Wild Reeds (1994)

Waste of time

Undescribable Perfection

How sad is this?

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Dull, uninspiring tale of young love from a reputed master of French cinema. Andre Techine's film fails on many levels, unable as it is to grab our attention, hold our interest or endear us to its participants."Wild Reeds" has a very weak link, and that is its script. From director Techine, Gilles Taurand and Olivier Massart, it misses the mark on both plot and character development. The story, concerning a young boy's love for a fellow student who has lost his brother in the Algiers war, and a young girl's confusion about life and love which is compounded by her mother's nervous breakdown, never manages to captivate or even slightly interests us. Coupled with this is the scripters failure to present characters we can care about. Ensuring the film's complete destruction is the awful, pointed dialogue that is totally embarrassing and never works.In this light "Wild Reeds" did not stand a chance, and any attempts by the young cast to salvage the film are doomed. Having said this, Gael Morel, Elodie Bouchez, Frederic Corny and Stephane Rideau all try hard to reach us from their confused, youthful worlds. Alas none of them can.Cinematography from Jeanne Lapoirie is fetching.Monday, August 4, 1997 - Hoyts Croydon

«Les Roseaux Sauvages» (in Portuguese, «Juncos Silvestres») isn't just an ordinary film about the awakening of adolescence: it is a romantic treatise, an unforgettable example of delicacy and fidelity in the approach of such sensible themes such as the sexual ambiguity in adolescence and, above all, the love as a superior statement, domineering - even metaphysical. Although I haven't seen much of Téchiné (I saw, besides «Les roseaux sauvages», the movies «Loin», «Les égarés», and the recent «Les temps qui changent»), I believe that, to the date, this is without a doubt his best film, the most ravishing.Téchiné tells us the story of four teenagers: François Forestier (interpreted sublimely by Gaël Morel in his eternal look of sweet innocence), Serge Bartolo (interpreted by Stéphane Rideau, the eternal seducer confirmed later in «Loin», «Presque Rien», «A toute vitesse»...), Maïte Alvarez (interpreted by the well known Élodie Bouchez) and Henri Mariani (Frédéric Gorny).The film starts with François talking to Maïte about the movie «Såsom i en Spegel» (that reports us to the idea of 'search for the real truth'), from the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, although that isn't said. Truly, the entire film is the search for the truth by the 4 teenagers.François is Maïte's boyfriend, although that relationship is more of a platonic protection against adulthood pressures than a physical passion. At the same time, François, Serge and Henri study in the same masculine boarding school, where they share rooms. Serge, in his sexual ambiguity, desires Maïte and at the same time seduces François, and ends up having sex with him. From that day on, François faces the homosexual desires that he had yet not perceived, while he falls in love for Serge and feels excited by Henri. On its turn, Serge, although always hesitant, breaks the relationship with François to search a more peaceful village life, next to any woman that fulfills his needs. The scene where Serge first breaks with François is brutal and pungent. François, always interpreted as the most fragile and delicate of the four, meets Serge while the last is walking to the river to drown his cat's cubs. At the same time that he tells François (always sensitive) in cold blood that «they are not good for each other», he throws the innocent cubs into the river. For the first time in his life, François' heart is broken, in a scene that reminds us the archetype «the lost of innocence». From that moment on, François is always searching for fortuitous encounters with Serge, living as, in his own words, a «thieve stilling moments»: one time he travels in a motorcycle hugging Serge, in another time he sleeps next to him, etc. The scenes in the classroom are bright, solar, reminding the purity of childhood; and alternate with the scenes taken place at night, that are incredibly sensual. François is also portrayed as an intellectual that reads Jean-Arthur-Nicolas Rimbaud, a homosexual writer revolted against the world, that leaves everything to live with the also writer Paul Verlaine, while he was still a teenager. That is what François wants to be.Maïte, on her side, is a communist that, after knowing about François passion for Serge, is jealous, but finally realizes the true platonic nature of her relationship with him. After a while, she falls in love with Henri, a pied-noir (French born Algerian) teenager revolted against the situation in his native country. He is also in love with her, although ideologically they are rivals. And this is why love, in this film, is taken as a superior and dominant statement: it surpasses all human ideologies, even the most complex and rooted ones; it surpasses intellectuals who read Rimbaud and even the most practical persons. The action takes place in 1962, at the same time as the Algerian crises, that is not exploited, although, to a certain pace, it is. The soundtrack confirms the excellence of this film, with Chubby Checker giving a sixties atmosphere, and the Adagio for string by Samuel Barber yielding the dramatic dimension that the film deserves, like in the highly stylized scene where Henri his sleeping by the river, or when François travels in the motorcycle hugging Serge.In the end, François meets a shoe salesman that everyone knows his a homosexual, in a scene that represents the almost desperate search for a way to destroy the lowliness, incomprehension, and lack of role models that are destined by his sexual orientation. Although he doesn't find the answer for his problems, because there isn't one, François remains optimistic − and this is another lesson that this film teaches us: to stay in the fight, always optimistic in a future happiness.This is one of those movies where I would like to penetrate and live in forever, between Maïte, Serge, Henri and, above all, the character unifying the destiny of the four, François, 'searching the truth'. I have seen films in the come-of-age theme, but this remains my favorite. Some good ones are «Presque Rien» (with Jérémie Elkaïm and Stéphane Rideau), «A cause d'un garcon» (also with Jérémie Elkaïm), «Maurice» (based on E. M. Forster homonymous work) and «Beautiful thing».It remains to be said that this film won four César (in the Cannes festival): best film, best director, best script and best actress-revelation for Élodie Bouchez.

This film is truly amazing. I saw it and was so moved by it that I couldn't stop thinking about it for a very long time. It is heavily based on the director's (Andre Techine) real life experiences. In this film Techine manages to create a realistic and palpable universe which seems which if you know anything about film is a very hard thing for directors to accomplish. I asked a French DP and a friend of Andre Techine about Les Roseaux Sauvages and he told me that it was originally made for television and that it was such an enormous sensation in France that it later was released in the theaters and won many awards at the Cesars in Paris - France's equivalent of the Oscars. I will admit that some American friends of mine went to see this film and didn't get it. What a pity for them.

The slightly loose and episodic feel of this charming coming-of-ager doesn't matter because the characters and the conflicts are so well presented that we are enthralled throughout.Three boys on the verge of manhood (with the French-Algerian conflict smoldering in the background) are in residence at a boarding school in the south of France in 1962. One is gay, the second is bi-sexual and the third is straight. Through their interactions we (and they) discover their sexuality.Francois Forestier, played attractively by Gael Morel, is gay as he discovers one night when Serge Bartolo (Stephane Rideau), an athletic schoolmate with a natural style, awakens his sexuality by seducing him. For Serge it is just a school age sexual adventure; for Francois it is love so intense he is transformed. The third boy, Henri Mariana, who is from Algeria, is a little older and a little more cynical. He finds heterosexual love with his enemy, Maité Alverez, who is a hated communist. Elodie Bouchez, whom I recall from The Dreamlife of Angels (1998) for which she shared a Cannes Best Actress award, plays Maité whose style is earnest, witty and brave.As it happens I was in France during the period of this film, and a teenager as well. The Algerian conflict haunted the young men because as soon as they were of age they could be sent away to fight. Also the Communist Party was strong in France and an attraction to some who opposed what they saw as French colonialism in Algeria and Vietnam. Director André Téchiné who characteristically explores human sexuality in his films (e.g., Rendez-Vous (1985) with a young and vital Juliette Binoche; Le lieu du crime (1986) with Catherine Deneuve; and Ma Saison Préférée (1993) also starring Catherine Deneuve) attempts to integrate these larger issues into his film but I don't think is entirely successful. Serge's older brother is killed in Algeria and his teacher blames herself for not helping him to escape his military service and suffers a nervous breakdown. However this story is not well-connected with the rest of the film. Also more could have been done with the divergent views of Maité and Henri. What I loved was the club scene where suddenly the French girls are twisting to Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again" which propelled me back to 1962 when indeed the Twist was all the rage in France.What makes this film superior is the warm and truthful way in which the sexual awakenings are realized. The kids seem absolutely real and the dialogue is sharp and authentic. Morel is very winning. I especially liked the earnest way he confronts and then accepts his sexuality. Interesting was the scene in which he seeks out the shoe salesman whom he knows is gay for his advice on how he should cope with unrequited homosexual love.This is a film about young people for open-minded adults attractively done. For many it will strike a strong cord of recognition.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)