MovieChat Forums > Drôle de Félix (2000) Discussion > Please explain to me why this film was m...

Please explain to me why this film was made...


I studied this film in French cultural studies at university. my first essay was given a mark that can only be considered as biased before it was rewritten to be totally middle of the road and took no stance. (the rewriting was actually just taking out a few sentences of opinion fron the conclusion and maybe one other place - 75 words most) This film, in terms of cinematic criticism (which i assumed my module was on as it was french cultural cinema!) had a main character that was gay, half jew, half arab, unemployed, fatherless, has AIDs and anything else I may have missed. 10 years earlier La Haine was a breaktrough in French cultural cinema, but was even at the time considered dated due to its THREE main characters being black, jew and arab(?) and thus an exploitary view of paris. Similarly, the director of Drole de Felix made a significant film regarding the rights of homosexuals in French society. Any selfrespecting critic will never give ANY positive credit to a film which has decided to take the stance of being cultural without progressing the genre in some sense. Kermode will judge a horror film for being gratuitous but gratuitous horror has its place. For a year 2000 film on homosexuality to be a tick box, dated, self parody of important cultural theatre only seams to serve the stereotyped image of drug using promiscuous homosexuality (which his infidelity in the film may substanciate) which may have been useful in the out and proud years, but in the context of cultural cinematography appears dated and the crusade of a director who has not updated his views.

please tell me I am wrong, as after i took out any 'controversial' view of this film within a few words i went from massive fail to brilliant pass; is it 'anti-homophobia' thinking this view is homophobic a reason or have i missed a proportion of the film that, regardless to is basic narrative, its cultural status is misinformed in my view.

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What I never understood is that he knew he was HIV positive and he was still sleeping around, spreading it. I've never understood the reason gay guys in real life do this also. To tell you the truth most gay guys are in reality just like Felix. This isn't stereotyping it's reality. If you don't believe me visit any gay personals site or go to any gay bar, you'll see what I mean.

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It does show that they wore a condom in the random fling scene; i did include that in my essays defence...

it does show some responsibility there, but in terms of responsibility - it is about a man who leaves everything behind of his life etc... the look of gay life as irresponsible sex yes is true but also a dated view in terms of true homosexuality (am i qualified to say?!) from living in sheffield with a famous swingers club, can i judge open sexual relationships? of course not... though STIs is are big problem and the film does purely persue the course that homosexuality needs to be seen/heard - we arent in the past here - especially in the U.K (maybe not France - but i link to La Haine in terms of acceptance) but we are past "we're loud; we're proud/we're here; we're queer" etc. homosexuality is nothing to do with flamboyancy we are past that, people are equal - not 'equal', noone really cares anymore.. there will always be intollerance. though i feel i am off point.the open sex (and cheating - that is the important part, he is IN a relationship) is looked over in the film.. yet there is no attempt to judge him, if anything we are supposed to agree with it - why...

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I really don't feel like we are supposed to agree with his lifestyle, to me it seems that everything was just presented as a matter of fact. I think it has to do with poor writing instead of forcing the audience not to judge Felix.

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[deleted]

Just replace "Gay" with any other stereotypical minority. Young, black unwed mothers....Rednecks from the South...Bible thumping welfare mothers...Honey, just between you and me, if the straights hadn't perfected adultery then we would have no Jerry Springer, Dr. Phil, Judge Judy, Divorce Court, and all those other 23-minute misery shows. All of which is carefully crafted to get you to feel that you are better than 'those' people. How boring would your humdrum little life be with big old empty coach with no potato programming to fill it.

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