La confusion des genres

A giant custard pie smack in the kisser of anyone who has ever claimed "but I'm really bisexual," when that's not the case at all "La Confusion des Genres" is miles ahead of the formulaic likes of "Le Placard" when it comes to making a comedy about gay life today. As he's shown in films as diverse as "Pauline at the Beach" and "Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train," Pascal Greggory is a master of guilty sexual sneakiness. Worth seeing for the wedding scene alone.

The "confusion" here is more a plethora, an embarrassment of riches and of choices. At the center of every scene is bisexual (or is he just gay?) lawyer Alain (Pascal Greggory). Everybody wants him, or thinks he wants them -- handsome imprisoned murderer Marc (Vincent Martinez), cute gay boy Christophe (Cyrille Thouvenin), attractive and accomplished law partner Laurence (Nathalie Richard, who's more Alain's age); the prisoner's (former) girlfriend Babette (Julie Gayet); Marc's prison-mate Étienne (noted singer Alain Bashung) even gets amusingly involved at the end. Alain and his law partner are talking about marrying, and it's all practical and boring, except that it's impulsive too. Through it all Pascal Greggory has that bored, annoyed look he always has; but he registers a lot of other looks too -- he's a skillful movie actor and for good reason one of the busiest in France. This is very French, a sort of comedy of ill humor, sex, and indecision. The hilariously grumpy and irritable "haute bourgeoisie" relatives of Laurence and Alain who come into play when wedding bells are in the offing include the great Bulle Ogier as Laurence's mother. The various nude scenes aren't just titillation; they're all skillfully and sometimes hilariously illustrative of characters and situations and of Alain's "embarras du choix."

"La Confusion des genres" is dry and amusing and well paced and has an excellent cast but it's very French and you wouldn't necessarily expect it to go over well with Americans, and it didn't. US critics pretty much hated it. On Metacritic it got a 39. Many American viewers think it's pretentious and unfunny. They miss the witty but blunt dialogue (which all the French critics complement), and they don't appreciate Greggory, who's perfect here, or the delicately observed range of French social and personality types. This is as good a treatment of the pains and pleasures of the bisexual life as seen from the French 21st-century standpoint as, at the time, was John Schlesinger's very English (1971) "Sunday Bloody Sunday"; but as a movie it doesn't carry quite as much weight and clearly like some wines it does not travel well.

Doing the voice-over commentary in English for the American DVD didn't turn out very well either. Director Duran Cohen studied at NYU Film School and and is fluent, but he's paired with Greggory and Thouvenin, who're pretty tongue-tied, and the conversation never gets going. Why didn't they do it in French with subtitles as Kassovitz, Cassel, and Reno did so entertainingly for the US "Crimson Rivers" DVD? Then maybe they would have been more relaxed and talkative, as the "Crimson Rivers" team was, and something more informative would have resulted.

In the DVD commentary, Pascal Greggory and the director state that this is not a comedy about bisexuality, it is a comedy about sexuality and choices. This is so true. Alain faces the choices we all face. Does he choose the person who is more like a partner than a romance? Does he choose the younger, eager lover who offers little more than sex? Does he choose to pursue the yet-to-be-obtained intriguing person he has recently met? A few other peripheral choices also hover nearby. But even more basic questions are asked: Does he have to choose? Can he choose more than one option? Will any choice make him completely happy if it cancels out all the others? This film made me reflect on these questions and choices in my own life, which is exactly what a good film should do. I think anyone who is over 30 and unmarried should be able to relate to Alain, at least on this level.

A few reviewers have asked why so many characters are attracted to the narcissistic, emotionally remote Alain, but in my experience, it is often just this type of person who has many people attracted to him. For some, he is a challenge. For others, he is safely unattainable. For yet others, he is someone who will hurt them (which they expect), or who won't be hurt too much if they leave him. Alain mirrors the other characters' loneliness back to them, and one wonders if any of them would be happy if they ended up being Alain's choice – and if he could ever stick with that choice.

If you're happily content in a stable, long-lasting relationship, then you will see this film as a comedy about things that happen to other people. But if your heart still has the capacity to lead you in directions you don't expect, this film will have greater meaning for you.

I've watched this only now because the poster and publicity back in 2001 didn't seem promising - decided to give it a try because of Julie Gayet, who is likely to become the next First Lady of France.

What pleasantly surprised me though is that it avoids wallowing in negative stereotypes of bisexuals, while at the same time not presenting its anti-hero as a likable guy. If there's one thing that I (as a queer person) find irritating about gay men is that they are rather demanding when it comes to respecting their identity, but unwilling to grant that respect to sexual orientations other than their own, with a particularly negative bias towards bisexuality. 'Confusion of Genders' toys with this quite admirably: the main character - through his bisexuality and brusque openness about it - constantly challenges the people around him into both attraction and repulsion.

His shifting affections and emotions are easily forgiven by his partners because he's open about them; being able to express his feelings clearly seems to make him irresistible - even though he is far from attractive and (too) often just telling his lovers to buzz off. But they seem to prefer even the most complex relationships over loneliness and lies - that's where the strange dry humor of this piece comes from. Needless to say, this will infuriate those who come to this with the expectation of a bit of silly antics and skin, which explains its low rating. Be warned that this is by no means an easy film to watch, even though it is good for quite a few laughs.

'Confusion of Genders' is both a (sometimes overbearingly) intellectual farce and a step away from the usual gay/gender-bender clichés. If you're bi and frustrated about being vilified in (not just) gay-themed fiction, this one is for you. If you're anything else, open-minded and tired of being fed the same old sexuality-based stereotypes over and over again, you might like this as well.

No wonder the French like Jerry Lewis slapstick. The subtitles they see in his films shown in France must be like the actual dialogue of this homegrown attempt at a verbal rendering of the same kind of meaningless nonsense. Add a little skin, a little "confusion des genres," a little mad racing around, and some highly implausible courtroom and backroom high jinks, and you have something close to what the Marx Brothers might have done had they been inclined to do it in drag with some R-rated messing around.

I know enough French to appreciate some of the scenes in which everything is made up of non sequiturs and oblique angst, especially those between Alain and Laurance. There is a degree of cleverness that has a certain appeal. But the actors cannot even at their best overcome a plodding direction of a script that probably reads better than it looks on screen.

Once again comes an example of the maxim that in comedy, timing is everything. Add to that the usual caveat that much can be lost in translation.