I was not drawn to see Sauvage, but did so because a friend asked me. I won't outline the story because that's already been addressed, but I will say that I found Sauvage interesting, moreso perhaps because the director was present for a post-screening Q&A when I saw it as part of MoMA's New Directors Festival. One of the things this film expresses for me is that even though the world seems to group gay people and the gay existence as some kind of collective, group experience, it's really a very individual journey that each person confronts, deals with, and ultimately goes through on their own. The main character in Sauvage certainly has a unique perspective on life and living, and one that I doubt even has anything to do with the fact that he is gay. There's plenty of nudity, sex, and drug use, but none of it feel gratuitous or cheap. This film will be a bit too raw for many, but if you have even an ankling to check it out I suggest you do so.
26 Reviews
Looking for love in all the wrong places.
jakob1317 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
In 2008, United Artists released Francois Truffaut's 'The Wild Child'; a film about a child, around 12, roaming the forests in 1789, untamed and wild, unable to speak any human tongue, as though he emerged from the dawn of time.
Camille Vidal-Naquet' 'Sauvage' or 'Wild' brought back to mind the Truffaut film.
In Vidal-Naquet's protagonist Leo, 22, is a male prostitute, poorly educated, who lives by his wits in the street, on the highways, the bridge selling his body.
His 'love' is Abd, a boxer of sorts, bi-sexual who protects hims; nonetheless Abd is looking for a port in a storm, an older man, who can pleasure him and make life comfortable for him.
Leo is by inclination homosexual, who looks to please and to be coddled. His trysts are graphic, described in strikingly vivid colors rarely seen out of porno picture house, be oral or anal intercourse, or submitting to a giant dildo until he bleeds or a sadomasochistic trick. Or being beaten; eating poorly...a vagabond life, relieved by sex for money.
Living on the street, with other male prostitutes, he smokes crack, marijuana, drops meth. He tags team with others for a menage-a-trois, goes along with
petty thievery.
His health suffers: from asthma, early signs of TB, decaying teeth. With a touch of irony, 'Sauvage' opens with a man we take for a doctor examining a naked Leo., and suddenly he is masturbating him; we are witnessing play acting for money.
Saying this, thanks to a good health care system that does take good care of Leo when his health suffer.
And then Leo finds an older man, in his 50s, who offers him a stable life, a home and no money worries in St. Jerome, Canada. A safe haven in a stormy life.
And just as they are at the airport, Leo bolts and make his way back to the forest, and as the sunlight filters through the leafy grren shade of the trees, mother earth receives her body as he drifts off to sleep, as he finds
Vidal-Naquet uses her camera as an voyeur, an eye that records and espy the second oldest trade of the world. as Leo finds refuge to his feral nature.
We are in a dog-eat-dog world, where the so-called straight world find refuge in kinky sex, degradation and living out fantasy.
'Sauvage' skates on the edge off 'cinema verite'. It's not a film forthe faint of heart. Yet, Vidal-Naquet deserves praise for treating a slice of life that deserves treatment.
Powerful filmmaking, although the graphic sex scenes and passive protagonist won't be for everyone
Bertaut17 March 2019
Sauvage is the debut film of writer/director Camille Vidal-Naquet, a former professor of film studies, and takes as its subject the daily grind of a male prostitute. Striking a delicate balance between misery porn and objectively delineating the day-to-day of being a sex worker, the film is undeniably bleak, but it's not what you would define as miserablism. Remaining detached from what it depicts, it adopts a clinically dispassionate approach, one that remains always non-judgemental. Intermixing the degrading reality of selling one's self with unexpected moments of tenderness and warmth, Vidal-Naquet taps into something deeply compelling. Some will be put off by the (very) graphic sex scenes, the passivity of the main character, or the lack of much of a plot. However, for everyone else, although it certainly isn't multiplex fare, there's a hell of a lot to admire here.
Set in Strasbourg, Sauvage tells the story of Léo (an extraordinarily committed performance from relative newcomer Félix Maritaud), a homeless, drug-addicted male prostitute, whose name, like those of his fellow sex workers, is never spoken in the film. As the film begins, Léo is attending a doctor (Lionel Riou), revealing bruises, a split lip, a nasty cough, and stomach pains. Upon examining him, the doctor appears to begin sexually molesting him. However, all is not as it seems in the scene, which is a genius way to open the movie. The episodic narrative then follows Léo from one sexual encounter to the next, occasionally focusing on his relationship with gay-for-pay prostitute Ahd (Farid-Eric Bernard), with whom he is in love. Wearing perpetually filthy clothes, he drinks from gutters and eats from bins, has a litany of physical ailments, and on two occasions, other characters comment that he smells bad.
In preparation for making the film, Vidal-Naquet joined an outreach charity as a way to meet young male prostitutes. Intending to go on only a few runs over the course of a couple of weeks, he ended up spending three years visiting the men, all the while refining the script to make it as true to life as possible (all of Léo's sexual encounters in the film come from stories told by the actual sex workers).
The film reveals nothing about Léo's background - where he comes from, how he became a prostitute, where are his family - and many of the choices he makes prompt more questions than answers, with much of what he does tied to his notions of personal freedom. Even his final choice, which is undeniably selfish and ill-advised, is consistent with the psychology of the character as seen up to that point. He isn't especially interested in a life away from drugs and prostitution, and so he takes the violence, degradations, and humiliations, because every now and then he meets someone who provides him with a degree of transitory happiness.
Léo doesn't share in the detachment, coldness, or bitterness of his fellow prostitutes, with all of them finding it bizarre that he's willing to kiss clients. However, the important point is that Léo doesn't kiss on-demand, he does so only when it feels right. This in and of itself illustrates how different he is from the others, and how selling himself is not exclusively monetary - he is searching for genuine affection, and he seems incapable of establishing the same boundaries between himself and his clients as the other sex workers live by. He gives much more of himself than them, in the hopes of establishing a genuine human connection with someone. Indeed, Ahd says at one point, "it's like you enjoy being a wh-re", which he doesn't actually deny.
His fellow prostitutes are healthier, cleaner, more financially independent, more aware of the dangers of their occupation, never allowing emotions to become involved. But Léo is far more tender than any of them, and for all the harshness of his life, there is something Emersonian about him. Indeed, for much of the film, he has a pseudo-transcendentalist soul - he is relatively free of the norms of society and its institutions; he is at peace in and with nature; he lives very much in the moment; he has almost no materialist needs whatsoever; he trusts completely in his own instincts, he never lets go of his hope of finding love. This is why a scene involving a female doctor (Marie Seux) is so important; treating him with respect and empathy, when she attempts to examine him, he hugs her, and they hold each other for a moment, in an embrace that has nothing to do with sexuality and everything to do with kindness and emotional support.
Obviously, for a film of this nature to be in any way realistic, it must depict sexuality, and Vidal-Naquet doesn't hold back on that front. At the screening I attended, five people walked out within the first half-hour, by which time there had already been three graphic sex scenes (including a threesome with two prostitutes and a disabled man in a wheelchair). What's interesting about these scenes, however, is that they never lose their potency, irrespective of how many we see. I think the reason for this is how Vidal-Naquet presents them; far from filming them in a voyeuristic way or as titillation, they are instead presented dispassionately as something that happens to people in this line of work, as normal for Léo as taking drugs or sleeping rough - it's simply a part of his life.
Cinematographer Jacques Girault employs a pseudo-documentarian cinéma vérité aesthetic; the entire film is shot handheld, with an occasional loss of focus, frequent awkward compositions, and even losing the subject momentarily in the frame before picking him up again. This has the effect of neither depicting sexuality as something perverted and dirty, nor valorising it as the most important part of a relationship. By presenting it as simply a part of Léo's life, Vidal-Naquet normalises it. He certainly doesn't gloss over the problems of this kind of life, or the sexual perversions one may encounter, but he doesn't present sex work as, in and of itself, fundamentally immoral. Instead, he depicts both sides of the coin; from non-sexual intimacy with an elderly bookseller (Jean-Pierre Baste) who simply wants someone to read to him to a demeaning threesome with a couple (Nicolas Fernandez and Nicolas Chalumeau) who have Léo stand naked in front of them as they discuss how bad he smells, before roughly using a sex toy that would make even the ladies of LegalPorno winch. Indeed, Vidal-Naquet gets his point across about the highs and lows of sex work with a very simple edit - the film cuts from Léo lying peacefully in bed with the bookseller to giving a rough blowjob to a client in a car parked in an alley.
In terms of problems, as already stated, many will find the graphic sex scenes too much. Another issue is that Léo is an extremely passive character; he doesn't so much drive the plot as the plot depicts things that happen to him. Coupled with this, he doesn't have much of an arc, and at the end, he isn't overly different from the man we met at the beginning. With him being in every scene, almost every shot, the other prostitutes are very thinly sketched (even Ahd), but this is by design. On the other hand, the depiction of Claude (Philippe Ohrel), a magnanimous and kindly middle-aged man who takes a liking to Léo and immediately opens his home to him, is open to criticism; in a film founded on realism, he is something of a deus ex-machina, arriving in Léo's life just as he reaches his lowest point.
On paper, Sauvage should be a textbook case of misery porn, following as it does a homeless drug-addicted male prostitute and his often demeaning sexual encounters. However, Vidal-Naquet's non-judgemental depiction of Léo's occupation and milieu allows the more optimistic elements of his personality to rise to the surface, even in the face of seemingly endless degradations. It's certainly not an easy watch, but amidst the depravity, Vidal-Naquet finds moments of tenderness, moments which mean everything to Léo. Uninterested in titillation, the film depicts sexual activity as something that happens, without judgement or commentary. And by so doing, it avoids, for the most part, the clichés so inherent to films dealing with prostitution. Neither condemning Léo's lifestyle nor valorising it, no matter how demeaning or brutal it becomes, he always seems to find a way to keep going. That may be interpreted as tragic, but that's not the way Léo looks at himself, nor is it the way Vidal-Naquet wants us to look at him.
Set in Strasbourg, Sauvage tells the story of Léo (an extraordinarily committed performance from relative newcomer Félix Maritaud), a homeless, drug-addicted male prostitute, whose name, like those of his fellow sex workers, is never spoken in the film. As the film begins, Léo is attending a doctor (Lionel Riou), revealing bruises, a split lip, a nasty cough, and stomach pains. Upon examining him, the doctor appears to begin sexually molesting him. However, all is not as it seems in the scene, which is a genius way to open the movie. The episodic narrative then follows Léo from one sexual encounter to the next, occasionally focusing on his relationship with gay-for-pay prostitute Ahd (Farid-Eric Bernard), with whom he is in love. Wearing perpetually filthy clothes, he drinks from gutters and eats from bins, has a litany of physical ailments, and on two occasions, other characters comment that he smells bad.
In preparation for making the film, Vidal-Naquet joined an outreach charity as a way to meet young male prostitutes. Intending to go on only a few runs over the course of a couple of weeks, he ended up spending three years visiting the men, all the while refining the script to make it as true to life as possible (all of Léo's sexual encounters in the film come from stories told by the actual sex workers).
The film reveals nothing about Léo's background - where he comes from, how he became a prostitute, where are his family - and many of the choices he makes prompt more questions than answers, with much of what he does tied to his notions of personal freedom. Even his final choice, which is undeniably selfish and ill-advised, is consistent with the psychology of the character as seen up to that point. He isn't especially interested in a life away from drugs and prostitution, and so he takes the violence, degradations, and humiliations, because every now and then he meets someone who provides him with a degree of transitory happiness.
Léo doesn't share in the detachment, coldness, or bitterness of his fellow prostitutes, with all of them finding it bizarre that he's willing to kiss clients. However, the important point is that Léo doesn't kiss on-demand, he does so only when it feels right. This in and of itself illustrates how different he is from the others, and how selling himself is not exclusively monetary - he is searching for genuine affection, and he seems incapable of establishing the same boundaries between himself and his clients as the other sex workers live by. He gives much more of himself than them, in the hopes of establishing a genuine human connection with someone. Indeed, Ahd says at one point, "it's like you enjoy being a wh-re", which he doesn't actually deny.
His fellow prostitutes are healthier, cleaner, more financially independent, more aware of the dangers of their occupation, never allowing emotions to become involved. But Léo is far more tender than any of them, and for all the harshness of his life, there is something Emersonian about him. Indeed, for much of the film, he has a pseudo-transcendentalist soul - he is relatively free of the norms of society and its institutions; he is at peace in and with nature; he lives very much in the moment; he has almost no materialist needs whatsoever; he trusts completely in his own instincts, he never lets go of his hope of finding love. This is why a scene involving a female doctor (Marie Seux) is so important; treating him with respect and empathy, when she attempts to examine him, he hugs her, and they hold each other for a moment, in an embrace that has nothing to do with sexuality and everything to do with kindness and emotional support.
Obviously, for a film of this nature to be in any way realistic, it must depict sexuality, and Vidal-Naquet doesn't hold back on that front. At the screening I attended, five people walked out within the first half-hour, by which time there had already been three graphic sex scenes (including a threesome with two prostitutes and a disabled man in a wheelchair). What's interesting about these scenes, however, is that they never lose their potency, irrespective of how many we see. I think the reason for this is how Vidal-Naquet presents them; far from filming them in a voyeuristic way or as titillation, they are instead presented dispassionately as something that happens to people in this line of work, as normal for Léo as taking drugs or sleeping rough - it's simply a part of his life.
Cinematographer Jacques Girault employs a pseudo-documentarian cinéma vérité aesthetic; the entire film is shot handheld, with an occasional loss of focus, frequent awkward compositions, and even losing the subject momentarily in the frame before picking him up again. This has the effect of neither depicting sexuality as something perverted and dirty, nor valorising it as the most important part of a relationship. By presenting it as simply a part of Léo's life, Vidal-Naquet normalises it. He certainly doesn't gloss over the problems of this kind of life, or the sexual perversions one may encounter, but he doesn't present sex work as, in and of itself, fundamentally immoral. Instead, he depicts both sides of the coin; from non-sexual intimacy with an elderly bookseller (Jean-Pierre Baste) who simply wants someone to read to him to a demeaning threesome with a couple (Nicolas Fernandez and Nicolas Chalumeau) who have Léo stand naked in front of them as they discuss how bad he smells, before roughly using a sex toy that would make even the ladies of LegalPorno winch. Indeed, Vidal-Naquet gets his point across about the highs and lows of sex work with a very simple edit - the film cuts from Léo lying peacefully in bed with the bookseller to giving a rough blowjob to a client in a car parked in an alley.
In terms of problems, as already stated, many will find the graphic sex scenes too much. Another issue is that Léo is an extremely passive character; he doesn't so much drive the plot as the plot depicts things that happen to him. Coupled with this, he doesn't have much of an arc, and at the end, he isn't overly different from the man we met at the beginning. With him being in every scene, almost every shot, the other prostitutes are very thinly sketched (even Ahd), but this is by design. On the other hand, the depiction of Claude (Philippe Ohrel), a magnanimous and kindly middle-aged man who takes a liking to Léo and immediately opens his home to him, is open to criticism; in a film founded on realism, he is something of a deus ex-machina, arriving in Léo's life just as he reaches his lowest point.
On paper, Sauvage should be a textbook case of misery porn, following as it does a homeless drug-addicted male prostitute and his often demeaning sexual encounters. However, Vidal-Naquet's non-judgemental depiction of Léo's occupation and milieu allows the more optimistic elements of his personality to rise to the surface, even in the face of seemingly endless degradations. It's certainly not an easy watch, but amidst the depravity, Vidal-Naquet finds moments of tenderness, moments which mean everything to Léo. Uninterested in titillation, the film depicts sexual activity as something that happens, without judgement or commentary. And by so doing, it avoids, for the most part, the clichés so inherent to films dealing with prostitution. Neither condemning Léo's lifestyle nor valorising it, no matter how demeaning or brutal it becomes, he always seems to find a way to keep going. That may be interpreted as tragic, but that's not the way Léo looks at himself, nor is it the way Vidal-Naquet wants us to look at him.
Unrequited love
michael-kerrigan-526-1249746 March 2019
Leo is a 22 year old prostitute, in love with another male prostitute; only the guy he's in love with is heterosexual. He clearly cares for Leo, but cares more about his material well-being, even if it means 'bunking up' with an old man. Leo is different. He needs love, but not forced love. But at what cost? A slowly affecting drama which made me appreciate the love I have. 7.5 out of ten
Wonderful drama
dakjets20 September 2018
A cruel, brutal and honest depiction of life as a young male prostitute in Paris. Leo lives in a very destructive existence. The movie takes us straight into life and does not hold back for how tough this life is. Felix Maritaud is fantastic in the role of Leo, and is able to express the despair he often experiences. But he also produces a protagonist who may not be able to change his existence (for reasons we do not know). Although the film is both brutal and intense, it also has warmth and shows friendship in a credible way. I also want to draw the effort to Eric Bernad in the role of Ahd. The relationship between him and Leo is one of the film's best scenes, but also the most demanding to be able to relate to. Frankly, I think the movie shows a harsh reality, perhaps in a closed world for most of us. The director will be praised for making a film that really manages to depict a human being in a merciless world. But the movie is also about that despite a tough situation, it's always the choice we take that has consequences. That way, the film does not produce these people as victims, but as living individuals who choose to live their lives, different from most of us. A strong movie, on many levels. Highly recommended.
Frequently disturbing, frequently good
Horst_In_Translation12 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"Sauvage" or "Savage" is a new French movie from 2018 and the first full feature filmmaking effort for writer and director Camille Vidal-Naquet. It runs for almost 100 minutes and is from start to finish a showpiece for lead actor Félix Maritaud, who is in almost every scene this film has to offer. Looking at the critical reception and awards recognition, this film is definitely a success. But it is also very sexual and very violent, very graphic too, also both taken together, so it may not be that easy to stomach for some more sensitive audience members. But if they manage to, then you're in for a good watch here as it is a solid character study and fits in kinda well too with what is going on in France right now in terms of what some people have to do to make a living, even if the main character only seems to be suffering occasionally. By the way, with some of the contents I found it interesting that this film was made by a woman. Anyway, let me start with one scene from very early on when you only think for a while the main character is seeing an actual doctor, maybe the somewhat comedic highlight here that stays in the mind though as you think back to it and wonder if it's real this time when he sees another doctor later on. It is not just a film about homosexual prostitution, but also about friendship as our anti-hero here has two close friends on different occasions in the film, one who seems to like, but not really understand him and when he gets in trouble again and again for helping his weaker friend, the main character, he removes himself from said friendship. And the other one is really just one who makes use of the protagonist as he needs a partner in crime. Nothing else to add there. i also found it interesting how different the, lets call them clients, were. Some just lack affection and love after their partner died, while other are all about sexual pleasure the way you'd think it is most of thime and then there's even other who really enjoy humiliation in a sadistic manner already in the one scene that may be most difficult to stomach. So there's no holds barred in this movie. It is very raw, very brutal, but also rewarding if you manage to sit through it. And the ending is also fitting really in terms of a character study. He has his chance to get out of the spiral. But will he choose love? Is it love even? It is really difficult to believe with how he treates the man who really seems to feel for him earlier. Or is it just a self defense mechanism? It is all open to interpretation, but I liked it, even if I feel it could have been a better ending the moment he steps into the car with that infected musician and thais would have been at least as tragic as an ending. It's really not surprising you aren't getting a happy ending here. And it is absolutely right as it just would have gone against pretty much everything before that. The main character is very tragic without a doubt. Will he find happiness? Not in this movie for sure. Thumbs up for Maritaud, Vidal-Naquet and everybody else working on this project. I recommend checking it out as it is one of the better, but not best 2018 films from France, my favorite filmmaking country. Maybe especially go for this one if you liked Stranger by the Lake, even if the latter is certainly still superior compared to this one here, but not because this one is bad or anything, but because SbtL is just really really good, especially the ending.
One of the best French films in a long while.
jromanbaker6 January 2019
In another of my reviews I rated 'Theo and Hugo' as a gay film that was as close to perfection as possible. 'Sauvage' is as good, and objectively perhaps better. It also falls into the gay category. Or does it? As a gay man myself, I hate to say that this is a more widely themed film, but homophobia, which still exists as a curse within our society, will limit its appeal by putting it into what is offensively categorised as the 'gay' niche.
This is a masculine film and it depicts a group of male prostitutes who do not (want to) fall into the gay category. They may protect each other and form fierce ties, but their actual identities are as fluid as water. Leo, our main protagonist is basically gay, and when he loses the love of his life, who is a partner in prostitution, his precarious life unravels towards tragedy. He is romantic and can be gentle, but he is a broken person in a broken society. He did not choose to be broken, but his very nature, faced with the brutality that surrounds him, crushes his health and his inner resources. The ending has overwhelming power, as portrayed by Robert Bresson in 'Mouchette' and 'Au Hasard Balthazar'. This is not about choice, but the inevitability of the pain that society inflicts upon the more sensitive and gentle in our world. Leo's face at the end should move everyone to anger and tears.
The compassionate and also the more tortured aspects of the sexual world he is in are shown explicitly. Some were sickening and Leo was sickened by them. But, elderly gays are portrayed with more tenderness than younger gays, which is an about turn from other gay films, and for the better!
I was reminded also of Bunuel and the opening of 'L'Age d'Or'. The scorpions fight in this masculine environment, and the torturer in the car and the young couple with the monstrous sex toy are a disgrace even to the scorpions.
Last but not least, the film depicts homelessness and the human shame of a society that stands by, watches, and intervenes only when prodded. But like Bresson's gentle donkey Leo lays down his head to (perhaps) finally rest and I repeat, we see one of the most sublime scenes in cinema.
This is a masculine film and it depicts a group of male prostitutes who do not (want to) fall into the gay category. They may protect each other and form fierce ties, but their actual identities are as fluid as water. Leo, our main protagonist is basically gay, and when he loses the love of his life, who is a partner in prostitution, his precarious life unravels towards tragedy. He is romantic and can be gentle, but he is a broken person in a broken society. He did not choose to be broken, but his very nature, faced with the brutality that surrounds him, crushes his health and his inner resources. The ending has overwhelming power, as portrayed by Robert Bresson in 'Mouchette' and 'Au Hasard Balthazar'. This is not about choice, but the inevitability of the pain that society inflicts upon the more sensitive and gentle in our world. Leo's face at the end should move everyone to anger and tears.
The compassionate and also the more tortured aspects of the sexual world he is in are shown explicitly. Some were sickening and Leo was sickened by them. But, elderly gays are portrayed with more tenderness than younger gays, which is an about turn from other gay films, and for the better!
I was reminded also of Bunuel and the opening of 'L'Age d'Or'. The scorpions fight in this masculine environment, and the torturer in the car and the young couple with the monstrous sex toy are a disgrace even to the scorpions.
Last but not least, the film depicts homelessness and the human shame of a society that stands by, watches, and intervenes only when prodded. But like Bresson's gentle donkey Leo lays down his head to (perhaps) finally rest and I repeat, we see one of the most sublime scenes in cinema.
Aimless
euroGary18 October 2018
'Sauvage' follows Léo, a young male prostitute, as he 'services' clients, commits petty crime, takes various recreational drugs, passes out on the street, has his affections rebuffed by a fellow rent boy and ignores his medical problems. It is a pretty aimless film, and as such mirrors the life of its protagonist. He drifts through his days and nights, carelessly following the whims of those around him (even following the instructions of a friend to inject sedative drugs into the tip of his penis so a blowjob-giving client will be knocked out and can then be robbed!) Ordinarily this is not the kind of character for whom I could find much sympathy, but actor Félix Maritaud gives Léo a rather innocent, dopey appeal (even if the role does demand he look like he would benefit from a good dunking in the sheep dip). Perhaps because it does not contain a coherent narrative structure the film seems longer than its claimed 99 minutes, but on the plus side there are a few good nude scenes (although I could have done without Maritaud's pierced nipple - ew!)
Seen at the 2018 London Film Festival.
Seen at the 2018 London Film Festival.
world without stability
quicksilverdm13 November 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Watched the movie here in Germany yesterday. This is a disturbing and raw piece of cinema. In the world shown here is no love for anyone or at least not from the right person or for the right person. Some very few moments of tenderness and warmth hit you in the heart and you want them to last, to be able to hold on to them, but they are extinguished immediately. With the protagonist we stumble through the world without support, but with boundless freedom, which has its price and is also not romanticized here. The camera really does not shy away from ANYTHING! I say this as a warning. I often felt like a voyeur (in a bad sense) and there were some scenes I could hardly watch. Even for me as a gay man with some experience. But they are also absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, I say that this movie is absolutely worth seeing. Those who can handle it will be moved. The main actor Félix Maritaud is simply unbelievable and doesn´t get out of my mind. Here's proof once again that the most daring LGBTQ films are coming from France. I don't see anything comparable in Germany far and beyond.
a belter of a debut feature giving an honest voice to the marginal and the underprivileged
lasttimeisaw9 June 2019
Swimming with the virile tide of the latest surging French queer cinema, Camille Vidal-Naquet's debut feature SAUVAGE/WILD, for one thing, conspicuously eschews the virulent sign of its times, which has taken a central role in sterling works of Christophe Honoré's SORRY ANGEL (2018), Robin Campillo's BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE) (2017) and Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau's PARIS 05:59: THÉO & HUGO (2016), in fact, the poor health of our protagonist Léo (BPM alumnus Maritaud), a 22-year-old homeless prostitute drifting in Strasbourg, is much due to malnutrition than any sexually transmitted diseases.
Opening with a beguilingly titillating twist of a role-play Léo participating with one of his clients, SAUVAGE/WILD lives and dies with Maritaud's resilient and profoundly moving performance, investing himself thoroughly to inhabit Léo's sleeping-rough, miserable existence, Maritaud brings to the fore of Léo's otherness, an almost angelic being that uncharacteristically seeks no temporal value like other men of his trade, more liable to his own instinct than any social norms (he doesn't even understand why crack, from which a kindhearted female doctor advises him to abstain, is a bad thing because for him, it is a boon that makes him feel good). Whether impassively posturing to be picked by potential kerb-crawlers, or tenderly looking for a moment of human contact with his clients, a battered Maritaud unyieldingly draws our attention and compassion through his lived-in vulnerability and wounded masculinity, not to mention those eye-popping, demandingly graphic sex scenes, which bears out an audacious resolve for authenticity without any voyeuristic agenda to sexualize the subject matter, hats off to Vidal-Naquet and his intrepid cast.
Vidal-Naquet's diligent script covers a whole gamut of what could happen to a sex worker in this parlous line of business, from Léo's love-hate entanglement with the gay-for-pay Ahd (Bernard), seeped with the latter's macho toxicity, to his sundry encounters: a gerontophiliac bonding with a senior widower; a demeaning penetration preyed on him by two callous youngsters; a skylarking bunco conducted with his fellow escort Mihal (Dibla), to whom Léo cannot reciprocate his feelings. All those segments are shot with a clinical matter-of-fact-ness that leans towards a reportage with its hand-held amateurishness.
When Ahd decides to leave with his sugar daddy, it lays bare of the best scenario which could ever happen to the practitioners of rough trade, and soon Léo's savior materializes in the form of Claude (Ohrel) exactly when he hits the rock bottom (the startling perversion and violence is rendered off screen considerately), although as a deus ex-machina, Claude is a dreamboat too perfect to be true, however Vidal-Naquet perversely goes against the grain (after his indiscriminate stock-in-trade towards all sorts of patronage, it is appalling to see Léo rebuff Claude as "old and ugly" when the latter is overlay with brimful innocuousness and tenderness), only to shatter our cexpectation and suffix a true-to-his-nature coda to Léo's self-emancipation and precious independence, with his final in utero attitude, smells like a missed opportunity for this reviewer's two cents' worth, otherwise, SAUVAGE/WILD is a belter of a debut feature giving an honest voice to the marginal and the underprivileged.
Opening with a beguilingly titillating twist of a role-play Léo participating with one of his clients, SAUVAGE/WILD lives and dies with Maritaud's resilient and profoundly moving performance, investing himself thoroughly to inhabit Léo's sleeping-rough, miserable existence, Maritaud brings to the fore of Léo's otherness, an almost angelic being that uncharacteristically seeks no temporal value like other men of his trade, more liable to his own instinct than any social norms (he doesn't even understand why crack, from which a kindhearted female doctor advises him to abstain, is a bad thing because for him, it is a boon that makes him feel good). Whether impassively posturing to be picked by potential kerb-crawlers, or tenderly looking for a moment of human contact with his clients, a battered Maritaud unyieldingly draws our attention and compassion through his lived-in vulnerability and wounded masculinity, not to mention those eye-popping, demandingly graphic sex scenes, which bears out an audacious resolve for authenticity without any voyeuristic agenda to sexualize the subject matter, hats off to Vidal-Naquet and his intrepid cast.
Vidal-Naquet's diligent script covers a whole gamut of what could happen to a sex worker in this parlous line of business, from Léo's love-hate entanglement with the gay-for-pay Ahd (Bernard), seeped with the latter's macho toxicity, to his sundry encounters: a gerontophiliac bonding with a senior widower; a demeaning penetration preyed on him by two callous youngsters; a skylarking bunco conducted with his fellow escort Mihal (Dibla), to whom Léo cannot reciprocate his feelings. All those segments are shot with a clinical matter-of-fact-ness that leans towards a reportage with its hand-held amateurishness.
When Ahd decides to leave with his sugar daddy, it lays bare of the best scenario which could ever happen to the practitioners of rough trade, and soon Léo's savior materializes in the form of Claude (Ohrel) exactly when he hits the rock bottom (the startling perversion and violence is rendered off screen considerately), although as a deus ex-machina, Claude is a dreamboat too perfect to be true, however Vidal-Naquet perversely goes against the grain (after his indiscriminate stock-in-trade towards all sorts of patronage, it is appalling to see Léo rebuff Claude as "old and ugly" when the latter is overlay with brimful innocuousness and tenderness), only to shatter our cexpectation and suffix a true-to-his-nature coda to Léo's self-emancipation and precious independence, with his final in utero attitude, smells like a missed opportunity for this reviewer's two cents' worth, otherwise, SAUVAGE/WILD is a belter of a debut feature giving an honest voice to the marginal and the underprivileged.
Haunting film
rolandcat15 October 2018
Really believable characters and behaviour.
The way men connect abuse and live each other is beautifully explored within this film. Beautiful acting and shocking at times.
The smell and energy almost wafts from the screen.
The ending which if course I can't discuss here has left us with a huge debate about why and what and alternative endings.
This film is different from what I've seen before. Takes me into a World I've visited and left. Will tell a story some will know well and others not at all.
It's a violent beautiful erotic film.
Haunting and quite special.
The way men connect abuse and live each other is beautifully explored within this film. Beautiful acting and shocking at times.
The smell and energy almost wafts from the screen.
The ending which if course I can't discuss here has left us with a huge debate about why and what and alternative endings.
This film is different from what I've seen before. Takes me into a World I've visited and left. Will tell a story some will know well and others not at all.
It's a violent beautiful erotic film.
Haunting and quite special.
Attracted to darkness
Gordon-1116 May 2020
He needs breathe
LUIS10 June 2020
Why Sauvage isn't criticised for male objectification?
foxyking9328 May 2019
This movie adds nothing to the subject. I have the impression that it gets good scores only because of explicit gay sex scenes. And here the problem arises. Why is the film "Sauvage" being worshiped by reviewers but every Kechiche's movies are criticized? In Sauvage, men are objectified. Their bodies are exposed in explicit way. In the Kechiche's movies women are objectified. Kechiche's movies are bashed but movie with male objectification is praised. What happened? Why are reviewers hypocrites?
I watched this on International Sex Worker Rights Day.
yasananlarim12 March 2023
I watched this movie on the evening of March 3, International Day for the Rights of Sex Workers.
I felt how bad it was to be abused.
It is a movie that people can watch to understand what sex workers, male sex workers, LGBTI+ sex workers, gay male sex workers and all sex workers in general are going through.
The film centers around a young gay man and his love for his close friend who is heterosexual but has sex with men for money. In addition, the movie shows the sex work of a gay male man and what happens to sex workers.
I hoped the ending of the movie was different, but that's okay. It was a movie that I watched with interest.
I felt how bad it was to be abused.
It is a movie that people can watch to understand what sex workers, male sex workers, LGBTI+ sex workers, gay male sex workers and all sex workers in general are going through.
The film centers around a young gay man and his love for his close friend who is heterosexual but has sex with men for money. In addition, the movie shows the sex work of a gay male man and what happens to sex workers.
I hoped the ending of the movie was different, but that's okay. It was a movie that I watched with interest.
A masterpiece
juliandineen6 March 2019
From the opening scenes you get a sense that this is not going to be comfortable viewing.. But who came here for a comfortable time ?
The film is crafted with care, love, attention and most importantly respect. The themes are intense, chaotic and thought provoking giving us a real insight into the life of a gay sex worker. Through out the film there are tender even intimate moments admist the depravity we witness, this is due to the brilliant talent Maritaud who plays Leo, he plays Leo with so much empathy, honour and understanding.
a place where naïve and raw coexist
briefexistance9 October 2019
The main actor is a gem, in his performance there's only honesty and pureness. The character is somehow immersed in a difficult world, but as many critiques have already said: it's not paternalistic, cathartic or moralist about it. Leo doesn't seek redemption, help or anything beyond love. Sex work is just a tiny part of a very complex character; who is profoundly strong, naive and beautiful, almost dreamy. He's not the victim, he's a wounded soul who makes continuously bad choices, but the perplexing part to me it was the fact, that he seems at peace with himself and his actions, even at the end of the film. It is been a while since I have seen such a powerful film in terms of character complexity. It's definitely one of those films who won't leave you alone the moment you leave the cinema, it stays for a while in your mind and your heart. That my friends, it's the main point of art existing in the first place.
Harsh but honest and very strong movie.
johannes2000-112 January 2020
This is an excellent movie. Probably the topic isn't everyones cup of tea, and it sure isn't a comfortable and pleasant watch. But what you do get, is a very realistic, honest and unadorned account of the daily struggle to survive of a young male street-prostitute in a big city (Paris?). No romanticizing here, it's all bleak, harsh and hopeless. What makes it extra touching, is the fact that the main character isn't just driven by opportunistic motives, but desperately longs for love and affection, which he sadly enough projects on the wrong guy.
Actor Felix Maritaud gives a very strong and convincing performance, very brave too, since director Camille Vidal-Naquet doesn't hold back in realism, with a fair amount of graphic sex. This is clearly not aimed to tittilate any erotic senses with the viewer, if anything it's mostly akward and sad to watch, but it adds to the authenticity of this movie. Hiding or masking the sex would have felt like fake.
Another strong aspect of the movie is the fact that it doesn't moralize. We never hear how the main character came to do what he does or what his background is, so no justifications or freudian explanations like a troubled youth or anything. It's clear that he doesn't see anything wrong in what he does or why he should change his way of life, however pathetic and hard it may be. The choice he makes in the end of the movie is in line with this, although for us it's hard, if not almost impossible to understand.
Actor Felix Maritaud gives a very strong and convincing performance, very brave too, since director Camille Vidal-Naquet doesn't hold back in realism, with a fair amount of graphic sex. This is clearly not aimed to tittilate any erotic senses with the viewer, if anything it's mostly akward and sad to watch, but it adds to the authenticity of this movie. Hiding or masking the sex would have felt like fake.
Another strong aspect of the movie is the fact that it doesn't moralize. We never hear how the main character came to do what he does or what his background is, so no justifications or freudian explanations like a troubled youth or anything. It's clear that he doesn't see anything wrong in what he does or why he should change his way of life, however pathetic and hard it may be. The choice he makes in the end of the movie is in line with this, although for us it's hard, if not almost impossible to understand.
Very gripping and Very True
impressivehigher2 January 2021
After all, disgusting...
bergamottocalabrese20 February 2020
Truthful
CashelWicklow28 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
From the first scene to the last this film has a remarkable realness too it. It's script is near perfect as is the acting. If I have one criticism it's the cinematography is a little flat.
People in the reviews have moaned about it not really having an ending. Well life is like that Great film.
People in the reviews have moaned about it not really having an ending. Well life is like that Great film.
Why no Oscar nomination for Félix Maritaud?
Remy_Azhary23 June 2023
This is a meditation into the depressing life of a lost soul who happened to be a sex worker. The slow pacing didn't bother me that much since it's a major component in the so-called "nothingness" of the protagonist. I truly feel for him even when he did the worst deeds.
Ultimately, at the end, just when we couldn't ask for more happiness for him, he decided to be alone without anyone in his life. As sad as that might be, there's also something poetically heartwrenching about it.
And Felix Maritaud's performance as Leo was excellent. It's a travesty that he was not recognized for any of the major awards like the Oscars.
I, myself, couldn't believe that he is also the same actor playing the adult version in "I Am Jonas".
I have high hopes for this guy and hope that he would break out into more well-established features on an international stage.
Ultimately, at the end, just when we couldn't ask for more happiness for him, he decided to be alone without anyone in his life. As sad as that might be, there's also something poetically heartwrenching about it.
And Felix Maritaud's performance as Leo was excellent. It's a travesty that he was not recognized for any of the major awards like the Oscars.
I, myself, couldn't believe that he is also the same actor playing the adult version in "I Am Jonas".
I have high hopes for this guy and hope that he would break out into more well-established features on an international stage.
It's a different and unique movie from the gay genre
the_donnie1 December 2020
The nudity and sex scenes are part of the movie for a reason. Almost as if to show the complexity of the main character that's not different from our own: his body needs hug, attention, pleasure, care, love... at the same time, his taugh life as a prostitute living on the streets makes his body the showcase of the disconnection with his own self humanity through violence, sex abuse, drug abuse, disease, emotional neglect...
It's awful to see another human going through this, you can only hope that he gets saved, loved. When in reality, life not always goes like a beautiful ending from a movie.
Sauvage, despite its imperfections, is an excellent movie. No regret that I've given it a try.
Finally some good drama
maxvent1 July 2020
This one was refreshing, tired of seeing a rainbow portrait of the gay world where everything is sweet and emotive (not like the ordinary world we all live in).
Raw story, not up for everyone (I personally didn't have the guts to watch some scenes), superb acting, engaging story.
"You're made to be loved"
justahunch-7054922 September 2023
This is a difficult film to review because it is an extremely difficult film to view. There were scenes when I found myself wincing and occasionally turning my face away from the screen. It's rough, it's raw, it's brutal, it's sad, it's violent and it all seems very authentic. It's the story of a young prostitute who is rather sweet at heart, but is also a lost soul with the need for love who continues to be lost when he finally finds it. The centerpiece of this very, very realistically acted film is Félix Maritaud. It is as bold and brazen a performance as you will ever see. He's beautiful, but ugly at times as he keeps going downhill in a life going in the wrong direction. This harsh film doesn't really have a purpose or a message other than to show you this ugly slice of life. To put it mildly, this is not a film for everyone nor is it a film for those who have a problem with nudity and sex. It cannot even really be classified as entertainment, but it is fascinating if you can handle it. Everyone in this is strong and not a one even seems like they're performing, but it is Mr. Maritaud that makes you care about a character, who despite all, always has an aura of innocence about him. This is the only feature film directed by Camille Vidal-Naquet. It would be interesting to see more of what he can do.
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