An average movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Patrice Chéreau and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, it is a such a cool title, especially in French, but it didn’t turn out to be an easy watch though. Indeed, the whole thing was pretty weird, unsettling and often rather sordid. The beginning scenes were also rather bewildering. Indeed, you don’t really get to know this family and, instead, you see them rushing to the train station but you don’t know what this trip was about, why they were rushing like this and why they were all acting so weird. However, the behavior of the main character, Henri, was even stranger though. Seriously, what was the deal with this guy? The fact that we never saw him before in another context probably didn’t help. Still, there is no denying that Jean-Hugues Anglade, in his 2^nd part, gave such an intense and flawless performance. Indeed, I always believed in what Anglade was doing which was even more remarkable since the character himself didn’t make much sense. Facing him, Vittorio Mezzogiorno was also really good, even though I was confused by the fact that he did really sound like Gérard Depardieu which actually made sense because Depardieu did dub him. Even though this movie seemed to be forgotten nowadays, it was actually a critical success when it was released but I wonder how the gay community might feel about it. Indeed, even though the feelings displayed by these young men were incredibly intense and quite mesmerizing to behold, this underground gay world seemed terribly unhealthy and toxic, physically and mentally. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely work for me, it was still a strangely interesting movie with some top performances and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.