Wild Reeds

Director Techine once again has made a beautiful movie, this time concerning a group of teenage friends in southern France in the early 1960's. Techine uses the Algerian war as a catalyst for the interaction between the 4 friends. As the movie unfolds, each friend discovers how they're involved with one another, in dramatizatons that the French are so good at. Techine makes good use of the idyllic, pastoral French Pyrenee countryside to compliment the personal dramas unfolding in it. You can almost smell and feel the summertime around you. A touchingly-done coming-of-age film for all ages, not just teens. So successful was the pairing of Rideau and Bouchez that they went on to make several other movies together, one of which was directed by Gael Morel, one of the stars in this movie as well.

Les roseaux sauvages (1994) was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Wild Reeds. It was co-written and directed by André Téchiné.

The movie is set in 1962, just at the end of the Algerian War of Independence. To fully understand and enjoy the movie, it's helpful to know the basics. French soldiers were still being sent to Algeria to oppose independence. The OAS was a right-wing group in Algeria and France that wanted to retain French colonial power.

We don't see Algeria in the movie--the action takes place in and around Toulouse, in southern France. The film is a coming-of-age movie for four young adults.

Élodie Bouchez portrays Maïté Alvarez, the only woman of the four. Gaël Morel is François Forestier, Stéphane Rideau plays Serge Bartolo, and Frédéric Gorny portrays Henri Mariani.

The three young men are studying in a boarding school. Maïté's mother teaches at the school. She and her daughter are both Communists, and they believe in Algerian independence.

The movie examines a few weeks in their lives. These weeks are filled with self-discovery and interaction among the four adolescents. Some of the events are profound and will change what happens to them in the future.

We saw the film on DVD. It would work better on the large screen, but it was OK on the small screen. The movie has a solid IMDb rating of 7.4. I thought it was better than that and rated it 8.

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!)

This was a really sensitive and perceptive story about growing up and some of the pain and confusion that goes along with that. The movie is quite quiet and doesn't feel the need to comment on everything as so many American movies do. It is the story of four young French people growing up in Provence in France in the 60s and one of the boys has a homo-erotic experience and thinks that the other boy with whom he has the experience must have enjoyed it. The other boy regrets the experience that he had and when his brother dies in the war in Algeria, he feels obliged to support his family and so declines to pursue any sort of homosexual relationship. He wants to live a respectable sort of life and doesn't want to cause any trouble. The young gay boy is very confused but is a good friend to the teacher's daughter. They enjoy dancing and seeing films and learning about various things. The girl ends up falling for a rather lazy young man who has very different political views than herself. The movie is beautifully filmed and very relaxed and slow. It is a nice reflective movie on the nature of youth and some of the struggles that kids go through. The kids handle the struggles in the typical manner of kids. Sometimes they don't handle them very well and other times they show remarkable grace and common sense. But all in all it is a wonderfully gimmick free movie which really shows how difficult it is to be a kid in any place and at any time. I would really recommend this movie to people.