note that the feral boy in Strayed played by Gaspard Ulliel has a gay appeal. That is part of his polymorphous nature: he is available to everybody, and to nobody. His sex appeal and air of danger are ambiguous qualities. Téchiné often plays with ambiguous, overlapping relationships; you see that in Wild Reds and Les Voleurs.

[arsaib4]

"Gay appeal" is probably the right word but I think the ambiguity also remained due to the lack of evidence about Ulliel's background. Although, I think the relationship between him and Béart was grounded and had more to do with the rising sexual tension and the lack of any other male figure around her.

The key scene obviously is when the two finally do come together and how the dynamics play out. When they're about to have intercourse, after some animalistic groping, Ulliel prefers anal sex as that was all he had experienced in reform schools. Also we hear him say that he has never been around too many girls. It was never in question that he wasn't straight...at most he was a bisexual.

Téchiné talked about this scene in an interview which is on the DVD, and it was surprising to hear him say that he contemplated taking the sex scene out but at the end went with it as he had written it in the original script. Gilles Perrault, whose novel the film is based on, said that in the novel the two men who arrive at the house do attempt to rape the female character but the boy saves her and only then she gives into him. I think Téchiné made the right decision otherwise on screen it might've looked a bit too dramatic. In the film he has one of the men showing his family pictures to Béart and that's when she starts to reminisce about the past and finds the youngster waiting.