Sauvage

8/1/2019

**_Powerful filmmaking, although the graphic sex scenes and passive protagonist won't be for everyone_** > _Léo has no moral judgement: he is just there. That's his life. He doesn't even know what "get out of it" means; get out of what, to go where?_ - Camille Vidal-Naquet; _Sauvage_ Production Notes _Sauvage_ [trans. _Wild_, although a lot of reviewers are incorrectly calling it _Savage_] 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. Depictions of prostitution in cinema have something of a chequered history; the best known are probably Luis Buñuel's _Belle de Jour_ (1967), which is more interested in female sexual desire than the specifics of prostitution itself, Garry

5/30/2024

Félix Maritaud is outstanding in this depiction of the seedy and sordid life of a young Parisian prostitute in love (sadly, unrequited) with another prostitute. The grim and risky extent of their existence is captured superbly by Camille Vidal-Naquet. It is a story about gay men, but need not necessarily be considered solely in a specifically gay context; this narrative could - and almost certainly does - apply to a great many people involved, willingly or otherwise, in the sex industry. It is, essentially, a love story - and that makes this all the more poignant and individual. It isn't an easy watch, but the craft with which this has been constructed makes it a must-see.