Wild Side

Confronting and acknowledging other sexualities often stems either from an intimate awareness of other orientations on one hand, or a determined political correctness on the other. Wild side, a film of haunting images and an unusual love triangle, opts for the former.

As the film opens, the camera pans slowly over a naked body of someone asleep. The gaze is quite sensual, but the figure fairly androgynous. The curve of a bosom appears, reassuringly female, and then we see the penis of the sleeping form a few moments later. Cut to a Parisienne bar where an audience of transsexuals listen enraptured to the almost operatic quality of a singer lamenting a dead lover ("I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy"), the song ending with the question, "Was he a boy or a girl?" Wild side proceeds to alternate between scenes of exquisite beauty, such as a figure running through a lush field - to scenes of tawdry sexuality, like a quick blow-job in a red light area. We meet Stephanie, a transsexual who has been reduced to turning tricks as a prostitute. The flashbacks show her as a young boy, Pierre. As the story develops, we see her leaving Paris to care for her terminally ill mother, together with her new Russian boyfriend Mikhail. They are soon joined by her friend Djamel, a bisexual male who has also been working as a prostitute in Paris.

Wild side is beautifully photographed. The French countryside and imaginative camera angles are complemented by excellent and typically unpretentious French acting which draws a clear distinction between the intimacy of lovers and the functionality of the paid sex, even when conducted with as much courtesy as the situation (and clients) allows. But it is the focus on the ordinary, gentle emotions of Stephanie and her two companions, whether to each other or their family, that helps the audience put Stephanie's trans sexuality into perspective and this is one of the not inconsiderable achievements of the film. We see her primarily as a person and, most importantly, as a woman. There is never anywhere the feeling that 'she' is really 'he' - and it is no effort of political correctness, simply a fact. Stephanie is a woman, emotionally to her mother (who has to come to terms with the change), and also in sharp contrast to the two men (Mikhail and Djamel) in her life. She is a woman who used to be a boy and she still has a penis (which she uses sometimes). Perhaps the recognition of Stephanie being 'she' is nowhere more forcefully apparent than in a fairly crude scene where a voyeur, paying Stephanie to perform sex with Mikhail, tells Mikhail to "f*ck *her*" and then to "jack her off" while he's doing so.

Ultimately, we realise the world of tenderness between Stephanie and her mother, and between her and her lovers, is one that a casual view of her persona would have missed. We are easily obsessed by someone's sexuality when it is not the same as our own - and to the extent that it is hard to see beyond it. In the early days of homophobic social interaction, gay people are simply seen by heterosexuals as people who have sex with persons of the same gender - that image is forefront, even though the same heterosexuals would never dream of continually thinking when meeting a new straight acquaintance, "this is a person who has sex with people of the opposite gender"! With Stephanie, the outward film-flam is two-fold - firstly she is transsexual, and that is difficult to see past for anyone who has never got to know a transsexual as a friend, as another human being. Secondly, she works (or has spent time working) as a prostitute - something we would normally see tattooed on someone's forehead immediately that fact was known. Both these things have affected her life, but they are not the most central thing to her character. They are her 'wild side' perhaps, but one which - at least to her mother, for instance, is of little consequence.

Sébastien Lifshitz ('Come Undone', 'The Crossing') is one of the more sensitive directors to arrive on the scene in some time. He molds stories about the periphery of mankind and creates deeply human dramas without the clutter and noise that often dampen the effect of intense emotional experiences. He is intelligent, a fine writer and observer and a man unafraid to take chances: all but two of the actors in WILD SIDE are amateurs with no experience in front of the camera and from these neophytes he extracts brilliant performances. He is an artist to watch.

Stéphanie (Stéphanie Michelini) is a transsexual who makes her living through prostitution on the streets of Paris. She is a gentle, soft-spoken, tender person who is making her way in life as the being she has selected to present. She meets Djamel (Yasmine Belmadi) a handsome bisexual North African young man who likewise makes his living turning tricks in the subways and streets of Paris, another person estranged from his family as is Stéphanie. Yet another young man Mikhail (Edouard Nikitine) estranged from his family in Russia meets Stéphanie and falls in love with her. The three outsiders from a true ménage a trois, all three genetically males, all three in need of love and belonging and capable of sharing love equally within the trio. When Stéphanie learns her estranged mother (Josiane Stoléru) is critically ill, she travels to her rural French neighborhood of her youth together with Mikhail and Djamel and it is this confrontation with her past and the way she pieces her life together with the love of Mikhail and Djamel that creates the beauty of this film.

Though there are innumerable reasons for recommending this film the main one remains the manner in which Lifshitz has taken a script written with his long-term associate and fellow professor at La Fémis (Paris) Stéphane Bouquet about a marginalized portion of society and crafted one of the more touching love stories that needs and receives no apologies. Stéphanie (the actress is a transsexual in real life and has never acted before) is presented not as an oddity but as just a human being for whom life has dealt some challenges. We see her in the opening scenes fully nude with the lovely body of a female that happens to also have male genitalia. The isolation of Stéphanie's life is shown from the beginning in a scene where a group of transsexuals listen tearfully as a singer (Antony Hegarty) sings a tender ballad 'I fell in love with a beautiful dead boy...but was he a girl or a boy?'. This quiet manner pervades the film.

Mikhail is likewise played by an unknown inexperienced actor and plumbs the depths of his lonely Russian émigré with gently nuanced humility. Djamel and Stephanie's mother are played by actors with whom Lifshitz has worked before and their superlative work helps coax the best performances from the neophytes. The breathtaking cinematography is by Agnès Godard, a genius for creating atmosphere and mood, equally successful in the cramped environs where the sex for money acts are performed as well as in the beauty of the Parisian streets and the French rural countryside. The subtle music score by Jocelyn Pook is variations by a string quartet and harp and very well composed. The DVD gratefully includes and interview with Lifshitz and for once the information shared is extremely beneficial to the enjoyment of the film.

Because audiences in general have difficulty with trans/homosexual love scenes this film will probably never receive the recognition it deserves. But for those who long for the power of truly fine independent films, this film is as fine as they come - in story, in direction, in acting, in cinematography and, most important, in honesty. It is a jewel of a movie. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp

'Wild Side' is a beautifully made film: with photography that captures a world both bleak and lovely, understated but human performances, an exquisite score, and an almost achingly painful sense of realism. What there isn't is a lot of plot in the conventional sense, as the film is almost entirely observational; and some of that observation is quite explicit (the central characters are a Parisian transvestite and his/her two lovers). But the film emphasises more what this unconventional threesome share with with the rest of us, without flinching on the detail of their life. Director Sebastien Liftshitz is clearly a major talent, and, while this is not exactly a fun movie, it reminded me of the work of Kieslowski in its sensitivity and composition.

This film does have a lot of depth to the characters, but you don't see it on screen.

If you are one of those people who watches a film for the bits you see on screen and have little time to explore what is happening away from what we are directly looking at then maybe you might not enjoy this.

There is a lack of glitzy feel-good factor about the film, but in my opinion it is what makes it so beautiful. The roughness of it all is where you can concentrate on what is happening inside the characters and not with what they are wearing, or what they look like etc.,

The struggle going on in all the main characters lives and the way they deal with society and interact with it is also very well done. The country scenery, although bleak, takes on a beauty and serenity compared to the almost chaos of the city scenes.

A lovely scene from antony and the johnsons lead singer(antony) adds to the whole group atmosphere.

This film is more like a fly on the wall of life amongst a section of trans-gendered people and their close ones more than a film with a plot. Definitely worth watching if you have an interest in these issues.

In Paris, the thirty-two years old travesty Stéphanie (Stéphanie Michelini) a.k.a. Pierre is a streetwalker that lives with the Egyptian gay hustler Djamel (Yasmine Belmadi) and the Russian gay Mikhail (Edouard Nikitine) that works in a restaurant. When the hospital where her mother Liliane (Josiane Stoléru) is terminal calls her, she travels with her two lovers to the countryside to look after her dying mother. While at home, she recalls her childhood and how she met Djamel and Mikhail.

"Wild Side" is an unconventional love story recommended for specific audiences. I am not fan of movies about homosexual relationships, but "Wild Side" is a good movie indeed, a sort of gay version of "Jules et Jim" regarding a woman divided by her two lovers. The performances are top notch and very realistic especially considering that this is the first work of Stéphanie Michelini and Edouard Nikitine. Unfortunately the characters are awfully developed and never explains why Pierre left her hometown when he was fifteen years old and why he became a travesty. Or why Mikhail left home in Russia. Or why Djamel has a relationship problem with his mother; further, the abrupt conclusion is disappointing and pointless. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Lado Selvagem" ("Wild Side")