Jeffrey’s Cinema #16

Jeffrey’s Cinema! This time with:

Sunday June 19 at 8 pm.

Les Garçons Sauvages, 2017
(The Wild Boys)
Directed by Bertrand Mandico
110 minutes
In French with English subtitles

Join us for Jeffrey’s Cinema #16, Les Garçons Sauvages!

Directed by post-surrealist cult filmmaker Bertrand Mandico, Les Garçons Sauvages is a leap into the unknown. It is the kind of film that can’t be spoken too much about beforehand since it starts in one place and ends in another, and there is no point in spoiling the journey. I will just say it starts off with five nasty boys, all from rich families, who are kidnapped by a Dutch sea captain and taken to a very strange exotic island called La Réunion.

Since I don’t want to give away the trajectory of the storyline, it’s better to describe this flick in terms of aesthetics. Visually it is a totally sensual film, transforming from a luscious black&white into fluorescent colors. It embraces its kitchy side, maybe even adores it. It always feels like a hallucinogenic drug, or a lucid dream. Above all, this is a movie about transgression and questioning masculine stereotypes. Its major influences are very queer; the experimental writer William Burroughs, the French novelist Jean Genet, and perhaps the photographers Pierre and Gilles. This dark adult fairytale is flamboyant, erotic, and gender-bending, with a lush visual flair rarely seen in cinema.

Jeffrey Babcock.