The Wild Side (2005)
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Theatrical Release: Jun 24, 2005 Limited
Synopsis: This moody French film from director Sébastian Lifshitz tells the story of Stéphanie (Stéphanie Michelini), a jaded transsexual prostitute who leaves Paris to take care of her dying mother (Josiane Storelu) in the country. She brings along her two lovers, a street-hustling Arab boy, Jamel... This moody French film from director Sébastian Lifshitz tells the story of Stéphanie (Stéphanie Michelini), a jaded transsexual prostitute who leaves Paris to take care of her dying mother (Josiane Storelu) in the country. She brings along her two lovers, a street-hustling Arab boy, Jamel (Yasmine Belmadi), and a Russian ex-soldier named Mikhail (Edouard Nikitine). While Stephanie and her mom come to grips with their troubled past, Mikhail has his own problems dealing with his mother back in Russia, as does Jamel who finds his lifestyle not warmly accepted by his conventional family. This is a film about crossing barriers sexually, personally, and even--to comical effect--linguistically, as Mikhail does not speak French, so everyone has to communicate in the commonly shared broken English. The structure of the film is also broken, with events presented in a jigsaw, out-of-order format, including scenes from Stephanie's childhood as a boy with her adoring sister (who died in childhood), and scenes of sometimes graphic sexual exploration. Androgynous singer Anthony (of Anthony and the Johnsons) opens the film and sets the mood with a heartbreaking serenade to a parlor full of elegantly dressed transsexuals. Real life transsexual Michelini is superb in the lead, conveying a sophistication that draws from the same bottomless well of sexual ennui as Isabelle Huppert and Marlene Dietrich. The photography by Agnés Godard captures with somber eloquence the crumbling suburban facades of Northern France and the intertwined bodies of the lead actors. [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Yasmine Belmadi, Stephanie Michelini, Edouard Nikitine, Josiane Stoleru
Screenwriter: Stephane Bouquet
Producer: Gilles Sandoz
Composer: Jocelyn Pook
Screenwriter: Sebastien Lifshitz
DVD Info
Release:
Oct 25, 2005
DVD Features:
- Region (unknown)
- Keep Case
- Widescreen
Additional Release Material:
- Deleted Scenes
- Director's Interview
- Filmography
- Trailer
Text/Photo Gallery:
- Trailer Gallery
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
The woe-is-me, pity-please ambiance with which Lifschitz has suffused his movie becomes more than a little hard to take.
Lif****z obviously hopes for the best for Stéphanie and friends, yet the film is filled with doubts and sadness.
Several storylines are hinted at but never fully developed, and some draggy scenes dampen the whole Wild affair.
A morbid and self-important homosexual Jules & Jim for the new millennium.
Stony and statuesque, Michelini is an excellent casting choice: Her impassive face and dispassionate voice serve as a carefully constructed protective mask that hides her pain, and which she rarely lets slip.
Viewers are either going to walk out after 10 minutes or, like this tolerant critic, get caught up in the sordid lives of the three misfits and stick around for the ambiguous ending.
The film explains why Stéphanie and her bisexual boyfriends need each other, but doesn't depict why they are drawn to each other, making the ménage à trois mechanical.
The primary impression is lots of moping and mooning, plus a song at the beginning with some of the worst lyrics you've ever heard.
The collage of poetic visual asides and emotional exchanges courts effusiveness, but it remains earnest and hauntingly expressive of an inner human turmoil.
Lifshitz successfully maneuvers his trio of outcasts toward a state of grace: His vision of misfit utopianism, in its own quiet way, is as defiant as anything in Fassbinder.
Welcome to the world of film festival cinema. We hope you enjoy your stay, or at least don't fall asleep in the next hour and a half.
The performances are all raw and natural, and they are filmed in a close-up and often very intimate way.
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