Extreme drug use, violence and sexually explicit scenes contribute to a powerful yet confronting first feature from director Camille Vidal-Naquet. But Sauvage is not a schlock film full of gratuitous scenes. It’s a film of today, the zeitgeist of self-obsessive nihilism with a young Leo in complete freefall, ultimately blind to the level of his disconnection with world around him.
Just 22 years-old, Leo (an extraordinarily committed Félix Maritaud) is an old-hand on the streets of Paris by day, plying his trade in the Bois de Boulogne by night. Yet for all his braggadocio, he craves human contact – and possibly even good old-fashioned love (fellow-hustler Farid-Eric Bernard – a boxer who identifies as straight – is the object of Leo’s affection). But when opportunities come his way to escape the downward spiral, Leo cannot (or will not) follow through.
Authentic with no judgement, Vidal-Naquet’s film will not be for everyone. Choices made will be at odds with most, yet the power and success of Sauvage and Maritaud’s portrayal of the street-hustler is the inevitability of choices made. It’s a film of confrontation but there’s also tenderness, cruelty, pain, fraternal support – and love.
Rating: 74%
Director: Camille Vidal-Naquet
Writer: Camille Vidal-Naquet
Main cast: Félix Maritaud (BPM, Lux Æterna), Farid-Eric Bernard (The Man Standing Next, Free Way)
An Opinion or Two 