It
must be wonderful to live a life free from hang-ups and to except who you are!
Sebastien Lifshitz film, taking its title from a Lou Reed song, Wild
Side (2004) is a film full of life, maybe dark dramatic life at times,
but full of life, one about characters who live on the margins of what we
describe as ‘normal’ society. What do we mean by a normal society, surely that
depends on where your coming from?
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| The wonderful Stephanie Michelini. |
When
this beautiful relationship drama opens we are left in no doubt of the unique
sexuality of our main character - literally laying it out for all to see. Setting the scene is a song from Antony
Hegarty, who
I was fortunate to see perform live in Edinburgh a couple of years ago, before
we move to Bois de Boulogne to see how Stephanie earns
her living as a transsexual. But this is
not a one-character drama. It is the story of a loving relationship between
three people, the young good looking Algerian male prostitute Djamel (Yasmine
Belmadi),[1] an illegal immigrant from
Russia Mikhail (Edouard Nikitine) who washes dishes in a restaurant and Stephanie
(Stephanie Michelini) who we have already mentioned, these are people with a
troubled past and an uncertain future, as one commentator put it.
 |
| A song from Antony Hegarty sets the scene. |
It’s
when Stephanie’s mother becomes terminally ill that she returns to the run down
farm in rural Northern France where she was brought up, reconnecting with her
mother (Josiane Stoleru). We learn that the early years of her childhood as a
boy were happy but that all changed when her father and sister “left” which is
never fully explained. Both Mikhail and Dyamel join her at the farm and through
flashbacks we begin to learn a little about each of their lives.
 |
| Fellow ladies that work the Bois de Boulogne. |
The wonderful
camera work from French cinematographer Agnes Goddard (Home 2008, 35 rhums 2008,
The Golden Door 2006) allows an
evolution to be added to the story especially when we leave Paris and enter
Northern France with its beautiful scenery, farmhouse and village. Lifshitz,
who co-wrote the story with Stephane Bouquet, wanted to make something that was
a little more radical than the standard diet of main stream family drama’s or
comedy programme’s found on French TV. To this end I believe he has
succeeded. The acting helps the
authenticity of the story and for both Stephanie Michelini and Edouard Nikitine
this is the first time they have been involved in acting of any kind. There
performances help us believe the story and the emotions that are unfolding and
Stephanie is not overtly or artificially feminine but I must admit it’s hard to
believe at that she is not a female. This is a story that requires gentle
observation in which we explore marginalisation, the family unit, admittedly in
differing forms and to a lesser extent people’s origins and absent
fathers. A very commendable piece of
work that deservedly won the Teddy Award[2] at the 2004 Berlin Film
Festival.
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| Back to the city. |
[1] On 18
July 2009 the scooter, which Belmadi was
riding, collided with a lamp post at the intersection of the Pont de Sully and the Boulevard Henri IV in Paris. He was taken to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where he died from his injuries, aged 33
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