Le Roi de l'évasion

This is a 'film' from French director Alain Guiraudie who got a lot of attention for 'Stranger by the lake'. In this film from 2009 we have a 43 year old tractor salesman Armand - who is gay and likes to cruise the local beauty spot for 'older men' falling in love with a 16 year old girl.

Her father does not like it and neither do the police. So they go on the 'run'. This basically means panting about the woods in various states of undress then stopping for a bit of al fresco rutting.

Now there are some very well observed conversations about love and relationships and the whole point of life. They are by far the most appealing aspects to this movie. Where it falls down is in the sheer lack of credibility of the plot. The idea that any police force this side of North Korea has the power or manpower to behave the way they do here is ludicrous. The love story is also badly realised and the running away scenes are not even pretentious enough to be laughable.

This is a film where you could watch segments on fast forward and you would not miss a jot. I found it massively underwhelming and a bit insulting to the intelligence to be honest. This is one I should not have bothered with as I felt a lot of the problems with the aforementioned 'Stranger by the lake' are prevalent here too. I will not be beating a path to watch any more of Mousier Guiraudie's future efforts. But if you can suspend belief for an hour and a half and enjoy 'bear' types in the woods then this may be worth a punt.

I didn't watch for a long time such a fresh movie!!The sexuality,freedom and the very interesting characters who are so ordinary make the movies of Alain powerful and colourful full of passion!!!

Where to begin?!A good start would be the total, even fraudulent,misuse of the word 'comedy' to describe this film. Bearing in mind the storyline (middle aged homosexual man in a small french village becomes involved with a sixteen year old girl), I knew I wouldn't be rolling in the aisles with laughter but I did expect witty, ironic and wry (but not too much since they are French after all ...). What I got was a handful of badly delivered, moderately funny lines and a total absence of any, even slightly, comic scenes. Which brings me to the next problem, the so called plot. Again I didn't expect a Hollywoodian epic, just a well written plot with strong characters.The reality? A series of 'scenes' with no particular sense, a large number of which focused on a man cycling or running or looking socially inept. The characters were one dimensional characters,for which I felt no interest, empathy or affinity. I had no idea where the film was going (nowhere, incidentally)and I had the impression neither did the director. In short I found this film self-satisfied,pretentious and dull.

This is one on the best movies I have seen last year, and was lucky to see once again lately on DVD. It is so fresh, celebrating what is best in life: love, friends, freedom, nature, sensuality, and in an original way, with people you rarely see on movies, I mean elderly farmer, whom are very authentic and funny... Also the director really succeed in creating a world and atmosphere of its own, with incredible character, and succeed every time in surprising you. You also feel sometimes like its a kind of dream, and that the movie beyond its realistic kind is somehow almost fantastic. Of course, if you are the kind of people whom only like classic character, handsome boys and sexy girls, you will be very disappointed. But if you like original and somehow crazy movies, that are sincere and simple, you will definitely like this one!

When I first read about the movie, I thought I might be bored, but I was wrong. The movie is very funny, from beginning to end. The humor is sometimes slight, sometimes obvious, sometimes verbal, sometimes visual. The plot is original and rich. The hero is a gay man in his forties, leading stagnant life, not necessarily fulfilling, but not miserable either. Several things happen that cause him to doubt himself, and develop midlife crisis. He's attempting to make some drastic changes in his life, and goes though a comic journey of finding himself. Although the hero is gay, the story conveys a message that is universally appealing, for gay and straight viewers. Very enjoyable movie!