J'embrasse pas (1991)
Directed by André Téchiné

Film Review

J'embrasse pas is a grim, melancholic portrait of a bright-eyed adolescent searching and failing to find meaning in his life.  Although it doesn't achieve the realism and force of André Téchiné's subsequent explorations of inner sexual conflict (notably his impressive 1994 film Les Roseaux sauvages), it is a compelling and sometimes poignant work.  The film's fragmented narrative structure and uneven rhythm add to the sense of insecurity experienced by the central character Pierre.  At the same time, the moody photography - particularly the intense nocturnal scenes - lend an atmosphere of cruel oppression and dark poetry, recurring motifs in Téchiné's increasingly appealing style of cinema.

What sustains the film most is Manuel Blanc's convincing portrayal of Pierre.  Despite his comparative inexperience as an actor, Blanc manages to create a character which we can believe in and sympathise with - the younger brother we love dearly but are so powerless to help.  For this creditable piece of work, his first film role, Blanc was rewarded with a César in 1992, in the Meilleur espoir masculin category.   Also worthy of mention are the contributions from Hélène Vincent and Philippe Noiret, each of whom puts in a harrowingly tortured performance of an emotionally scarred character, a mocking shadow, perhaps, of Pierre's own future self.

There is a great deal to like about this film - the sombre mood, the acting, the cinematography - but this are also some frustrating deficiencies.  The non-committal standpoint and ambiguous ending prevent it from being entirely satisfying and - in common with many of André Téchiné's earlier films - you feel that only half of the story has been told.  There are many hints that Pierre is in fact himself gay, but this idea isn't taken up fully and we are left guessing what the film was meaning to say.  Just when the film seems to be about to get serious and offer something profound about human existence, it suddenly transforms into a pretty ordinary, and needlessly noirish , love story.  Overly dramatic and singularly lacking in conviction, the story strand with Emmanuelle Béart doesn't ring true and seems rather like a shoddy compromise, a false replacement for the story which Téchiné and his screenwriter's originally had in mind.  After this odd digression, the film is unable to regain its tone or momentum and its final sequences make an unfathomable and mildly disappointing conclusion to what surely deserves to be a much greater film.

Film Synopsis

An idealistic 17-year old youth, Pierre, leaves his home in the rural South-West of France, hoping to make a career as an actor in Paris.  Arriving in the French capital, he turns to a woman he met previously at Lourdes, Evelyn, to help him find a job.  Pierre earns just enough money to get by whilst he pursues an acting course.  Evelyn offers him free accommodation, which he feels bound to repay in the only way he can, as a rent boy.   A short while later, he loses both his job and his room, and he also discovers that he has no talent as an actor.  In the end, he has to accept that there is only one way he can make money.  Rejecting the friendly support of an ageing gay man, he becomes a male prostitute.  Despite his initial aversion to sex with men, Pierre manages to make a success of his new career.  But it all goes wrong when he falls in love with a luckless young prostitute, Ingrid...