L'Homme blessé (1983)
Directed by Patrice Chéreau

Film Review

Arguably one of the darkest screen portrayals of homosexual awakening, L'Homme blessé is director Patrice Chéreau's most controversial work to date, and many spectators will find it a harrowing film to watch.  The nocturnal settings, sparse dialogue and assembly of shady characters give the film the feel of an erotic existentialist nightmare, offering a profound and poignant metaphor for the soul-crushing isolation experienced by a lonely man upon discovering his homosexuality.

Brutally explicit in its stark minimalist cinematography, the film offers a convincing depiction of a young man who is driven by a sexual urge he cannot control or rationalise, an urge he consciously loathes and struggles against.  Both the urge and the struggle drive him into further isolation, culminating in a shocking and unavoidable act of destruction which vividly illustrates the danger of surpressed sexuality.

The film stars Jean-Hugues Anglade in what remains his most courageous and striking screen role, playing the taciturn mixed-up adolescent Henri with so much conviction that it is hard to believe he is enacting a fictional piece of drama.  Anglade pours everything he has into this performance and the film's impact rests mainly on his sympathetic portrayal of Henri as a vulnerable victim of his own tragic humanity.

Film Synopsis

Henri, a young man of about 19, is seeing his sister off at a provincial train station when he suddenly notices a man spying on him from a distance.  Intrigued, Henri follows the stranger into the men's toilets and is surprised to see one man beating up another.  Before he knows it, one of the men, a thirty-year-old named Jean, grabs hold of him and kisses him wildly on the lips.  Henri is stunned by this encounter, so stunned that he hardly notices Jean walk away.  He even forgets that his parents are still waiting for him on the station concourse.  Henri suddenly feels different, scared and excited - like a puppet that has just come to life.

Shaken by this experience, the adolescent is impelled to return to the station again and again, driven by an inexplicable desire to find the stranger who has so awoken something deep inside him.  Through another named Bosmans, Henri finally manages to find Jean.  Aware of the powerful influence he has over the fragile young man, Jean goads him into prostituting himself at the train station where they met.  As he succumbs to the older man's influence, Henri becomes increasingly obsessed with him, and as his lust and loathing for the stranger continue to grow he finds himself lured ever more deeply into the abyss of his subconscious desires...