Plein sud

This is basically the story of a young man (Yannick Renier), who is haunted by childhood memories of his father's suicide and mother's subsequent mental breakdown. He is traveling to the south of France/north of Spain on an ominous mission that involves his mother and the gun his late father used to commit suicide. At the beginning of the story he already has two traveling companions, a brother and sister (Theo Frilet, Lea Seydoux). The uncertain sexuality of the protagonist is established in the opening scene where Seydoux's character does a very sexy striptease for him (that would have any man who's NOT very. very gay visibly aroused), but with no effect. He is more drawn to the brother, who is openly gay, but clearly he is sexually confused. A fourth person then joins the group, a handsome hitch-hiker (Pierre Perrier), who becomes a love/sexual interest for the nymphomaniacal sister (even though she is ALREADY pregnant when the movie begins). But this new additional too seems to have some bisexual leanings.

The combination of melancholy flashbacks, beautiful scenery, and gay and straight sexual encounters kind of reminds me of "My Own Private Idaho". This isn't in the same class as that one(although some might consider it less pretentious since it doesn't break into Shakespeare in the middle). It's certainly a "gay-interest" film, but just like the French tend to make "teen films" that also appeal for adults, they tend to make "gay-interest films that also appeal to straight people (thus the presence of the tres luscious Lea Seydoux). This is necessary, of course, because the French film industry is much smaller than the Hollywood industry and their films need to find a more general audience, but it sometimes causes problems in America. "Blue is the Warmest Color", a more recent gay-themed film (also with Seydoux) was rejected by some segments of the American lesbian community because they felt the actresses and the sex scenes catered too much to heterosexual male fantasies. But is it really a good thing for ALL films about homosexuality to be relegated to some "gay interest" ghetto where they cater to the gay "community", but are not seen by anyone else? That's a valid question.

It is a little ridiculous how incredibly attractive EVERYONE in this movie is. If Seydoux wasn't in this, I would have been seriously questioning my own sexuality since the three males in this are the three best-looking guys you're ever likely to see in each other's presence. The gay sex scenes in this are all pretty essential to the plot, but I'm not so sure about the three-way, nude Greco-Roman wrestling match the males all engage in during a beach party. But, of course, you could also say that about the striptease scene or the one straight sex scene. People will complain about "gratuitous" nudity, but no one complains that a shot of, say, a beautiful sunset is "gratuitous" just because it doesn't strictly advance the plot. The bigger problem is that Renier and other males are not the strongest actors in France, and Seydoux has been a lot better in movies like "Sister", "Farewell My Queen" and the aforementioned "Blue is the Warmest Color".

This is definitely not a great movie, but it's certainly an ATTRACTIVE one giving the cast and the beautiful scenery of southern France. And it's quite accessible as far a "gay-interest" cinema goes.

I would have to agree with the reviewer who judged "Plen Sud" as regressive as far as the work of director Sebastian Lifshitz goes. "The Wild Side" was a fine film and "Presque Rien" simply outstanding.

"Plein Sud" has the feeling of a director out of control and worse a director devoid of vision. The film ambles, has unnecessary musical interludes and is imbued with an off putting vagueness of intention.

Where the film fails most is the lack of chemistry between the players especially between the Yannick Renier and Theo Frilet characters. Liftshitz's previous films abounded with a sense of genuine feeling between the characters. Remove that from a film and not much remains.

There are shots on the beach which are replicas from "Presque Rien" - and in my book that is not a good sign.

There are films which exude a sense of everything going right - sadly, "Plein Sud" is the flip side.

Without being a driven action movie, this is an everyday story-film made interesting, without getting any of the answers. It's well done, the film work and photography, and there's a lingering underneath which makes you follow trough. If you're not searching for an action flick, that is.

Young man Sam is still traumatized and maybe a tiny bit suicidal after seeing his father committing suicide while he was watching, struggling with his mother going insane as a result of her husbands death, following a row in their car. More than 15 years later Sam goes down south, to try to find his mother, together with some friends, without telling them what he's up to. On the way we since some affection between some of the four of them, a girl which has become pregnant and her brother, and another friend they pick up.

It's a pleasant summery tale, where we are offered no solution or even a climax. We just almost there. I find that this makes the film interesting. More like real life. It's one of those films making you think, and remembering some of your own summer memories along life's rich pageant. Some might get disappointed by not getting the solutions, and an exact happy ending, but I find liking films which don't give all the answers, but leaves some to each and one of us, and our imagination.

I haven't seen any other work of Director Sebastien Lifshitz, and when I realize this is the film of his that has the lowest score, I can't expect him to be nothing less than an interesting director. I'm sure to be on the look for more from his hands. Can't decide if this is a 6 or a 7 out of 10, and then I tend to go down. Still, it's worth watching if you like a story which doesn't give it all away.

Sebastien Lifshitz is a fine director, and I hold him in the highest esteem. ' Les Invisibles ' is a truly great documentary, and ' Presque Rien ' is equally rewarding to watch. I have tried to like ' Plein Sud ' and watched it three times. I respect it for dealing with childhood trauma and how it can ruin a life, and make feelings towards others grow cold. Yannick Renier gives a good performance as the character witnessing his father's suicide and then blaming his mother, played by the extraodinary actor Nicole Garcia ( the best actor in the film. ) After three viewings I hoped for a redemptive ending, and the final images are ambiguous. Essentially this film is a journey down to Spain to visit his mother, but what happens there appears to me too unforgiving. Renier is good, but gives a too cold performance and the more I watched the film I disliked his cold heart. I understood the trauma, but there is an arrogance in him to move more than a few inches towards others that repelled me. His treatment towards his male lover ( Theo Frilet ) is appalling to watch, and so is the treatment meted out to this young man in the film. Theo Frlet is shown as being abused physically by others, including Renier himself and this bordered on Gay bashing. He is also denigrated verbally too often for my liking, and Lifshitz is pitiless on showing how Renier cruelly abandons him. I missed Frilet when he left the film, and he had the same effect on me as Lea Seydoux has for others. A beautiful actor in every sense he deserved a more positively conceived role. Perhaps the director in Renier's treatment towards him wanted to show how the cold heart can murder the souls of others, but I refuse to go along with a lot of what I saw in that treatment. One reviewer here mentions it is of ' Gay interest '. I disagree. For heterosexuals it may seem so, and sadly Lifshitz seduces the audience with a brash opening of the actor Lea Seydoux sexually exciting ( the viewers ) and the emotionally and perhaps impotent Renier. I must put this into context. The film not only has flashbacks to Renier's past as adolescent and child, but also attempts a ' road movie ' with Renier taking on board Lea Seydoux as his male lover's sister. She in turn picks up and takes along with them a very nasty, homophobic young man she physically desires. Confused ? I hope so as the film's focus at the start of the film is Leydoux, doing her crude imitation of a Bardot dance and then shots of her unborn child in the womb. This is the luggage that Renier carries with him as he travels towards Spain and a meeting with his mother. En route we have lots of fun in the sea and male nude exhibitionism which adds nothing to the driving force of the film, and neither does the nervous camera that jumps around excitedly. I have no idea why all this luggage had to be there other than to entice in an essentially heterosexual audience. Saddening to a Gay/Queer audience who would have expected more from the director who made ' Presque Rien ' and ' Les Invisibles ' both more concentrated than this overloaded scenario. That said the film is excellent on emotional child abuse, and the presence of Nicole Garcia who gives a radiance towards the end lacking elsewhere. And thank you Lifshitz for Micheline Presle as the grandmother to Renier's role. This film could have been a great film, but by some strange reason I cannot fathom why it is not. Troubling, excellent in part, and well worth viewing for the great scenes in it from a fine director.