Sauvage / Wild

Strand Releasing | Release Date: April 10, 2019

8.0	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Ratings

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GreatMartinMay 6, 2019

"Sauvage/Wild" is a story about prostitution, not like Vivian (Julia Roberts) in "Pretty Woman" rescued by the handsome prince Richard Gere or is it Julian (Richard Gere) in "The American Gigolo" wearing Armani suits but more like Anna"Sauvage/Wild" is a story about prostitution, not like Vivian (Julia Roberts) in "Pretty Woman" rescued by the handsome prince Richard Gere or is it Julian (Richard Gere) in "The American Gigolo" wearing Armani suits but more like Anna Magnani in "Mamma Roma" or Giulietta Massina in "Nights of Cabiria" before it was turned into the Broadway Musical with Gwen Verdon as "Sweet Charity" or the movie version with Shirley Maclaine who are no longer prostitutes but dance hall girls!!

The nameless 22-year-old male makes a living and lives on the street. He drinks the rainwater from the streets, steals an apple when he can, eats trash from a dumpster, basically wears the same clothes every day and if he gets lucky sleeps in a bed if the trick allows him to stay all night.

The abuse his body takes finally catches up with him but all he wants is to live one more day, fall in love and be loved. Like life the one he loves doesn't love him and the one who loves him isn't loved by him.

This is not a love story with a 'happily ever after' ending but a nitty gritty story about a kid who lives on the streets, takes each day as it comes, does what he has to do with who he has to do it in order to survive so he can get up the next day and find that elusive love he wants to give and get.

The writer-screenwriter Camille Vidal-Naquet refers to the boy as Leo in press releases and makes no apologies for the nudity as this is the way Leo, and the others hustling, live. He puts Leo in many degrading situations which Leo accepts as the price for the way he lives. We know nothing about the boy before we meet him nor do we know about what happens to him after the last shot which will linger in your head for hours if not days.

Felix Maritaud, as Leo, gives his all and pulls us into the pain he is feeling and the moments of joy that come his way sparingly. There is a scene with a female doctor, played by Marie Seux, that gives you some of the insight to the pain he is living with but then Maritaud lets you see all of him, not only physically. He lives for the moment and draws you in to live those moments with him.

"Sauvage/Wild" is a movie that will show you a world that exists and you can no longer say you didn't know. These, if not your kids, are your neighbors kids, your kids schoolfriends and many pushed out of homes and on to the streets to find there is only one way to survive and which you probably couldn't.

synopsis

Leo is 22 and sells his body on the street for a bit of cash. The men come and go, and he stays right here - longing for love. He doesn't know what the future will bring. He hits the road. His heart is pounding.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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Bertaut1Apr 10, 2019

Powerful filmmaking, although the graphic sex scenes and passive protagonist won't be for everyone

The debut film of writer/director Camille Vidal-Naquet, Sauvage [Wild] takes as its subject the daily grind of a male prostitute. UndeniablyPowerful filmmaking, although the graphic sex scenes and passive protagonist won't be for everyone

The debut film of writer/director Camille Vidal-Naquet, Sauvage [Wild] takes as its subject the daily grind of a male prostitute. Undeniably bleak, the film is not, however, what you would define as miserablism. Remaining detached from what it depicts, it adopts a dispassionate non-judgemental approach whereby it intermixes the degrading reality of selling one's self with unexpected moments of tenderness. Some will be put off by the (very) graphic sex scenes, the passivity of the main character, or the lack of much of a plot. However, for everyone else, although it certainly isn't multiplex fare, there's a hell of a lot to admire here.

Set in Strasbourg, Sauvage tells the story of Léo (Felix Maritaud), a homeless, drug-addicted male prostitute. The essentially plotless narrative follows Léo from one sexual encounter to the next, occasionally focusing on his relationship with gay-for-pay prostitute Ahd (Eric Bernard), with whom he is in love.

In preparation for making the film, Vidal-Naquet spent three years embedded with a group of male prostitutes, and all of Léo's sexual encounters in the film come from stories told by the actual sex workers.

Léo is depicted as someone that isn't especially interested in a life away from drugs and prostitution, and so he takes the violence, degradations, and humiliations, because every now and then he meets someone who provides him with a degree of transitory happiness. He also doesn't share in the detachment or bitterness of his fellow prostitutes, with all of them finding it bizarre that he's willing to kiss clients when it feels right. This illustrates how different he is from the others, and how selling himself is not exclusively monetary - he is searching for genuine affection, and he seems incapable of establishing the same boundaries between himself and the clients by which the other sex workers live.

They are healthier, cleaner, more financially independent, more aware of the dangers of their occupation, but Léo is more tender, and for all the harshness of his life, he never lets go of his hope of finding love. This is why a scene involving a female doctor (Marie Seux) is so important; treating him with respect and empathy, when she attempts to examine him, he instinctively hugs her, and they hold each other for a moment, in an embrace that has nothing to do with sexuality and everything to do with kindness and emotional support.

Obviously, for a film of this nature to be in any way realistic, it must depict sexuality, and Vidal-Naquet doesn't hold back on that front. What's interesting about such scenes, however, is that they never lose their potency, irrespective of how many we see. I think this is because of how Vidal-Naquet presents them; far from filming them in a voyeuristic way or as titillation, they are instead presented dispassionately as something that happens to people in this line of work, as normal for Léo as taking drugs or sleeping rough.

By presenting sexuality as simply a part of Léo's life, Vidal-Naquet normalises it. He certainly doesn't gloss over the problems of this kind of life, or the sexual perversions one may encounter, but he doesn't present sex work as, in and of itself, fundamentally immoral. Instead, he depicts both sides of the coin; from non-sexual intimacy with an elderly bookseller (Jean-Pierre Baste) who simply wants someone to read to him to a demeaning BDSM threesome.

In terms of problems, many will find the graphic sex scenes too much. Another issue is that Léo is an extremely passive character; he doesn't so much drive events as events simply happen to him. Coupled with this, he doesn't have much of an arc. Additionally, the depiction of Claude (Philippe Ohrel), a magnanimous and kindly middle-aged man who takes a liking to Léo and immediately opens his home to him, is a bit over-the-top; in a film founded on realism, he is something of a deus ex-machina, arriving in Léo's life just as he reaches his lowest point.

On paper, Sauvage should be a textbook case of misery porn. However, Vidal-Naquet's non-judgemental depiction of Léo allows the more optimistic elements of his personality to rise, even in the face of seemingly endless degradations. It's certainly not an easy watch, but amidst the depravity, Vidal-Naquet finds moments of tenderness. Neither condemning Léo's lifestyle nor valorising it, no matter how demeaning or brutal it becomes, he always seems to find a way to keep going. That may be interpreted as tragic, but that's not the way Léo looks at himself.… Expand

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aleom_hxNov 25, 2022

The truth is - You deserve to be love. You were born to be loved.I'm wild and my soul is clean.(P.S. A perfect ending)

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