Synopsis
Léo, a 22-year-old homeless sex worker searches for genuine love on the streets of Strasbourg.
2018 Directed by Camille Vidal-Naquet
Léo, a 22-year-old homeless sex worker searches for genuine love on the streets of Strasbourg.
There have been any number of films about lonely men who fall in love with a prostitute, but Camille Vidal-Naquet’s raw and visceral “Sauvage / Wild” is the rare film about a prostitute who falls in love with another man. But Leo can’t afford to be stingy with his affections; he’s driven by an insatiable and undiscriminating desire for intimacy.
An untethered 22-year-old sex worker who lives on the streets of Strasbourg, and is ferally embodied by Félix Maritaud (who played a supporting role in the bracing “BPM”), Leo doesn’t care about money or moving up in the world, nor does he resent his clients the way that some of his fellow sex workers do. In fact, he seems to…
Sauvage. Yes. Yes indeed. A slowly-paced character study that made me horny, then broke my heart. So, one of the best kinds of films you can see. Felix Maritaud is a powerhouse, the cinematography was gorgeous, there’s actual full-frontal male nudity and graphic gay intercourse. Leave it to the French to offer up a frank and brutal story of abuse, loneliness, and lust. Part Taxi Driver if Travis Bickle and Iris were one character, and part A24-esque cinema that’s more willing to go the extra mile than most actual A24 films. Operates as an empathy machine, but not just that. Complicated is a good term to describe our protagonist, and therefore the film as a…
Ryan Murphy: “my show is gay because that lady’s last words were a designer’s name haha get it”
Camille Vidal-Naquet: “my movie steeps in the inherent loneliness of the gay experience and all the toxic habits that manifest when you don’t know the difference between love and lust, reaching for one but only finding the other, and accepting abuse as an occupational hazard.”
My heart broke when he hugged the doctor, y’all. It broke.
legitimately thought the guy behind me was jerking off for the first half but he might have just had respiratory issues but then this other guy across the theater started taking pictures of every sex scene with his full flash and sound on until the usher had to come in and threaten him...pride is cancelled
You're made to be loved.
Went to one of those semi-shifty 123Movies kind of websites just so I could watch this again. I've been dying to see this again since getting to catch it at the Chicago International Film Festival last October. The video quality was great, but there was a big problem. I shit you not, the video and subtitles eventually got at least two minutes out of sync. I wouldn't get the subtitles for a scene until the scene had been over for a noticeable amount of time. Now, you would think that would've made me shut off the movie almost immediately. But with a negative came a positive. Sauvage has incredible visual storytelling behind it. I didn't…
There’s something deeply upsetting about seeing another human being reach such a state of desperation - not only to find love, but to avoid the cruel sting of loneliness first and foremost of all. In the end, if one’s flesh is all there is to offer, there can no room for shame when the the stakes are that high.
2019 Watchlist Ranked
2018 Ranked
Sauvage is one heartbreaking, unflinching, and incredibly bleak film. It's also frank, graphic, and relentlessly gritty.
Félix Maritaud is extraordinary in this, giving a committed tour de force performance that I doubt I'll ever forget. I wish there was more there but as it is, it's a fine showcase for one of the best performances of 2018.
Desértico, explícito y visceral retrato de la prostitución masculina. Exposición cruel de una realidad salvaje en un panorama plagado de complejidad.
Aún sin tener una clara línea narrativa la cinta es una notable reflexión sobre la autosalvación, de nuestros miedos e imposibilidades que nos impiden alcanzarle. Llena de sentimientos palpables y en contraste de una brillante actuación central.
Mentiría si dijera que el contenido sexual tan explícito no me ha sacado de onda en más de una ocasión. Siento que no había necesidad de llegar a ese nivel de pornografía, pero supongo que es el recurso más viable para el director en su objetivo.
El hecho de que su protagonista no pierda su capacidad para dar, recibir y buscar el amor es lo que hace que Sauvage sea una obra que te desquebraja por dentro.
Nota: B-
Psdt: no verla con los abuelos. Jamás.
Somewhere in the bois de boulogne vehicles stop briefly to talk to one of the nameless men wandering through trees and streets offering their bodies for some money. One of them is Léo, a 22 year old homeless young man who spends his days among clients, sleeping on the streets, committing crimes, using drugs and dancing at some night club. Despite the meaningless and errant life he leads, Léo seems at peace or perhaps completely resigned to his own fate and, in the midst of all that decadence, never loses hope of finding love.
Sauvage is a crude portrait of the world of male prostitution in which Camille Vidal-Naquet, in his promising debut feature, exposes this cruel, anonymous and desolate…
Almost every sex scene was painful to watch and there were so many of them. Definitely falls into the category of gay cinema where I hope straight audiences don’t watch it. Beyond that, the whole thing was a little aimless for my taste. Good performances got me through it, but the way the story (was there even one?) was told felt drawn out and cyclical in a way that wasn’t intentional.
Please never make me see a guy put a syringe in his slit again.