The Landmark Century will be gay movie central this weekend when it debuts two terrific additions to the genre. Not surprising given the high quality of many of the foreign imports this year, both Cote D'Azur ( from France ) and Garcon Stupide ( from Switzerland ) have much to offer.
Cote D'Azur is a saucy farce that is just as light and airy as the Mediterranean vacation spot favored by the movie's French family—parents Marc, Béatrix and their two teenage kids, Charly and Laura. They are surely one of the sexiest families ever captured on cinema—and along with the Whiteman family headed by Richard Dreyfuss and Bette Midler in Down and Out in Beverly Hills—one of the horniest. The difference is that the Whiteman's French counterparts aren't shy about placing their physical urges front and center and scratching their combined itches constantly. The glass-enclosed shower gets so much usage by the libidinous characters it almost ranks a co-starring credit.
At the outset of the vacation, daughter Laura ( Sabrina Seyvecou ) takes off with her hunky motorcycle-driving boyfriend while at the same time brother Charly ( Romain Torres ) awaits the arrival of his best friend Martin ( Édouard Collin ) for an extended visit. Marc ( Gilbert Melki ) and Béatrix ( Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi ) , in between nightly romps of their own ( aided by their slurping of purple velvet mussels ) , have been amused with the fact that each day Charly spends an inordinately long time in the shower. It's clear to everyone what he's doing and when the gorgeous pansexual Martin, who's unabashedly gay, arrives, Beatrix suddenly congratulates herself on figuring out that Charly and Martin are lovers. Naturally, this being French cinema, everyone seems happy with this revelation. Except Charly who, unfortunately for Martin, is NOT gay. That's just the first of many amorous complications to come. Other ingredients in this comedic love stew include the unexpected appearance of Beatrix's lover, a muscle-bound plumber who attends more than the hot water heater and a hilarious musical finale that plays like a delightful curtain call.
Gay co-writers and directors Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, real-life partners, keep things buoyant while turning familial stereotypes upside down. They also manage to make both gay and straight sex appealing in equal measure. Nothing seems so important to these characters as their physical and romantic fulfillment and though lesbian and transgendered sex is left out of the script, it's easy enough to imagine the neighbors at the next villa filling in those gaps should a sequel be called for. The end result of this, for all its shellfish metaphors, is nothing less than a delicate soufflé. A delicious waste of time.
Where Cote D'Azur is sunny delight, Garçon Stupide is dark and thought provoking. This Swiss tale of disaffected youth ( again, I ask, is there any other kind? ) focuses on the dull days of work at a chocolate factory and sexy nights tricking with online chatroom buddies of Loic ( Pierre Chatagny ) . The teenage Loic is at a crossroads, his nightly trysts ( which are shown in intimate, close-up detail ) are no longer doing much for him and he yearns for love and true intimacy. If not with his friend Marie ( Natacha Koutchoumov ) , then perhaps with the mysterious stranger, who doesn't want to sleep with him, but does want him to share his memories and his feelings. Or maybe the soccer player that he becomes infatuated with and photographs with his cell phone. As Loic moves toward manhood, the plot takes a dramatic turn that suddenly puts everything in focus for him.
Appreciation for the film, shot on high-definition video, mostly in tight close ups ( mirroring Loic's frustrating circumstances ) , will greatly depend on your response to Chatagny, who makes his debut in the film. Director and co-writer Lionel Baier ( who also shot the movie ) , considering the familiarity of the film's theme, has done an admirable job with Chatagny, whose age and physique will be of particular interest to members of NAMBLA. Though the movie's 11th-hour plot twist is highly melodramatic and more than a touch unbelievable, it nevertheless allows Baier and his character to go beyond surface clichés. Both films subtitled.
See www.landmarktheatres.com .
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Reese Witherspoon plays the spirit of a dedicated surgeon battling with Mark Ruffalo, who has sublet her apartment after she's been Mack Trucked on her way to a dinner date at her sister's in the uninspiring romantic dramedy Just Like Heaven.
Witherspoon has alternated brilliant performances like those in Election and the unfairly ignored remake of The Importance of Being Earnest with crowd-pleasing big box office hits like the Legally Blonde pictures and Sweet Home Alabama. Here, she's simply marking time in this routine Ghost-All of Me-Bed of Roses mélange that never quite seems to find the right tone. Unlike the long months that Witherspoon reportedly spent preparing to play June Carter Cash ( and sing her songs ) in the upcoming biopic Walk the Line ( Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny Cash ) , her role here seems not to have taxed her too greatly.
Nor that of her costar, the independent movie darling Ruffalo, who is slowly crossing over into mainstream appeal. As the heartbroken landscape artist whose bickering with Witherspoon leads to love, Ruffalo does his amiable best in a script that screams that it was written by committee ( though only Leslie Dixon and Peter Tolan are credited ) . The biggest response from the audience comes each time Jon 'Napoleon Dynamite' Heder enters the scene. Though he doesn't once snap, 'Whatever I feel like!' or any of his other patented Napoleonisms, Heder's tripped-out psychic adds some much-needed energy to the shopworn plot.
Just Like Heaven seemed Just Like Every Other Supernatural Romance Movie to me but as the credits rolled my romantic dramedy expert partner Jim wiped a tear from his eye and pronounced it, 'Wonderful.'
Who am I to argue with that?
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Local Screening of Note: A Common Flower, the critically lauded 1992 half-hour lesbian love story, will be shown as part of the Diversity in Cinema Film Festival. The Saturday afternoon, Sept. 17 screening of the film, which was directed by Doreen Bartoni, who is Dean of School of Media Arts at Columbia College, will be preceded by a panel discussion on gender and sex in the cinema at 12:30 p.m. Both the panel and screening take place at the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake Street, in Oak Park. Admission is free. Call ( 708 ) -829-0067
A Common Flower is based on a short story by Oak Parker Karen Lee Osborne. It tells the story of an older lesbian. OutTakes calls it 'a touching portrait of two women in love. Paula plans to go to Russia with her lover, Sylvia. When Sylvia dies, Paula prepares to make the trip alone.'
Paula lives in an apartment on North Sheridan Road in Chicago, where a Russian immigrant neighbor is teaching her basic Russian. When he develops an unexpected interest in shy, closeted Paula, she must decide how to respond. Noted Chicago actresses Caitlin Hart and Lucina 'Lucy' Paquet give memorable performances.
