A Família de Félix

This movie was just what I needed. I found myself enjoying the adventures (and company) of Felix, anticipating the next extended family member he would meet. I was also touched by the music of the film. It's a shame that there wasn't a soundtrack produced. I did manage to track down a few of the artists and song titles for anyone who might have loved the songs also.

The music from the opening and closing credits were sung by Blossom Dearie. They are entitled "Tout Doucement" and "Plus Je t'embrasse" respectively. Several songs were by Arabic artist Cheb Mami (who recently colaborated with Sting on his latest album). Also, if you're interested there are some great 50's era songs out there by Patachou, the actress who played Mathilde (Grandmother) in the movie.

"Drole de Felix" ends up being a road-trip fable that charms you with it's cast of delightful characters, a charismatic performance by Sami Bouajila as Felix, and the beautiful & striking scenery of France. The tale of a man in search of "family" (and finding that those relationships are a process, not a destination), it's a delightful movie, full of French sensibilities and moments of simple truths.

This is a charming film, very believable, just the way it could happen. Felix may be HIV+, but that is not exactly the issue here (he practices very safe sex). It's just a young man's odessy to find his biological father. Don't worry, it's a five-day trip. And, he interacts with some very interesting people. Very French. Very European in its conceit. I am 59 and if I were twenty-something again, I might try, like Felix, to find my biological father in much the same way. I would hope I could meet a "grand-mere" as delightful as Felix did. Felix is HIV+, but that is not the issue here -- it's more about a gay youngman's five-day odyssey. In the end, well, you will have enjoyed it all, but perhaps you won't know exactly why.

The jazzy opening-credits number (a beautiful Blossom Dearie tune) we hear as Felix glides across the screen on a bicycle perfectly sets the tone for this wonderfully clever and creative gay-themed film from France.

In so many gay films, the acceptance of homosexuality is the central struggle in the film - or the horrors of the dating scene, the devestation of being HIV positive etc. etc. etc. I really enjoyed the way these issues were handled in this film. Felix is gay and HIV-positive - that is established from the beginning - and the rest of the film is spent getting to know this man as he gets to know the people on his path to visit his estranged father.

Issues of race, age, monogamy, relationships, family, marriage, sexuality, homosexuality and HIV are presented in such a natural way that they do not become "issues" as in most other gay films, but only various parts of Felix's experiences that make life interesting. The characters in the film are refreshingly realistic; some have tempers, some are sometimes rude and they don't always say or do the right thing.

Overall, this is a beautiful, breezy film that has freed itself from the constricting influence of "gay culture" - a film that helps you realize that life really has very few limitations.

Although "Drole de Felix" does not seem on the surface to be a problem film, it is, on reflection, a rather difficult one to bring off. The directors have attempted a road movie with a feel-good factor about a young gay French Arab who is taking HIV-positive medication. Seldom has a film been so dependent on the performance of its central character. That the film succeeds at all is entirely due to Sami Bouajila's utterly likeable Felix. As he sets out on his quest from Dieppe where he has just lost his job to find a father in Marseilles whom he has never met, there is not a hint of anguish or self-pity. Here is a chap who almost dances his way along the roads of France between lifts. When, before setting out, he compares medication with a couple of youngsters at an AIDS clinic, the tone is almost lighthearted. Only at one point does his cheerful veneer crack as he tearfully confesses to one of his encounters that he did not tell the police of a brutal attack that he witnessed for fear of possible racial harassment. If the scene does not quite ring true it is due to an uncomfortable shift of mood rather than something that is dramatically not credible. Otherwise the film is all of a piece, particularly in its depiction of gay love. The relationship of Felix with his partner, a schoolteacher in Dieppe who later joins him in Marseilles, is one of real tenderness and affection. So much so that Felix's one promiscuous encounter with a young man who give him a lift is a joyous frolic, the two revelling in each other's nakedness in an otherwise deserted country landscape, a one-off fling that can do no harm to the other permanent relationship. By the end it is all perhaps a little too glib, but the excellent company of Felix in what at times amounts to little more than a French travelogue is worth an hour and a half's suspension of disbelief.