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Les Roseaux sauvages
	; Film poster
Directed by	André Téchiné
Produced by	Georges Benayoun; Alain Sarde
Written by	Olivier Massart; Gilles Taurand; André Téchiné
Starring	Élodie Bouchez; Gaël Morel; Stéphane Rideau; Frédéric Gorny; Michèle Moretti; Jacques Nolot
Cinematography	Jeanne Lapoirie
Editing by	Martine Giordano
Distributed by	Strand Releasing
Release date(s)	June 1, 1994
Running time	110 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Wild Reeds (French: Les Roseaux sauvages) is a 1994 film by French director André Téchiné about the sensitive passage in the adulthood and in the awakening of the sexuality by four youth at the end of the Algerian War.

[edit] Plot

The film is set in south-west France in 1962. François (Gaël Morel), a shy young man from the lower middle class, is working towards his baccalaureat. But he spends most of his time talking about cinema and literature with his best friend, Maïté (Élodie Bouchez), whose mother is his professor of French. Mme Alvarez (Michèle Moretti) and Maïté are communists. At the boarding school, François becomes acquainted with the sensual son of farmer, Serge (Stéphane Rideau). At night, he joins François in the dormitory to chat. Finally he entraines him in an erotic relation.

While Serge acted out of curiosity, François discovers his latent homosexuality and develops a deep attraction for Serge. He confides this discovery to Maïté, who swallows her disappointment to encourage him to assume his sexual preference. While Serge becomes more and more interested in Maïté, she declares to be interested in nobody but feels a platonic love for François.

The Algerian War and its horror crash headlong into these young grazes of the heart. Serge's brother dies on the front, the mother of Maïté loses the reason to have refused to help him to desert.

Into this mix, an Algerian-born French exile, Henri (Frédéric Gorny), appears in the boarding school and aggravates all the conflicts. Supporting the OAS, he brings with him the traumas of the war. He puts François in front of his homosexuality in a cynical way and provokes Serge's hatred. But it's especially the tempestuous meeting with Maïté who goes to destabilized the two of them, when the ideological confrontation collides with their mutual attraction.

In the contact of their differences, each of them learn, little by little, to qualify their judgments and their vision of life.

[edit] Cast

Élodie Bouchez - Maïté Alvarez
Gaël Morel - François Forestier
Stéphane Rideau - Serge Bartolo
Frédéric Gorny - Henri Mariani
Michèle Moretti - Madame Alvarez
Jacques Nolot - Monsieur Morelli
Eric Kreikenmayer - Pierre Bartolo, the Groom
Nathalie Vignes - Irène, the Bride
Michel Ruhl - Monsieur Cassagne
Fatia Maite - Aicha Morelli
Claudine Taulère - Nurse
Elodie Soulinhac - Colette, Girl at Party
Dominique Bovard - Guard
Monsieur Simonet - Guard
Chief Officer Carre - Officer

[edit] About the film

After this film, Morel became something of an apprentice to Téchiné, who encouraged him to pursue a career in directing. Stéphane Rideau went on to play a somewhat similar character six years later in Sebastien Lifshitz's Presque rien.

It was at first a television film of command under the subject "Tous les garçons et les filles de leurs âges", Le chêne et le roseau(The oak and the Reed), which includes the first part of Wild reeds. But Téchiné decides to bring out the film in theatrical, in his completed script. Of autobiographical inspiration, it is his biggest personal success in France and his most intimate film also.

The title is inspired by the poem recited in class by François" The oak and the reed ", by Jean de La Fontaine. If Madame Alvarez, Maité and Henri (himself clarify compared as such by Mr Morelli) are oaks, François and Mr Morelli have the hesitations of the reeds, Serge oscillates between both. The long final scene, by the river, makes it visually reference in a very subtle way. Reeds are there really wild and oaks learn to bend softly.

As the Algerian War is still, in certain way, a taboo on many points, films on the subject were rare or subject to debate (The Little Soldier (Le Petit Soldat), Avoir vingt ans dans les Aurès, La question ). Even if it is not the center of the film, the national feeling of culpability and the complexity of this war are evoked with intelligence, sadness and melancholy : the arranged marriage by Serge's brother to be entitled in some days of permission, the letter of Henri's exile mother in Marseille, the Algerian wife of Mr Morelli and finally by the disenchanted assertion of Serge: "you know, it is violent the death of a brother (...), but there is something more violent that war, it is that life goes on."

Music :
- Barbara Ann Beach Boys
- Adagio pour cordes Samuel Barber
- Wo die Zitronen blühen & Frühlingsstimmen Johann Strauss II
- Run Away Del Shannon
- Let's Twist Again Chubby Checker
- Smoke gets in your eyes The Platters

[edit] Awards and nominations

At the 1995 César Awards, Les Roseaux Sauvages won Best Film, Best Director (André Téchiné), Most Promising Young Actress (Élodie Bouchez) and Best Original Screenplay.

César Awards (France)
- Won: Best Director (André Téchiné)
- Won: Best Film
- Won: Best Writing (Olivier Massart, Gilles Taurand and André Téchiné)
- Won: Most Promising Actress (Élodie Bouchez)
- Nominated: Best Actress – Best Supporting Role (Michèle Moretti)
- Nominated: Most Promising Actor (Frédéric Gorny)
- Nominated: Most Promising Actor (Gaël Morel)
- Nominated: Most Promising Actor (Stéphane Rideau)

Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival (France)
- Nominated^[1]

Los Angeles Film Critics (USA)
- Won: Best Foreign Language Film

National Society of Film Critics (USA)
- Won: Best Foreign Language Film

New York Film Critics (USA)
- Won: Best Foreign Language Film

[edit] References

^ "Festival de Cannes: Wild Reeds". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2996/year/1994.html. Retrieved 2009-08-31.

[edit] External links

Preceded by Smoking/No Smoking	César Award for Best Film 1995	Succeeded by La Haine

[festival-cannes.com-0] "Festival de Cannes: Wild Reeds". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2996/year/1994.html. Retrieved 2009-08-31.

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