(2000, 100 min)
Country: France
Director: Sebastien Lifshitz
Studio: Picture This!
SYNOPSIS: Sexually charged and intelligent French film about two young guys in love - plenty of nudity, sex and substance! Besides the shower jerk-off, the naked beach sex scene is about the hottest ever in gay cinema. This sensuous French film tells of a teen who falls in love with another vacationing hot boy at the beach.
REVIEW:
Gorgeous bronzed bodies on the beaches of southern France and a passionate romance between two French teens are reason enough to see Come Undone, but this bittersweet film also has something poignant to say about the heartbreak of gay first love.
Eighteen-year-old Mathieu (Jérémie Elkaïm) is vacationing at the beach with his family when he meets local teen Cedric (Stéphane Rideau, from Wild Reeds). After an extremely erotic kiss, the boys begin a hot and heavy affair, complete with skinny-dipping at night, nude dancing on the beach and intense lovemaking in the dunes. Yet as Mathieu grapples with his sexuality -- and copes with his sick mother, absent father and annoying kid sister -- his bond with Cedric grows stronger until it bursts.
The film, directed and cowritten by Sébastien Lifshitz, beautifully conveys Mathieu's coming-of-age -- a scene in which he comes out to his mother is quite moving. Our only criticism of Come Undone is the slightly clumsy time frame change - minor in comparison to the riches the film has to offer. Both Elkaïm and Rideau are incredibly sexy leads and give remarkable performances as the affectionate teens.
(French with English subtitles)
"Come Undone, the French director Sébastien Lifshitz's beautifully acted film about an introspective 18-year-old boy's homosexual initiation, first love, suicide attempt and subsequent recovery leaves so much unsaid and unexplained that it captures the uncertainty and emotional turbulence of late adolescence with a poignancy that a more clinically articulate movie never could."
Stephen Holden, The New York Times
-- Gary M. Kramer
