Presque rien

[desayunoencama]

Last night I watched this French film, whose English title is COME UNDONE. (I had met my friend Luis for tea and he loaned me a few DVDs to break up my reading with some visual narratives for a change.)

What a lousy film! The two protanogists, Jeremie Elkaim and Stephane Rideau, are both cute, but that is the film's only redeeming value. And even then, it's not quite enough. Plenty of beach scenes, some nighttime skinny-dipping, a bit of sex on the beach... But the plot (hah!) if very poorly elaborated, and doesn't really amount to anything. It's like a 98 minute slice of life with no point. Feh.

The film jumps around in time without any indicators of when or where we are, and none of the potentially powerful emotional moments of the film are ever realized. The major conflict is not even shown in the film, you have to deduce that it happened (and what it was).

Sebastian Lifshitz obviously disagrees with that famous Chekov line about how if you have a gun on stage in act one of a play it must go off by the end of act 3.

(I haven't seen the other gay teen flick, WILD REEDS, which also stars Stephane Rideau, but if the plot is as non-existant as this, I think I won't waste my time. Different director, so perhaps there is hope...)

The poster image/DVD cover shows a Pierre et Gilles photo of the two cute protagonists, but there is a full-frontal version of this same image in P&G's new book from Taschen which is more rewarding--and perhaps more interesting and dynamic than the film itself.

Not recommended for anyone seeking something more than soft-porn twink titillation.

Comments

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

I agree with your thoughts on the film. Wild Reeds is far better but still not very satisfying. I guess I prefer the lightheartedness of The Closet to dour French queer films. (I did enjoy Confusion of Genders, though, but felt that I would never want to associate with any of the characters - much like Seinfeld)

[scottynola.livejournal.com]

Wild Reeds stunk. I can't speak for Come Undone but when I returned WR> to the video store I asked for a refund.

[treebreeze.livejournal.com]

Likes and dislikes are very subjective. Wild Reeds has been a sentimental favorite of mine for a number of years. I bought Come Undone just this year and it really did not appeal to me at all.

Again it is such a subjective area....we all have our own reasons for liking or disliking films.

[nir1.livejournal.com]

I loved Les Roseaux sauvages. I didn't imagine a film dealing with teenage angst and unrequited love, set against the background of France's withdrawal from North Africa would be satisfying, if you mean in the fuzzy, feel-good way. Je ressens beaucoup, mais ne comprends rien...

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

It had looked promising when it was first released. So I guess I won't hold PRESQUE RIEN against Stephane, although I don't feel any need to rush out and see it.

Next up are HAPPY TOGETHER and MONSIEUR IBRAHIM ET LES FLEURS DU CORAN, that my friend Luis loaned to me at the same time.

[nir1.livejournal.com]

I just had the pleasure of reading French-Jewish writer Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's narrative, "Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran" in Hebrew translation. It's a beautiful story. When, thinking I'd made a sweet discovery, I mentioned it to my friends, they rolled their eyes in surprise that I hadn't seen the film! Schmitt, by the way, has quite a nice website in English and French: http://www.eric-emmanuel-schmitt.com/

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pointing his site out to me. I haven't read (nor seen) IBRAHIM yet, but it's good to know he has other works available. And much of his work has been published or republished in Spanish, so I can let the friend who first recommended him to me know about them.

[nir1.livejournal.com]

Hi Lawerence,

It just dawned on me why your name seems so familiar to me. I was in the States for a few years, teaching at a university in Oregon. When romance went south, I decided to follow suit.

!¿Qué más podría hacer cuando el amor terminó con tal velocidad asombrosa - excepto toma un viaje a México?! I spent that summer in Cuernavaca, Mexico and attended a special language program at CETLALIC. http://www.cetlalic.org.mx/

Our first fieldtrip was to D.F. In the morning, we went to the Frida Kahlo House, la Casa Azul. In the afternoon, we joined in the Mexican capital's Pride march (Mexico at its most colorful!).

CETLALIC doesn't use a textbook per se. Instead, we discussed issues that we were passionate about and teachers would suggest readings. One of my instructors, Sandra, xeroxed one of your stories for me. Another teacher, having seen what I was reading, made some connection between you and vampires, and made me a gift of "El Vampiro De La Colonia Roma" a book by Cuernavaca's own Luis Zapata. ¡Pues, gracias, Lawerence por toda la ayuda con mi español!

Itai
Tel Aviv

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

What a small world it is, sometimes, Itai!

I'm amazed at how many languages and countries you crossed to make this cibernetic connection. :-)

Me alegro que mis cuentos te ayudaron a aprender el castellano.

No sé si le conociste, pero el dueño de la librería gay en D.F. es también el coordinador de Shalom Amigos (el grupo de gays judios).

What were you teaching in OR?

[nir1.livejournal.com]

Erev tov, Lawrence!

In Portland, I taught Hebrew at the university, and a slough of subjects at a Jewish day school (Torah w/Rashi, ESL, Hebrew, Arabic, History, Dance and Music). I also played harpsichord with the Portland Chamber Orchestra, taught music theory and piano and did some translation work. It was never boring and sometimes I even remembered to breathe!

For the year just after 9/11, I also taught English in Jordan in a boys' school. Down on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea where the land juts into the sea, the village is the lowest inhabited place in the world and the presumed site of Sodom. As a secondary project and with a nod to my location, I did some Aids education (in Arabic and pantomime). Although it was unintentional, I found that a little humor softens the heart to hear...

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I think I'm exhausted just reading about it!