Les Nuits fauves (1992)
Directed by Cyril Collard

Film Review

When it was first released in October 1992, Les Nuits fauves (a.k.a. Savage Nights) created a sensation in France, both at the box office and in the media.  The first French film to talk openly about AIDS, it shattered one of the great taboos of the decade and paved the way for many other equally frank films about the disease and its terrible consequences for individuals and society.  The film was directed by Cyril Collard, his first and only feature, adapted from his autobiographical novel of the same title, published a few years previously.  Despite the film's controversial subject matter and its highly provocative approach, it was a massive hit in France, attracting an audience of 2.8 million.  Les Nuits fauves won four Césars in 1993, in the categories of Best Film, Best First Film, Most Promising Actress (Romane Bohringer) and Best Editing, with further nominations for its direction, script and score.  Collard was unable to receive his awards - he died just three days before the ceremony from an AIDS-related illness, aged 35.

What made Les Nuits fauves so shocking for any early 1990s cinema audience was not its refreshingly direct acceptance of AIDS as one of the great scourges of our time, but rather its unashamedly politically incorrect slant.  The prevailing mindset at the time was that HIV was tantamount to a death sentence, a deserved punishment for those who led promiscuous lives, and that HIV infected people who remained sexually active were criminally irresponsible.  Such was the stigma surrounding AIDS in the 1980s and early '90s that it was virtually impossible to conduct a mature and informed polemic about the disease and it provided an easy platform on which high-minded moralists could vent their self-righteous illiberal, homophobic spleen.  Les Nuits fauves was one of the first films to take a stand against this barrage of ignorance and prejudice, opening up the debate and helping to bring about a sea change in how AIDS was perceived in France.  Sometimes fire has to be fought with fire.

Les Nuits fauves is certainly an impressive and daring debut feature, its visual composition bearing a suitably fauvist style, but it is far from perfect.  Disjointed and unevenly paced, it has difficulty sustaining the spectator's interest for its full two-hour run-time, and the fact that the central character (played by Collard) is such a self-centred, self-destructive narcissus makes it hard for us to sympathise with him.  This would be a very easy film to dislike were it not for the unfaltering honesty with which it tackles a very difficult subject.  Intense performances by Collard and Romane Bohringer (stunning in her first major role) bring as much raw vitality to the film as Collard's punchy mise-en-scène, which reminds us of his earlier collaborations (as an assistant director and actor) with Maurice Pialat: Loulou (1980) and À nos amours (1983).  If Collard had lived a little longer, there is no doubt that he would now be recognised as one of the great auteurs of French cinema.

Les Nuits fauves is most definitely not a film by a man who is about to die.  It is a film by someone who is blazing with life and who manages to imbue every frame with his unquenchable zest for living.  Despite Collard's provocative stance and the unsympathetic nature of his main character, the film just cannot leave its audience unmoved.  It may shock with its unflinching depictions of hedonistic excess and unsafe sexual practices, but its underlying message is eloquently and powerfully expressed: HIV is not a death sentence but simply a reminder of the sweet brevity of a existence.  Rather than a cry of despair, Cyril Collard leaves us with a song of hope - an exhortation to kick dust in the face of the Grim Reaper and live life as it should be lived, to its absolute fullest, regardless of your HIV status.

Film Synopsis

Jean is an aspiring filmmaker who leads a selfish and hedonistic life.  He knows that he is HIV positive but he is determined not to let this take away his zest for life, so he continues living a wild and irresponsible life, enjoying meaningless liaisons with both men and women.  All that changes when he meets Laura, a 17-year-old model.  For Jean, Laura is just another in a long line of sexual conquests; for Laura, it is the beginning of an amorous infatuation that risks driving them both to the brink.  Laura appears not to be bothered by Jean's bisexuality, but when he reveals he is HIV positive she begins to lose control.  When she later discovers that Jean has begun a relationship with a rugby player, Samy, Laura's emotional state worsens and she threatens suicide.  In the face of this mental onslaught, Jean continues to look for meaning in his life, aware that he may not have much time left...