Tony
Heyes, our man from England reviews the film, Drôle de
Félix
(or The Adventures of Felix)
(or The Adventures of Felix)
Tony has been
a regular and welcome contributor to The Independent Gay Writer almost
from the outset. He has introduced us to some unusual and interesting
works, and this film is no exception. We benefit from a European
perspective, I think—especially when it comes to films and film-making.
Let Tony know what you thought of this review. Contact
Drôle
de Félixa.k.a. Adventures of Felix
A Film by Jacques Martineau and Olivier Ducaste
Peccadillo Pictures Ltd 2003
When I was eight years old I was taken to one of our local cinemas, along with the rest of my class from school, to see Jean Cocteau’s “La Belle et la Bête”. In French. With subtitles. Why we went remains a puzzle; it’s not as though we were jagged with sophistication. Even though it was a long time ago, I have been haunted by scenes from the film ever since. Its images seem to have been permanently imprinted on my memory. The recent acquisition of a DVD copy of it confirmed that it remains a powerful re-telling of the fairy tale. Time hadn’t exaggerated its magic. Along with this stain on my imagination, I was left with an admiration for French films. They seem so different from the Anglo-Saxon variety, so appreciative of the mystery and messiness of life and less inclined to tidy it up. In particular, French films with a gay theme seem far less inclined to preach or moralise. They just tell a story.
Such a film is Drôle de Félix. It is a picaresque tale. (“Picaresque” is one of those words like “effulgent” or “dithyrambic” that lie around waiting to be used and never getting the opportunity, so it’s a pleasure to drag it into this review.) The Félix of the title is a young HIV positive man, played by Sami Bouajila, who lives in Dieppe with his schoolteacher lover, Daniel. His grandmother dies and leaves him some money. This is fortunate as he has just been made redundant from his job at the docks. He decides to go to Marseilles to find his father, whom he has never seen. Although his mother is French his father was an Arab and Félix looks like an Arab too. He gives Daniel a train ticket to Marseilles and says he will meet him there in five days’ time at the start of the summer vacation; he intends to hitch-hike there himself.
The rest of the film consists of Félix’s adventures along the way. He falls in with a variety of people, each of whom is described as a relation – “cousin”, “brother”, “grandmother” and so on. He witnesses a vicious attack on someone and is himself assaulted. On going to the police station to report it he sees a young Arab being treated harshly on account of his race and retreats. He meets a young man and together they get thrown out of a gay bar. The young man is underage. They steal a car, the owner of which has momentarily left it with the key in as she goes into a shop, and are horrified to discover there is a baby asleep on the back seat. They return the child by a subterfuge and drive off. They argue and Felix drives on alone until the car runs out of fuel. He hitches another lift with a truck driver and they make mad passionate love in a field, gambolling naked afterwards. He is taken in by an old lady, endearingly played by the veteran French singer Patachou. She sees him naked on the bed and stands looking before making a noise to let him know she’s there. He hastily covers himself up and says he thought she was spying on him. She says “I was not spying on you. I was staring at you”, going on to say that it’s a long time since she’s seen a young man naked and thanking him for it. He moves on and meets a woman with three children by different men. They see a report on the television of the attack Félix witnessed; the young man died. Félix is mortified. The young woman berates him for his cowardice but he doesn’t feel as bad about it when it is announced that the culprit has been caught. In Marseilles he encounters an old fisherman before meeting up again with Daniel. They then board a ship for a holiday in Corsica.
Put baldly, the plot seems inconsequential and of no note. Cumulatively it builds up a rounded picture of Félix and of French life and attitudes. Although by the end of the film he has not met his father, the conceit is that he has nonetheless acquired a family of sorts along the way. This is a gentle, despite the initial violence, and charming film. A feast for Francophiles, and others!