Film
The Wild Boys
Orig. Les garçons sauvages • Bertrand Mandico • FR 2017 • 110min
DCP • french OV with german Subs
18.10.2019, 22:30 Cinematograph
The boys are unleashed. In the early 1900s, five teenagers from rich families are sent on a repressive cruise after murdering their teacher. Led by a violent captain, they arrive on a strange island with luxuriant, supernatural vegetation. As the song says, “a change is gonna come”.
In his first feature, Bertrand Mandico deepens the universe of his award-winning shorts: cinema as something organic, only-shot-on-film, where bodies are shrouded by highly-stylised, sexy and wild visuals. A world of literal (bodily) and metaphorical fluids. The Wild Boys manages the crazy feat of merging such disparate influences and genres as Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Kenneth Anger, 80’s New Wave, Joseph Von Sternberg and Wakamatsu Koji in a gorgeous (mostly) black-and-white feast of magical visions. With the strength of poetry rather than speeches, the film pleads for a fluid sexual identity to free ourselves. (IFFR)
Filmeinführung: Judith Salner (DIAMETRALE)
Director, Writer Bertrand Mandico • Cinematography Pascale Granel • Edit Laure Saint-Marc Cast Vimala Pons, Diane Rouxel, Anaël Snoek, Elina Löwensohn • Music Pierre Desprats
Bertrand Mandico (*1971) is a French experimental film director of short films, medium-length films, experimental essays, and the feature films. The Wild Boys, his first feature film, was named the top film of 2018 by Cahiers du cinema. His films are often interested in the body and gender fluidity and incorporate photos and written elements. Mandico has an unusual working method. He prefers to create the audio for his films in post-production. Actors post-synchronize themselves, and the environmental sounds and music are layered on. However, he always shoots his images on color film, with no post-production images. Background projection and superimposition are done during the shoot.
