by Directed by André Téchiné, “Les Roseaux Sauvages” stands out in a handful of cinemas 31 years after its release. The opportunity to (re) discover a film on youth that smells good in summer.
The fiery sun, the fields as far as the eye can see, the swimming in the river … Never a work will have better captured the essence of summer. It is therefore no coincidence that wild reeds is again in the cinema since July 2. First designed as a TV movie under an hour, commanded by the Arte channel as part of the collection all boys and girls, the project puts in the head of the director and screenwriters during his design to become a feature film.
A film awarded with 4 César
After his great first at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994, the film reveals three actors – Gaël Morel, Stéphane Rideau, Frédéric Gorny -, and confirms the talent of young Élodie Bouchez. The latter even receives the César for best female hope the following year.
This prize is accompanied by three other prestigious awards, including that of the best film. The telefilm version, entitled Le Chêne and Le Roseau will be broadcast in October 1994 on Arte. Despite a shy success in theaters, Wild reeds Over the years, wins a cult and timeless status of work that it must, in part, to its sensitivity and its authenticity.
What is it talking about?
1962, in the southwest of France. François is a brilliant boy, promised to a bright future. He discovers himself day by day and begins to question his sexuality. He can nevertheless count on the support and attentive ear of his best friend, Maïté, daughter of a communist teacher.
For the inseparable duo, it is an important year, that of the baccalaureate, but their life will be upset when their path will cross that of two young men: Serge, brother of a soldier left in Algeria, and Henri, a black foot haunted by the death of his father.
The ancestor of call me by your name
With Talent, André Téchiné contains spectators in a bubble, like this village which seems to be cut off from the rest of the world, and interferes, for only one summer, in the daily life of four teenagers who are about to live the pivotal moment of their young years. The film finds its singularity in its finesse and its summer atmosphere, similar to that which we will find, years later, in a film like Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino.
The power of wild reeds lies mainly in the treatment of his heroes, all admirably built, like François, played by Gaël Morel. Young provincial homosexual, he struggles to find his bearings to assert himself, before meeting an old shoe merchant in a very moving scene.
Solaris Distribution Gaël Morel and Stéphane Rideau in “Les Roseaux Sauvages”.
Determined to accept his own identity, he does not hesitate to face his reflection in the mirror by pronouncing these words in a loop: “I am a fag“This sincerity and this writing force, the filmmaker infuses them from his story by drawing from his own adolescence, passed from a religious establishment, like his main protagonist.
If the film gives off a real sweetness, it is nonetheless dark when it approaches the consequences of the Algerian war on the destiny of these adolescents, questioning their relationship to death, to mourning and the desire for revenge, like Henri, interpreted by Frédéric Gorny.
More than twenty-five years after its release, Wild reeds remains one of the major works in André Téchiné's career. The film has lost none of its charm or its relevance in its way of portraying the complexity of adolescence. There is no doubt that he will find a particular echo in the heart of a new generation, as an older. This may be what we recognize the great films.
Wild reeds, currently at the cinema
