In the spirit of other successful high school coming out tales such as Edge of Seventeen, Dare and Get Real, Because of a Boy is an important entry into the New Queer Cinema canon.
Vincent is an average high school boy, a good student, and a star swimmer. Life literally goes by swimmingly, that is until handsome new kid Benjamin (Jérémie Elkaïm, Presque Rien) arrives at the school, kicking up some serious inner turmoil. You see, Vincent is beginning to come to terms with his sexuality, yet he is terrified of upsetting feisty girlfriend Noémie and his conservative family. With passions riding high, Vincent s idyllic life begins to crumble, culminating in the school messageboard being covered in graffiti labeling him a "fag". Slowly but surely, Vincent adapts to life as a young gay man, and finds that it isn't such a terrifying thing after all.
Starring: Julien Baumgartner, Julia Maraval, Jérémie Elkaïm
Marc takes his wife Béatrix and their two children to the seaside house of his youth, but before long the summer holiday begins to fall apart. Nineteen-year-old daughter Laura has a rendez-vous with her biker boyfriend and then heads off to Spain, while their son Charly, 17, is getting suspiciously intimate with another boy.
When Béatrix's lover Mathieu shows up, and Marc's old flame appears, complications ensue and the holiday descends into chaos. Acclaimed French actors Gilbert Melki and Jean-Marc Barr head up a cast of comic performers who bring a touch of quirkiness to this summery crowd-pleaser.
Starring: Gilbert Melki, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Jean-Marc Barr, Jacques Bonnaffe
A tense, sexy and uplifting account of brotherly love and independence, Give Me Your Hand charts the trials and tribulations of twin brothers Quentin and Antoine as they hitchhike to Barcelona. Along the way they become embroiled in a variety of sexual encounters with local girls and boys, their identities shifting and morphing, teenage insecurities and carnal lusts both bringing them together and tearing them apart.
Pascal-Alex Vincents first feature film Baby Shark won the Palme dOr Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival. Inspired by various cult road movies from the 70s, Give Me Your Hand is a wistful debut from one of Frances most promising young directors.
Starring: Patrick Hauthier, Alexandre Carril, Victor Carrill, Anais Demoustier
Paul and Agnes have been dating for quite some time, and Agnes is shocked to learn that Paul would rather live with 2 roommates on campus than move in with her. Each year the French government filters out students who are potential candidates for high ranking government positions. They are shipped off to schools known as Grande Ecoles, where they are trained to become the country's future leaders. It is here that Paul meets his roommate, Louis-Arnault. Paul is strangely attracted to Louis-Arnault without realising so himself. Upon seeing this, Agnes becomes jealous and proposes a bet: whoever gets Louis-Arnault into bed first wins. If Agnes emerges victorious, Paul may no longer explore his homoerotic yearnings. If Paul nabs the booty, Agnes will simply walk away. Bourgeois titillation and sexual experimentation brim beneath the surface of one of France's most revered educational institutions.
Starring: Gregori Baquet, Alice Taglioni, Jocelyn Quivrin, Élodie Navarre, Arthur Jugnot
In the French farce La Cage aux Folles, Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault star as Renato and Albin, a middle-aged gay couple and co-owners of a nightclub, the titular Cage aux Folles, where hysterically effeminate Albin stars as drag act Zaza. The long-suffering Renato once briefly enjoyed a heterosexual relationship and has a 20-year-old son, Laurent. When the latter turns up one day and announces he is to marry the daughter of one M Charrier, deputy leader of the Moral Order party, Renato is initially appalled. However, he comes round and reluctantly agrees to a meeting with the girl's parents, in which he will pose as a high-ranking diplomat, rid the apartment of all its queenly trappings and try to persuade Albin to lie low. The final 20 minutes of the movie, in which this charade of austerity and propriety falls entirely to pieces are among the most aisle-rollingly uproarious ever committed to celluloid.
It was remade by Hollywood as The Birdcage, but this original is far funnier. Although perhaps a little dated and stereotypical in its depiction of gay life there is real sympathy for, and affection conveyed between, Renato and Albin. The scenes with the Charrier family, who, it turns out, have problems of their own, cut an utterly gloomy bourgeois contrast with the screaming flamboyance of the nightclub scenes. The Charrier's unscrupulous chauffeur is one of the film's many treasures, his final "Combien?" provoking the film's crowning guffaw. All this iced with a delicious soundtrack from Ennio Morricone which wafts with the nostalgic scent of late-1970s South of France.
Starring: Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Claire Maurier, Rémi Laurent, Carmen Scarpitta
In french with subtitles available in Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and swedish
Notorious gay porn star Francois Sagat stars as Emmanuel, one half of a cute gay couple who between the suburbs of Paris and the skyscrapers of New York, go to extraordinary lengths to prove that they're not in love with one another.
A striking meditation on the male form, appearing as much a celebration of porn actor François Sagat's sculpted body as it is a tense examination of love and desire, celebrated director Christophe Honoré (Love Songs, Dans Paris, Close to Leo) welcomes you to an exploration of desire and longing; a touching ode to bittersweet goodbyes.
Mathieu ( Jeremie Elkaim kills time by climbing dunes and catching rays while on holiday on the French coast. Chancing upon beautiful local boy Cédric (Stephane Rideau) spurs homosexual desires he wasn't aware he had. When the pair meet, the attraction is mutual, the carefree days giving way to lustful nights of carnal desire and sexual experimentation. Yet as the sun begins to fade, the holiday must end, and the pair must face a difficult decision. Holiday romances have rarely been caught on screen with such visceral and heart-wrenching power as in Sébastien Lifshitz's groundbreaking ode to teenage love. 'Presque Rien' is an openly gay arthouse classic that garnered awards at film festivals the world over.
Starring: Jeremie Elkaim, Marie Matheron, Stephane Rideau, Dominique Reymond
22-year-old Leo sells his body on the street for cash. Men come and go but he remains; stuck in the same place and longing for love. Uncertain of what his future may bring, Leo hits the road. Sometimes reckless, sometimes savage, sometimes tender but always with a pounding heart - Leo is ready for change.
Summer time. A cruising spot for gay men seeking nameless sexual encounters, is tucked away on the shores of a picturesque secluded lake in rural France. Franck is an attractive young male who falls in love with Michel, a striking, extremely potent but lethally dangerous man. Franck has witnessed this first hand, but his desire for Michel knows no bounds, this is a relationship he must have at any cost. STRANGER BY THE LAKE is a tense thriller set against the secluded back drop of, what becomes inevitably, the most dangerous lake in France.
A provocative and accomplished effort by one of France's most overlooked auteurs, STRANGER BY THE LAKE is Alain Guiraudie's steamy mix of the comic and the tragic, winning Best Director for Un Certain Regard in addition to the Queer Palm at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
In french with english subtitles
Starring: Patrick d'Assumçao, Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou
Hicham runs away from his home and comes to Lyon, looking for Thibaut, a young man who tried to kiss him a few years earlier. Thibaut is an activist at the 'G-Spot', a LGBT Center. Hicham enters his world, apprehensive but enthusiastic. However, as Hicham begins a journey to find his own identity, he comes to understand that Thibaut isn't exactly who he appears to be.
Cast: Mehdi Meskar, Eric Pucheu, Claudine Charreyre
