I have to guess that Wild Reeds has gotten so much more notice than Ma Saison Preferee and J’embrasse pas because it involves the Algerian War, a trauma that France is still dealing with. But there’s a strong link among all these strong films of this period of Techine’s career.
The biggest link I see here is between Reeds and Saison: both focus on showing us personal relationship is a detailed, intimate way. In Reeds, there are four people rather than the two of Saison, and there’s more variety among the four, but Techine still manages to make us intimate with all four of them. Part of that is the detail, and another part is the film technique. Reeds takes us from one intimate conversation to another; I only have to think of the conversation between Maite and Francois when the boy comes out to his girlfriend to get the sincere, conflicted personalities of each. I love this dialog – it’s so first-hand and honest.
And as my French is getting better as I progress through these movies, I can actually watch them more, and what I’m seeing is a lot of close-ups. Lots. This is an effective way to create intimacy between the viewer and the characters, and it works like a charm. Of course, it only works if the actors can act, and the four leads are great. And the casting of the four based on their looks is dead-on, too. Gael Morel as Francois just looks sincere, fragile, and youthful. His earnestness and vulnerability are always visible when we see his face, and he plays these qualities beautifully. There’s a scene of him riding on his moped to Toulouse with his
arms around Serge’s chest and a look of transcendent happiness on his face (and with Barber’s Adagio in the background and a earnest voiceover) that can bring tears to your eyes with its poignancy since we know at this point that Serge is straight and that Francois’ love is going to be unrequited. Elodie Bouchez’s Maite has a silent movie face with its expressive, mercurial changes to reflect her moods: love, confusion, anger, desire. She is France. Great casting of Stephane Rideau as Serge, too. Serge is nature, and he has a big, broad body and is slightly cross-eyed. He doesn’t show a huge range of emotion; he takes things as they come having learned living with hardship on the land. Frederic Gorny does a fine job with Henri, too. Gorny has a handsome, sculptural face that he uses to allow only hints of the hurt and anger it mostly conceals. All these actors have an authentic appearance and play their characters with a unique specificity…and the scenario lets them interact intimately. It’s the same focus I saw and appreciated in Saison.But there’s more here. There’s a symbolic overlay as the film is also about France herself. You can see the farmer, the intellectual, the nubile and the North African here, classic elements of how the French see themselves. This is about France growing, being the reed of La Fontaine’s fable and not the oak. This is a France trying to move toward liberte, fraternite and egalite, even if that achievement is halting, uncertain, not wholly successfully. These fabulous kids move toward that vision with their sincerity, innocence and occasional stumble. It’s hard to say whether they’ll achieve this vision or not. But La Fontaine would have hope for a people with the attitudes of these four.
OTHER THOUGHTS: Again, no fathers, though Maite’s mother has some of the depth to her that Techine often gives his auxiliary characters. And there’s the same economy of editing here I like in all the Techine I’ve seen, sparing us unnecessary detail. AND I’m finally taking this opportunity to comment on a shot that I’ve seen in several Techine films but have forgotten to mention: the long tracking shot with the camera on rail following the subject but with something in the middle ground that shouts the motion. Saw this Rashemon but don’t know enough to say whether Techine got this idea from Kurasawa or from another source. But it’s effective. And last thought: I’ve also seen the camera move in circles several times to show the range of action taking place at the scene. This must be hard to do and is more something I’d expect from Scorcese more than from Techine, but Techine uses it often.
