L'età acerba (Les Roseaux sauvages) - André Téchiné

André Téchiné aveva girato nel 1994  L'età acerba (Les Roseaux sauvages), un film che sembra contenere già Quando hai 17 anni.

oggi ci sono i morti in Afghanistan, ieri quelli in Algeria, la guerra è il rumore di fondo dei due film.

due ragazzi (Francois e Serge) si vogliono bene, con tutti i turbamenti del caso, e c'è anche una ragazza, Maïté (Élodie Bouchez, quattro anni dopo protagonista ne La vita sognata degli angeli).
da recuperare senza esitazione - Ismaele

…Les roseaux sauvages, prodotto dalla tv francese (!), è un gioiello di sopraffino equilibrio di turbamenti sociali e intimi, soprattutto una purissima auscultazione dell'anima e di un'età critica, quella della formazione intellettuale e fisica, quella terra bombardata dalle passioni e dalle indecisioni, dai contrasti e dalla ricerca. I suoi quattro magnifici protagonisti sono appunto come canne al vento, giunchi selvaggi tormentati dalla Storia, dal proprio essere e dall'essenza dell'altro.
Téchiné ammalia per la dolcezza, il candore, l'asciuttezza che porta fertilità al suo sguardo capace di avvicinare idillio e cupi fantasmi interiori, purezza naturale immediata e lontani massacri. Il paragone col romanzo di formazione, tanto citato per il suo cinema, calza al massimo grado in questo commovente intreccio di amori e soprattutto di grande umanità e amicizia, dignità e rispetto anche nei contrasti, che appaiono quasi paradossali nella loro sincerità…

da qui

…The movie has a wonderful natural flow to it.  François is arguably the central character, as his struggles with his budding homosexuality make for the overtly dramatic thread.  But each character has moments to grow and discover themselves.  The rhythms of the film are only interrupted once, in a scene between Maïté’s mother and another teacher.  It was disruptive to step away from the kids for this scene, although it ends with a moment that builds on the film’s political themes about Algeria.  As someone whose only knowledge of the Algerian situation is from other movies, I suspect most of the political subtext was lost on me.  I appreciated that it was there, at least what I could pick up on, but I was more interested in the youths and their developing relationships.

The photography beautifully captures the feel of a rural area at the onset of summer.  In the daytime scenes, the sun is a warm presence and its light casts a gentle glow on everything.  The camera movement is not grandiose, serving only to eloquently express the relationships between the characters and their environments…

da qui

Like a lot of French films, "Wild Reeds" opens with a wedding. But it is a wedding of desperation, not romance. It is 1962, near the end of the Algerian war that bitterly divided France. The groom has been serving in the army in Algeria, and during the wedding feast, he confesses to a former teacher that the only reason he got married was to go on leave. He begs the teacher, a Communist Party member, to hide him so he won't have to return. There is a bond of love between them, but she refuses. Three days later, he is gone, and soon after that, he is dead…

…"Wild Reeds"" is one of the most honored of recent French films; it won the Cesar, France's equivalent of the Oscar, as the best film of 1994, defeating "Queen Margot" and "Red." I have a suspicion it resonates more deeply for the French than it can for us, because the period of the Algerian war resonates in their emotions the way Vietnam would for us. Some of the political undertones may go astray, but the emotional center of the film is touching and honest.

da qui