"J'embrasse Pas" is the second André Téchiné film this week. "I Don't Kiss" pre-dates "Les Roseaux Sauvage" by 3 years and presents a storyline in a way more consistant with what I think of as a franco-centric, perhaps existential cinematic norm. You meet someone in a certain place and time, stuff happens, and you leave them without knowing if the questions that troubled them are ever answered, if the events that they've just slogged through bring them to a new or better place -- it's very much like life in general, and so I feel French films, in general, are more dependent upon the strength of their characters.
This film tells the story of a country boy, Pierre, who is both optimistic and angry (the angst of youth?). He up and leaves home in the Pyrenees for a life in Paris, and life in Paris is not what he had hoped for. Eventually he finds himself hustling his body to make ends meet and oddly, that's when he finds time to pursue his life with more energy than just living in a survival mode.
With his newly earned autonomy, he defiantly sets his sites on the affections of a fellow whore, Ingrid, but her pimp will have none of it. He kidnaps and rapes Pierre to teach him a lesson. Pierre joins the french paratroopers, serves his stint, and then walks to the Mediterranean and goes for a swim....cut to credits.
I told you, it's French. And I've left a lot out...since you can't spoil the ending, there should at least be stuff in the middle left for you to discover! The lead is played by Manuel Blanc and he's a sweet piece of eye-candy, also the performance of Hélène Vincent as a middle-aged nurse who become's Pierre's first lover when he arrives in Paris is very subtle and effecting.
As Manuel's debut performance, it won him a César in as "Meilleur espoir masculin," and he has been a staple of French cinema ever since.
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