Nonureva
Really Surprised!
BoardChiri
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
Ketrivie
It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Payno
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Bene Cumb
An addicted relationship between a minor and a adult is still a controversial topic, and, from time to time, I am intrigued to see how such a "liaison" is depicted. As F. est un salaud includes a gay theme as well, there are "mandatory" topics of prostitution, mental issues and drugs, visible through a 25-y.o. and a 15-y.o. males, while the latter is performed by a 20-y.o. actor not looking younger... There are some brave scenes and good camera-work, but the film is primarily a record of young affection and obedience rather than a versatile depiction of characters evolving. Moreover, it leaves some issues unclear as well: was gay life in the 1970ies Switzerland really as open and easy? What about Beni's family when he began to live with Fögi? The ending was also hasty and without any surprise. As I was referred to this film from a film I really liked I had apparently higher hopes, but I have to recognise that F. est un salaud did not fully conform to my type of nature and values. But those fond of unconditional love and artistic lifestyle might squeeze more out of it.
Carlos Martinez Escalona
Mandragora meets Switzerland. Amazing detail. Beautifully shot. Extremely complex sequences. Beautiful dialogues. Mesemrising moments. Truthful, yet incredibly depressing. That's what I'd add in a nutshell if you want to dig into this film's nightmares.Beni's nightmare, that's it. We, who have seen this film, agree that it's a difficult and painful way to go to the end. Despite its very Swiss environment, it's a film that would fit any time slot since the sixties. Strong and bitter. Sweet and hopeless. Definitely not an American film. Good actors, good script and a good director... all these factors make of F... one of those rare modern films that have it all.Clearly, French input is all over this movie, and that's always a plus.The music is another point to look for. Original music not to be found anywhere; a couple of Lou Reed's good songs and a heartbreaking end with Patti Smith's "Wings". Forget about the gay themed thing, this is a film to make you think, seriously!I doubt anyone would endure just walking out as the credits roll.
tnwestlake
Outstanding acting, great casting, and really tight direction work together to make an unsparingly tragic plot both utterly believable and inexplicably hopeful.Dark, sexy and very disturbing, the film's central theme is of love: though it is used, abused, warped and betrayed, it retains a strange and constant purity throughout, even up to the central character's almost shocking conclusion at the end. There is no question of bestowing any redemptive power on love, since this is a film of unflinching reality, but love's ability to provide sense to an existence otherwise bereft of meaning is shown to the full. There are few films that try to do this. Even fewer succeed, but this is one of them.
liderc
From the storyline, this movie could be good, but it isn't. Fögi is pretty sexy, but Beni is such a sissy that you have in mind that the director had the sick idea to tweak a man-man relationship into a man-woman relationship. This is also obvious in the short sex scenes, where always Beni is lying on his belly and Fögi is on top of him, or in some other scenes where Beni acts like a housewife. Of course, there is the usual film drug-addicts stuff: Velvet Underground music, Andy Wharhol posters etc. The positive thing about this movie is that it's just a love drama with two men and not one of those films where this is made into something special, without any stereotype stuff like drag queens, strange bars etc.