 | The Visionary Genius of André Téchiné.
rating: 5
André Téchiné's name is synonymous with extraordinary French films. He is best known for My Favorite Season (1993) and Wild Reeds (1994), both of which are included in the recent release of the Andre Techine Boxset, which features four quintessential French relationship films.
1. Wild Reeds (Les roseaux sauvages). Set in a boarding school in the Southwest of France in 1962, Wild Reeds (Les Roseaux sauvages) tells the story of a ménage à trois between four French youths during the political turmoil of the Algerian War. François (Gaël Morel) and Maïté (Élodie Bouchez) are close friends who share a love for French cinema. Maïté is interested in becoming François' lover, but François is more interested in his classmate Serge (Stéphane Rideau). Serge is attracted to Maïté. Eventually, Francois and Serge have sex together, but Serge wants to marry his deceased brother's wife. These sexual interactions converge to make this emotionally-moving film an intelligent meditation on sexual awakening and the damaging effects of war on human relationships. It is as much a film about sexual turmoil as a film about political turmoil. Many consider this film to be Téchiné's greatest masterpiece. At the 1995 César Awards, Wild Reeds won awards for Best Film, Best Director (André Téchiné), Most Promising Young Actress (Élodie Bouchez) and Best Original Screenplay. Wild Reeds is a quintessential French film
2. I Don't Kiss (J'embrasse pas). Téchiné's 1991 film tells the dark story of twenty-year-old Pierre (Manuel Blanc), who travels to Paris from his home in the rural Pyrenees with aspirations of becoming an actor. After failing, he instead becomes a male prostitute but refuses to kiss his male clients. "I'll do almost anything for money, but I don't kiss." Emmanuelle Béart delivers a fine performance as Pierre's love interest, Ingrid.
3. Hotel America (Hôtel des Amériques). Set in Biarritz, Téchiné's 1981 film examines the troubled relationship between a successful middle-aged woman and an unfulfilled and emotionally unbalanced man. It marked the start of his long collaboration with Catherine Deneuve, his actress-muse.
4. My Favorite Season (Ma saison préférée). Téchiné describes My Favorite Season as a film "about individuality and the coldness of the modern world." It is ultimately a film about the damaging effects of modern life on human relationships. It tells the poignant story story of world-weary estranged siblings, Emilie (Catherine Deneuve), a lawyer, and Antoine (Daniel Auteuil), a chain-smoking neurosurgeon, who are reunited after three years when their aging mother Berthe (Marthe Villalonga) suffers a stroke. The film triumphs in its mature exploration of the emotional depths of their troubled relationship. Deneuve and Auteuil bring two of the best performances of their careers to the film in their subtle portrayal of middle-aged disillusionment and restlessness. Deneuve's real-life daughter Chiara Mastroianni (Persepolis; Love Songs) plays her emotionally-damaged daughter Anne in the film. This slowly-paced two-hour film delivers a huge emotional payoff in its final scenes.
Highly recommended for anyone with a love for French cinema at its best.
G. Merritt
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Sex Rules
rating: 5
A set of four movies:
-Hotel America
The beautiful Helene (Catherine Deneuve) works in a hospital as an anaesthesiologist. She accidentally hits Gilles (Patrick Dewaere) while driving her car.
The two of them go back and forth in a cat-and-mouse game until Helene tires of going nowhere and decides to leave for Paris.
Gille's attraction to a friend of him makes him rather dull than real.
-J'embrasse pas (I do not kiss)
Young, naive and innocent, Pierre (Manuel Blanc) has dreams of becoming an actor.
He gets a job as an orderly at a hospital and is further supported by an older woman (Helene Vincent), a nurse he has met there, in return for his sexual favours.
However, in his acting class, he quickly discovers that he is not overflowing with talent and becomes a full-time sex worker.
He has the poor judgement to fall in love with a high-class prostitute (Emmanuelle Bart) and earns the antagonism of her pimp.
Less dramatic than Mandragora or Twist, but to some extend similar to Scum in consequences for selling body while being straight.
-My Favourite Season
Family matriarch Berthe (Marthe Villalonga) is advancing in years and developing health problems, so she goes to live with her daughter Emilie (Catherine Deneuve).
When Christmas arrives, Emilie's troubled brother Antoine (Daniel Auteuil) arrives at the house for a visit. He and Emilie have not spoken since their father's funeral three years ago. Despite his attempts to maintain control, Antoine quickly comes into conflict with Bruno. Painful emotional realities from the past return and cause violent conclusions.
Incest motives.
-Wild Reeds
This is a nostalgic French coming-of-age drama set in a Provence deeply divided over the war for independence being waged against French colonialism in Algeria of 1962.
A class master is attracted to a former pupil-a soldier having arrived from Algeria for getting married and deserting from army, while at boarding school brother of him spent a night with a fellow school lad happened to be the best friend of a class master's daughter-young communist.
In addition, a daughter shared her favours with a pupil of the same class-a French-Algerian radical twenty-one y.o. man having his own plans on her gay beau, as a soldier was being killed in Algeria on his return and his young wife was looking at possibilities with his younger brother searching between partners in and out a school.
A really nice clever movie is more interesting than Summer Storm.
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Four on Three
rating: 5
"Andre Techine Four Film Collector's Edition"
Four on Three
Amos Lassen
Andre Techine has brought a ray of light to French cinema in recent years and now we have a boxed set which includes four of his best movies on three DVDs.
"Hotel America" is the story of Giles whose mother runs a small hotel in a French costal city. Giles has been sponging off of her. He meets a woman named Helene and she takes over the job of mothering him and even treating his wounds when he gets into a fight. He also has another relationship--with Bernard, a self-absorbed, mediocre singer-guitarist who is always in some kind of legal trouble. Bernard, however, feels passion for Luc, a gay man that he beat up in a washroom. This is a beautifully made film and Techine explores deep rooted insecurities and jealousies.
"I Don't Kiss" (J'Embrasse Pas) is the study of a young country innocent, Pierre, who comes to Paris to make a career for himself. He had no idea about his own intellectual and social limitations. He eventually gives up his dream of becoming an actor and enters the world of male prostitution. As Pierre, Manuel Blanc gives an outstanding performance which won him the Cesar, the French equivalent of the Academy Award.
"My Favorite Season" stars Catherine Deneuve as the big sister of Daniel Auteuil, a brain surgeon. The movie looks at family dynamics with warmth and charm. This is an emotionally charged film which gives us the bittersweet story of a brother and sister who are drawn together after their mother has a stroke.
The fourth film is "Wild Reeds" which I have extensively reviewed separately on these pages. Many feel that this Techine's masterpiece and is a compelling coming-of-age and coming out story set during the war in Algeria. It is a character study which is multi-layered portrait of four teenagers and their personal and political views.
Techine manages to give us films that speak to us and make us think and we are lucky to have this collection. Hopefully there will be more to come.
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