›› Presque Rien - Almost Nothing - aka Come Undone
a roller coaster ride of teenage emotions, angst and sex
Have you ever had a holiday romance? And how would you feel if in finding summer love, you come to experience homosexual desires you weren't even aware you had in the first place! Such are the concerns facing Mathieu, a shy and introverted youth who in chancing upon the beautiful face and sexually confident body of Cédric, feels that something special stir down below. No surprise to learn, that it isn't long before carefree days give way to lustful nights, with Mathieu and Cédric becoming an item for all the world to see.
Yet just as holidays come and go, so do summer romances and this one is no exception. Only somewhere along the way, plans for Mathieu to stay with Cédric in Nantes have been cast to the wind, leaving Mathieu in a state of severe depression, one that requires hospitalisation. Only is a broken heart beyond medical repair?
In short, this is but a roller coaster ride of teenage emotions, angst and sex, charting as it does the rise and fall of a summer romance. Yet in doing so, it fails to define the specifics that caused love to turn cold. Then again perhaps this is of no surprise, given it is hampered by a script that takes delight in constantly jumping between past and present time frames, bringing you so close to an emotional bond with the protagonists, only to throw you to another time period before you can connect with them.
Such however is not to take anything away from the fine work of Jérémie Elkaïm as Mathieu and French indie star Stéphane Rideau as Cédric who deliver
compelling performances throughout, giving their all to their parts and in more ways than one! For to say that this work is upfront with regard to the sexual acts that two young men finding love in the arms and bodies of each other, engage in, would be an understatement. Yet and as sensual a sight as Jérémie Elkaïm and Stéphane Rideau are, one has to question the reasoning behind the decision to include such explicit scenes of lovemaking, full frontal male nudity and overt masturbation. Whatever the reason or reasons may be, what is certain is that by the inclusion of such, director Sébastien Lifshitz has delivered a film that if nothing else, is clearly proud to be gay.
And yet it remains a fragmented piece, one that brilliantly showcases the joys of summer love, only for its constant flashforwards to remind you that such scenes are but a vivid memory of times past. For this is a work that is laced with a persistent haunting quality to it, a state of depression that is seemingly ingrained in the very celluloid of the film itself, one that is so close and yet so far, from cinematic gold.
Have you ever had a holiday romance? And how would you feel if in finding summer love, you come to experience homosexual desires you weren't even aware you had in the first place! Such are the concerns facing Mathieu, a shy and introverted youth who in chancing upon the beautiful face and sexually confident body of Cédric, feels that something special stir down below. No surprise to learn, that it isn't long before carefree days give way to lustful nights, with Mathieu and Cédric becoming an item for all the world to see.
In short, this is but a roller coaster ride of teenage emotions, angst and sex, charting as it does the rise and fall of a summer romance. Yet in doing so, it fails to define the specifics that caused love to turn cold. Then again perhaps this is of no surprise, given it is hampered by a script that takes delight in constantly jumping between past and present time frames, bringing you so close to an emotional bond with the protagonists, only to throw you to another time period before you can connect with them.
