Reminding us that 'poseur' is a French word, I Dreamt under the Water ( J'ai rêvé sous l'eau ) will please few American gays with its casual representation of bisexuality, and only a few film snobs will champion it for its style.
Antonin ( Hubert Benhamdine ) , the protagonist may be bisexual but the director and co-writer is mononomial: Hormoz, who expanded his 20-minute 2005 short to five times its length, with appropriately diminishing returns.
On the positive side, if you care about sex, I Dreamt under the Water has some of the hardest-core gay action this side of outright porn; but if that's all you're seeing it for, you might as well be watching porn instead for more and better stuff—and without the orientation switcheroo halfway through.
This is one of those movies that begin with a lot of seemingly unrelated scenes and images you hope will eventually make sense. Some involve Antonin with either his mother ( Christine Boisson ) or his bandmate Alex ( Franck Victor ) , on whom he has a crush. In fact he may have a crush on both of them.
Things go badly for Antonin. Alex ODs and his mother, with whom he's been living, announces they're being evicted and if he doesn't want to move far from Paris with her, he's on his own. Maman told him he should get a job.
There are several scenes of Antonin cruising the streets and clubs. Most end in anonymous sex, including one hot orgy where our hero services about half a dozen men. It's all rather pointless, but its pointlessness may be the point.
Then Antonin becomes a hustler. One of his first clients, Baptiste ( Hicham Nazzai ) becomes a regular and offers Antonin a job in his video store. This he accepts out of desperation.
Once Antonin meets Juliette ( Caroline Ducey ) it's as if he'd never been gay. Their first sex scene isn't as graphic as some of the gay ones but it's more intense and lasts longer. He gradually learns that he's fallen in love with another junkie—at least he's consistent in that regard—and sets out to save Juliette from Alex's fate.
Believe me, I've made the story a lot easier to follow than the Iranian-born Hormoz has. Some of his arty touches are well done but many are maddening. The soundtrack serves up a good selection of mostly-unfamiliar emo rock, about one song every ten minutes; but it should sound even better out of context, if there's an album.
Oh, the title? The dreams take place underwater; the dreamers aren't underwater while dreaming them. What they mean and, in most cases, who's dreaming them are anybody's guess.