Rating: 
Summary: Subtly erotic
Review: *WARNING: THIS REVIEW REVEALS KEY ELEMENTS OF THE PLOT.* No, kiddies, this is not your typical love triangle story. In fact, it's not a love triangle at all. It's a love square! At the center is François, an "immature, bourgeois faggot." François is a teenager coming to terms with his sexuality, discovering that he is attracted to boys. But when he sleeps with Serge, that complicates his relationship with Maïté, his "girlfriend that hates boys." Serge, on the other hand, is sure he is heterosexual and is attracted to Maïté. She rejects him just as he rejects the affection of François. Now, enter Henri. Henri is a French Algerian, whose political views clash vehemently with the communism of Maïté and her mother, the teacher of all the boys. In one scene early in the movie, François remarks to Serge (before they really know each other) that they are too dissimilar to be friends. But the reality is that Maïté and Henri are the unlikely couple. Yet they are the ones who consumate their relationship in the end. This film shows us the intricacies and complexities of attraction, gay and straight, male and female, left-wing or right-wing. Yet the plot leaves us wanting more. It's worth viewing, but if there's something else you would rather see first, this one can wait.
Rating:
Summary: cute couple, unsatisfying ending
Review: A great find if you're seeking an angst ridden drama about gay boys coming of age... Francois' heart wrenching plight to make Serge love him ..., but a very sexy scene in which Serge is very causal about 'things' made up for it. His lip smacking and lip licking moves were great. But, warning, the ending is *really* unsatisfying... proceed with caution.
Rating:
Summary: cute couple, unsatisfying ending
Review: A great find if you're seeking an angst ridden drama about gay boys coming of age... Francois' heart wrenching plight to make Serge love him ..., but a very sexy scene in which Serge is very causal about 'things' made up for it. His lip smacking and lip licking moves were great. But, warning, the ending is *really* unsatisfying... proceed with caution.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent ! ! ! !
Review: A must see coming of age story set in France during the Algerian War. Gaël Morel was perfect. Stéphane Rideau is shown young and absolutely gorgeous in some risqué scenes of the film. My only complaint is the DVD's inability to remove the English subtitles.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent ! ! ! !
Review: A must see coming of age story set in France during the Algerian War. Gaël Morel was perfect. Stéphane Rideau is shown young and absolutely gorgeous in some risqué scenes of the film. My only complaint is the DVD's inability to remove the English subtitles.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good indeed!
Review: A very sensual approach to a young man's coming-to-terms with his sexuality at college, and his relations with his classmates and friends. The loneliness of a gay man coming out of the closet in a rural area of France and his determination to find out more about his sexuality on his own.
Rating:
Summary: what you want vs. what you need
Review: Beautifully filmed story set in a french boarding school during the insurrection in Algeria, with excellent performances by the entire cast. Not so much a "coming of age" story or even "coming out" story as much as it is a story about the painful process of trying to determine what you need as opposed to what you think you want. Remarkable film.
Rating:
Summary: Just like the movie, and Gael Morel
Review: Can't tell why I love the movie so much. It is a beautiful movie, that is for sure. The French language, the color, the music, and everthing. It is also a movie of nostalgia, bringing you back to the past. Characters in the movie are so real, just like us when we were young. Gael Morel is a brilliant actor in the movie. Also the last part of the movie - the scene at the river side is so beautiful. Of course it has very little sex. If you are looking for that, you are certainly disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Sweet! Postmodern Eye Candy!
Review: Does Wild Reeds manage to overcome, or does it succumb to, modernity? The image of the Algerian colonial is after all, remarkably post-colonial: he seduces/is seduced by a Communist girl, while rejecting conservative French academicism. In relation to the image of the sullen gay character, he is playfully scornful, yet he is far from being a homophobic brute: he is as sympathetic as a broken identity can be. Meanwhile,the lumbering masculinity of the European adonis is denied its cherished feminine conquest, and is rather pursued by a subaltern counterpart (the gay friend); and the idiosyncratic Communist girl is presented both as very French and very unorthodox in her own identitive structuring. All in all,this film struck me as being refreshingly moral for all its turbulent youthfulness, and despite an amusing display of "bed-hopping desires" by the appealing characters. The image of the gay youth telling his mirror-image, again and again, NOT the truth of himself, but rather how he has been constituted (and therefore, what he is "becoming") speaks volumes for the problem of sexual identity formation in the postmodern world. The sexual identities delineated in the film do not signify any real content of the characters' souls, only the emptiness and confusion created by their souls' ability to connect relationally with others. Meanwhile, their lithe bodies DO connect, and appealingly so, at that! A worthwhile film!
Rating:
Summary: 'Wild Reeds' bends and does not break!
Review: For cinema buffs, this film is probably Andre Techine's best (although 'Thieves' comes close). Released in 1994, the movie won four Cesar Awards, including Best Picture. That said, it's a great film anyway! Techine incredibly evokes--and captures--the landscape and atmosphere, the tonal integrity, the dynamic symmetry of the French countryside, his actors, and time sequence in a way that few can. Certainly, this film is a tribute to film-making, regardless of nationality. Set in 1962 when all France was abuzz and alerted to the Algerian war and crisis, Techine micromanages the time/place/conflict into a boarding school setting. And while, indeed, it is a "coming of age" story in good form, cinema as art is not lost on Techine (nor generally the French!). Featuring praiseworthy performances of Iodie Bouchez and Gael Morel, the film dwells on, but not exclusively, their relationship--which is not without its trauma, drama, and poignancy. The two boys acknowledge their deep-rooted relationship, which is beauty itself. Unfortunately, love does not conquer all, as the romanticists would have us believe (and the vicious politics of the time rears its ugly head too often). Clearly, Techine's juxtaposition of their relationship--sexual and otherwise--is beautifully and sensitively done. The soundtrack, too, is worthy of praise (even the American pop music lends to the film's credence). Viva la France. And Techine. (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)
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