Though for most of us, sexiness is a variable quality, I cannot recall a movie that did for me what this one does. It transported me into an awfully familiar realm of longing and desire. All the compulsive attraction, uncertainty over the outcome, the palpable fear and excitement so attendant to that state of arousal were brought to fever pitch by this flick. So French and what I consider daring! No matter what your orientation, I think that the danger of chasing your desire is brought full-front and center here...much more so, say, than with Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut".
15 Reviews
"Coming out" in black & white, but mostly black
Suradit18 August 2014
I'm afraid my attention was drawn to less important behaviors of the main character ... or maybe those behaviors were in some way allegorical or metaphorical in ways that were fraught with meaning and meant to divert my attention.
I remember hundreds of years ago when I was in high school we would analyze selected books that fell under the august label "literature," such as A Tale of Two Cities or The Scarlet Letter and, according to accepted wisdom & our teacher, every little thing was significant and laden with meaning. Candle wax dripping on a table, a fraying rope, a facial blemish ... everything merited hours of analysis. I wondered then, and still do, if maybe at least some of the time candle wax, old rope and acne were just that and nothing more. Unfortunately the French seem to revel in bludgeoning everyone with the insistent significance of the apparently insignificant. Crafting subtlety with a sledge hammer seldom produces an attractive result and is quite often counterproductive, although it does tend to attract the praise of gushing self-styled intellectuals.
At any rate, in the midst of all the passion, I became increasingly alarmed by the lead character's apparent disdain for bathing. At one point he even goes into the bathroom, splashes a bit of water about so that his mother with hear it, and then pulls the bath plug without ever even disrobing or wiping a face cloth over bits & pieces of his person. That, coupled with the way he frequently balled up clothing, tossed it about and even dragged it across dirty floors, began to become something of an obsessed focus for me, made all the worse when he swapped his clothes for something worn by the older man and spent much of the rest of the movie in an exceeding dirty tee shirt & jacket. I suppose all of this was carefully crafted for effect, but at times the trivial & subtle become heavy-handed & pointlessly obvious.
He also spent a great deal of time rushing, running from one place to another only to stop and look about ... left, right, left, right. It reminded me of the exaggerated affectations employed by actors in the days of silent films or a less than graceful imitation of a ballet dancer.
I enjoyed the film, although "enjoyed" is undoubtedly the wrong word, just as "appreciated" or "understood" would be wrong. It's hardly your typical "coming out" or rites of passage tale. The more I think about it and attempt to write about it, the more I feel more comfortable in saying it was a moving portrayal of the turmoil a young man experiences as he simultaneously wants to escape from his drab, "normal," and socially acceptable family life while feeling disturbed and offended by the alternative world to which his emotions are driving him.
Certainly not a particularly uplifting film for someone facing such unresolved turmoil in his own life, but probably an unwarranted confirmation of the costs of this "life choice" for anyone who believes being queer is an optional, perverted life style. (Yes... I use the expression "life choice" facetiously. Who would intentionally choose this nightmare for himself?)
I remember hundreds of years ago when I was in high school we would analyze selected books that fell under the august label "literature," such as A Tale of Two Cities or The Scarlet Letter and, according to accepted wisdom & our teacher, every little thing was significant and laden with meaning. Candle wax dripping on a table, a fraying rope, a facial blemish ... everything merited hours of analysis. I wondered then, and still do, if maybe at least some of the time candle wax, old rope and acne were just that and nothing more. Unfortunately the French seem to revel in bludgeoning everyone with the insistent significance of the apparently insignificant. Crafting subtlety with a sledge hammer seldom produces an attractive result and is quite often counterproductive, although it does tend to attract the praise of gushing self-styled intellectuals.
At any rate, in the midst of all the passion, I became increasingly alarmed by the lead character's apparent disdain for bathing. At one point he even goes into the bathroom, splashes a bit of water about so that his mother with hear it, and then pulls the bath plug without ever even disrobing or wiping a face cloth over bits & pieces of his person. That, coupled with the way he frequently balled up clothing, tossed it about and even dragged it across dirty floors, began to become something of an obsessed focus for me, made all the worse when he swapped his clothes for something worn by the older man and spent much of the rest of the movie in an exceeding dirty tee shirt & jacket. I suppose all of this was carefully crafted for effect, but at times the trivial & subtle become heavy-handed & pointlessly obvious.
He also spent a great deal of time rushing, running from one place to another only to stop and look about ... left, right, left, right. It reminded me of the exaggerated affectations employed by actors in the days of silent films or a less than graceful imitation of a ballet dancer.
I enjoyed the film, although "enjoyed" is undoubtedly the wrong word, just as "appreciated" or "understood" would be wrong. It's hardly your typical "coming out" or rites of passage tale. The more I think about it and attempt to write about it, the more I feel more comfortable in saying it was a moving portrayal of the turmoil a young man experiences as he simultaneously wants to escape from his drab, "normal," and socially acceptable family life while feeling disturbed and offended by the alternative world to which his emotions are driving him.
Certainly not a particularly uplifting film for someone facing such unresolved turmoil in his own life, but probably an unwarranted confirmation of the costs of this "life choice" for anyone who believes being queer is an optional, perverted life style. (Yes... I use the expression "life choice" facetiously. Who would intentionally choose this nightmare for himself?)
Not for all tastes
harry-769 February 2000
A fine performance by Vittorio Mezzogiorno and a masterful one by Jean-Hugues Anglade adorn this stange tale of lust, desire and alienation in France. The work of the two lead performers is striking--subtle, intense and passionate. Alas, the script is deliberately turgid and sordid, and the overall effect leaves one with a downcast spirit. Still, those who can appreciate fine quality acting will be able to savor the courageous work of the leads in this often difficult film journey of Gallic low life.
An erotic film to make you weep
Mattydee7427 May 2001
Before "Betty Blue", the male star of that film - JH Anglade - made this even darker romance about the love of a naive, desperately lonely young man for an older male hustler. Its a beautiful film with relaxed nudity and highly erotic sex scenes between the excellent male leads.
But its also a very dark and sinister movie. Its a film of extreme passions with a raw, violent finale which is poignant as well as disturbing. Its a film which contemplates the collision of impassioned, yearning-for-love youth with the jaded, cynical ruthlessness of youth lost in the figure of the older hustler. Its not a pleasant film but its nonetheless one of the most highly charged erotic gay films ever made with an intelligent script and a powerful narrative force as the two men seek to find their own way to survive. Anglade's heartfelt performance as the intense, brooding and determined young man is soulful.
But its also a very dark and sinister movie. Its a film of extreme passions with a raw, violent finale which is poignant as well as disturbing. Its a film which contemplates the collision of impassioned, yearning-for-love youth with the jaded, cynical ruthlessness of youth lost in the figure of the older hustler. Its not a pleasant film but its nonetheless one of the most highly charged erotic gay films ever made with an intelligent script and a powerful narrative force as the two men seek to find their own way to survive. Anglade's heartfelt performance as the intense, brooding and determined young man is soulful.
One of the great unknwowns of Gay cinema
Deran_Ludd5 May 2003
When this showed at the Seattle Int'l Film Fest I was the only person standing and clapping and cheering. The rest of the crowd booed or was silent. It is a well played small film that reaches deep into the reality of a young gay man's humanity. It is about a real man; and does not play to the insipid hyper-buffed muscular "gay paositive" that passes for the genre of non-porn Gay cinema (and that is why so much of contemporary Gay genre movies are so dull). This movie is Intense Passsion and Great Tragedy. The acting and directing and cinematography is fantastic; it all keeps the film clastrophobic and tense and passionate. Don't miss this if you can find it.
20 yrs ahead of its time - Thankyou Netflix
bsant5416 August 2021
Anglade, the young man, mesmerizing in this as was Mezzogiorno. After awhile you could not take your eyes off of Anglade. He exuded sexuality and became desireous to Mezzogiorno's character.
Proves you don't need to spend the whole day in the gym and take multivitamins and Lord knows what else to be so attractive and sexy at the same time to defy words. Also, Anglade in this defined brooding, still waters and smouldering desire all at the same time.
The scenes between the the 2 were electric to me. Even at the fateful end.
Hard to believe this gem of a film got passed over for so many years.
Not what I expected. So glad I watched it.
Proves you don't need to spend the whole day in the gym and take multivitamins and Lord knows what else to be so attractive and sexy at the same time to defy words. Also, Anglade in this defined brooding, still waters and smouldering desire all at the same time.
The scenes between the the 2 were electric to me. Even at the fateful end.
Hard to believe this gem of a film got passed over for so many years.
Not what I expected. So glad I watched it.
A very shallow and empty experience
Rodrigo_Amaro22 June 2023
Truth be told but I'm yet to see a more frustrating film experience than "L'Hommé Blesse" ("The Wounded Man"). Obviously that I've seen far more terrible things
but this one was a series of complications that goes from the get-go while some bad movies manage to have some good starts or decent beginnings. I watched this twice in a
matter of months apart and even with such distance it didn't improved on quality neither got worst than the initial view though I wanted to like this movie. I'd really do.
Or at least, I wanted to see if writer/director Patrice Chéreau really had something meaningful to show or say. Everything is thrown into a vacuum because the presentation of events and the storyline are a confusing jumpy mess where actions and reactions don't make sense, dialogues don't make sense and the silent moments are all awkward. I was the wounded man at the end of the picture...twice!
If the movie has a strong sense of appeal that managed to attract me was the acting by Jean Hugues Anglade in one of his first films. It's an amazing and daring performance best expressed whenever he's not talking. He plays Henri, a teenage discovering his homosexuality who falls in love with a criminal of sorts (Vittorio Mezzogiorno) who inhabits a crowded train station where the majority of characters are either male hustlers or potential clients (of whom this man makes his scheme of attracting them to later steal them). Henri doesn't fit such scenario in terms of behavior, the typical family kid and despite his awkwardness and fright, he knows and understands the language of such men, specially the attention coming from Bosmans (Roland Bertin), a wealthy married man who's awfully obsessed with the cute guy but he doesn't know how to reach him (and that's where the movie becomes an annoyance of sorts since they keep following each other over and over to later run away and turn back to following). It's obvious that those three men will be involved with each other in one way or another in this underground world to unfortunate consequences.
It's pointless to go on about the "plot" since it's a series of random events and encounters that does not make any sense. The director fails with almost everything shown here. There's no life to it, it's neither real and neither becomes an atractive or dreamlike story. What's the point? What's the aim? What can we learn?
What's the final analysis in it? For brief moments I got some insights between the extremes of fear and desire, love and obsession. For all the desire Henri feels it equals the exact same weight as his fears (the distance he keeps from the tough guy, who at times seduces him but the young one just keeps observing things), typical of youth trying to find some correspondence coming from the other part. How much was really a matter of the heart or a matter of the flesh, the physical? Well, hard to say as much Henri admires the other, mostly because his good looks, his presence and the way he acts but nothing is said and hardly ever shown.
Truth is that I like those underground stories a lot more than the current cute stories when it comes to LGBT characters. I understand this about the gay underworld, about petty criminals taking advantage of old queers who prey on younger hot boys or dark scenarios. But despite the darkness and brutality of such world, some sense of appeal rather than repulse must exist in order to convince audiences or at least present something we can find a meaningful purpose to it all. "The Wounded Man" had nothing of those, it was moronic, confusing, everybody's so unpleasant, obnoxious, violent and rude to each other, from the main characters to background characters.
I've seen better films with similar queer underground stories with elevated purposes and relevant things to say and show with some close elements presented here. If dealing about the fools who fall in love, "Mala Noche" is the film; if talking about sexuality and the dangers, fears, excitment of the unknown, "The Fourth Man" is the film. And to mention another one that resonates a lot with this one. "Each man kills the thing he loves", says a song performed in Fassbinder's "Querelle" and it's a theory proved there and here as well as love is something that can change and consume us so we must kill it first, learn to live without it or find some love that is less destructive. And the ultimate result on why we kill the things we love is because deep down we know that such love cannot be kept, it won't last.
While I didn't like the movie as a whole (but I tried), it can also be said that it isn't a total waste. It's great to look at, the visuals, the underground stations and locations since it all feels authentic rather than a movie set; Anglade is great looking with his mix of innocent teen vibes with some mature traits; there are of lots of sex appeal and wild moments that were a little ahead of time, I must say and Anglade brings a lot of intensity, passion and excitment, delivering himself to his partner on scene like I never seen before. Those were the attractive magnets of the movie that worked brilliantly.
But storywise it was all dumb, obtuse, confusing and with many unexplained things or unrealistic actions and reactions (the whole longing and chasing was a burden to follow, highly anxiety and stress inducing). As said early on, from the get-go the film kept erratic. The opening moments with Henri and his family running in desperation to catch a train and we later find out it's only the sister who's leaving for Germany. Why this family react in such a persecuted manner? Why they're all distant from each other and to whom exactly Henri is looking for when he gets to the station? Nothing is explained and neither Chéreau is creative enough to allow audiences to figure things out - and I couldn't figure out anything, no theory or reasoning given. And to think he actually won Best Screenplay at the César awards. It's a very disjointed picture with a couple of great scenes that don't make a full circle and doesn't have anything deep to say, but it gives the impression that it might. But I absolutely accepted the ending. 4/10.
Or at least, I wanted to see if writer/director Patrice Chéreau really had something meaningful to show or say. Everything is thrown into a vacuum because the presentation of events and the storyline are a confusing jumpy mess where actions and reactions don't make sense, dialogues don't make sense and the silent moments are all awkward. I was the wounded man at the end of the picture...twice!
If the movie has a strong sense of appeal that managed to attract me was the acting by Jean Hugues Anglade in one of his first films. It's an amazing and daring performance best expressed whenever he's not talking. He plays Henri, a teenage discovering his homosexuality who falls in love with a criminal of sorts (Vittorio Mezzogiorno) who inhabits a crowded train station where the majority of characters are either male hustlers or potential clients (of whom this man makes his scheme of attracting them to later steal them). Henri doesn't fit such scenario in terms of behavior, the typical family kid and despite his awkwardness and fright, he knows and understands the language of such men, specially the attention coming from Bosmans (Roland Bertin), a wealthy married man who's awfully obsessed with the cute guy but he doesn't know how to reach him (and that's where the movie becomes an annoyance of sorts since they keep following each other over and over to later run away and turn back to following). It's obvious that those three men will be involved with each other in one way or another in this underground world to unfortunate consequences.
It's pointless to go on about the "plot" since it's a series of random events and encounters that does not make any sense. The director fails with almost everything shown here. There's no life to it, it's neither real and neither becomes an atractive or dreamlike story. What's the point? What's the aim? What can we learn?
What's the final analysis in it? For brief moments I got some insights between the extremes of fear and desire, love and obsession. For all the desire Henri feels it equals the exact same weight as his fears (the distance he keeps from the tough guy, who at times seduces him but the young one just keeps observing things), typical of youth trying to find some correspondence coming from the other part. How much was really a matter of the heart or a matter of the flesh, the physical? Well, hard to say as much Henri admires the other, mostly because his good looks, his presence and the way he acts but nothing is said and hardly ever shown.
Truth is that I like those underground stories a lot more than the current cute stories when it comes to LGBT characters. I understand this about the gay underworld, about petty criminals taking advantage of old queers who prey on younger hot boys or dark scenarios. But despite the darkness and brutality of such world, some sense of appeal rather than repulse must exist in order to convince audiences or at least present something we can find a meaningful purpose to it all. "The Wounded Man" had nothing of those, it was moronic, confusing, everybody's so unpleasant, obnoxious, violent and rude to each other, from the main characters to background characters.
I've seen better films with similar queer underground stories with elevated purposes and relevant things to say and show with some close elements presented here. If dealing about the fools who fall in love, "Mala Noche" is the film; if talking about sexuality and the dangers, fears, excitment of the unknown, "The Fourth Man" is the film. And to mention another one that resonates a lot with this one. "Each man kills the thing he loves", says a song performed in Fassbinder's "Querelle" and it's a theory proved there and here as well as love is something that can change and consume us so we must kill it first, learn to live without it or find some love that is less destructive. And the ultimate result on why we kill the things we love is because deep down we know that such love cannot be kept, it won't last.
While I didn't like the movie as a whole (but I tried), it can also be said that it isn't a total waste. It's great to look at, the visuals, the underground stations and locations since it all feels authentic rather than a movie set; Anglade is great looking with his mix of innocent teen vibes with some mature traits; there are of lots of sex appeal and wild moments that were a little ahead of time, I must say and Anglade brings a lot of intensity, passion and excitment, delivering himself to his partner on scene like I never seen before. Those were the attractive magnets of the movie that worked brilliantly.
But storywise it was all dumb, obtuse, confusing and with many unexplained things or unrealistic actions and reactions (the whole longing and chasing was a burden to follow, highly anxiety and stress inducing). As said early on, from the get-go the film kept erratic. The opening moments with Henri and his family running in desperation to catch a train and we later find out it's only the sister who's leaving for Germany. Why this family react in such a persecuted manner? Why they're all distant from each other and to whom exactly Henri is looking for when he gets to the station? Nothing is explained and neither Chéreau is creative enough to allow audiences to figure things out - and I couldn't figure out anything, no theory or reasoning given. And to think he actually won Best Screenplay at the César awards. It's a very disjointed picture with a couple of great scenes that don't make a full circle and doesn't have anything deep to say, but it gives the impression that it might. But I absolutely accepted the ending. 4/10.
marginal film at its greatest
jromanbaker13 October 2019
Made in the 1980's and presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 1983 this superb film directed by Patrice Chereau and written by him and the writer Herve Guibert has never been given a certificate in the UK ( banned ? I have no idea ) and to my knowledge was shown once at the National Film Theatre during a gay season of films. To my knowledge it sank without trace after that and was brought out in the US in a copy that seemed like a copy of a copy and that I found unwatchable. I saw it when it originally came out in Paris and now I have it on a DVD from France in perfect condition. All this detail to ask simply why this great film, comparable to ' Sauvage ' has not been released and respected in our English speaking countries ? Most of Chereau's other films have, and Herve Guibert's work is not unknown in English. Is it because it was considered too savage and to my knowledge even the gay orthodoxy put it to one side ? I believe that the film should have been applauded for the brutality shown in male contact, and how a youth cannot understand such horror of sexual exploitation and how he allows himself to be drawn into it. It shows openly the confusion among men who really do not identify as being ' Gay ' and hang around train stations looking for sexuality. I hope it is not a spoiler that two wounded men are destroyed in an act of crazed love ( l'amour fou ) and it is us as a society that have led to this destruction. Mainstream cinemas showed it in France and I believe it paved the way for that marginal approach to homosexual subject matter that has led to some of the more braver directors of today.
Really, really bad.
stephanierie16 November 2021
Watched on Netflix a few days ago. This is not a movie for all people; this is my opinion, of course.
I feel like I literally wasted my time, and I was really disappointed at the end to be honest.
I get it was 1983...but in this movie homosexuality is shown as nothing more than a perversion, all characters are negative and disgusting, fat old ugly men drooling over boys.
So many nonsensical dialogues and scenes.
And...it's boring...so, so boring.
The protagonist is an insufferable and mentally ill boy. The others are just disgusting.
Never again, thank you very much.
Happy I didn't waste my money back in the days to rent this garbage.
I feel like I literally wasted my time, and I was really disappointed at the end to be honest.
I get it was 1983...but in this movie homosexuality is shown as nothing more than a perversion, all characters are negative and disgusting, fat old ugly men drooling over boys.
So many nonsensical dialogues and scenes.
And...it's boring...so, so boring.
The protagonist is an insufferable and mentally ill boy. The others are just disgusting.
Never again, thank you very much.
Happy I didn't waste my money back in the days to rent this garbage.
best depiction of gay outrageous passion made
didier-2029 March 2008
You've got to think along the lines of Last Tango in Paris for this one because the mood and emotion runs along the same lines and maintains the same heights - the difference being that in this exceptional, intense and torrid depiction of love among the ruins of a Dostoyevskyian dispossessed the setting is a gay-subcultural milieu - perhaps even one that is set to vanish in time, and not the equally arresting but heterosexual context of Bertolucci's own film.
The last third of this film depicts a passionate love never seen in gay cinema. To talk of pornography or gay self-effacement misses the point and intelligence of this work. This film, though on first impression appears to take us into the familiar & often depicted underworld of gay street-life, then precedes to subvert the rules of this genre by exaggerating it to a super-real degree. The result is a hyper-charged emotional heightening - an exceptional strategy that elevates the drama to one of big universal themes and giant gestures.
This film snatches the high ground because of the brilliant performances by it's actors, notably a young Jean Hugues Anglade and the directing. A tour- De -force of cinema. Outstanding in ambition and it's unceasing plummet into the depths of human emotion. As a contribution to gay cinema, this film conquers this difficult ground and makes it it's own triumph.
The last third of this film depicts a passionate love never seen in gay cinema. To talk of pornography or gay self-effacement misses the point and intelligence of this work. This film, though on first impression appears to take us into the familiar & often depicted underworld of gay street-life, then precedes to subvert the rules of this genre by exaggerating it to a super-real degree. The result is a hyper-charged emotional heightening - an exceptional strategy that elevates the drama to one of big universal themes and giant gestures.
This film snatches the high ground because of the brilliant performances by it's actors, notably a young Jean Hugues Anglade and the directing. A tour- De -force of cinema. Outstanding in ambition and it's unceasing plummet into the depths of human emotion. As a contribution to gay cinema, this film conquers this difficult ground and makes it it's own triumph.
Effectively brooding and heart-breaking film
conmalcastiga19 January 2005
L'Homme Blesse is not for an impatient, adventure-seeking audience. There are no explosions nor is the drama straightforward. Like the films of Lynne Ramsey, the director is working more deeply with mood than with storytelling in a manner that is effective and incredibly moving. Because it does not rely on gratuitous nudity, or superficial pop-cult. story lines, this is quite frankly one of the best gay foreign film I have seen (also, see Francois Ozon, Pedro Almodovar). Nicolas Roeg's "Don't Look Now" gets a lot of bad press because it is sold as a horror film. That film, like L'Homme, is more than what the box might lead you to believe. If you are in the mood to sit back and be absorbed by the subtle, transformed powers of cinema, you'll love this movie.
One excellent performance can't save a lousy film.
endora608 November 2002
Jean-Hugh Anglade is excellent as the teenaged boy who wants to be a whore to please the man he loves, but the rest of this film is so bad--acting, writing, cinematography, and everything else--that Anglade's performance is wasted. Sad to see so fine an actor in such a garbage flick.
A Movie Full Of Action-Passion of 2 Men In The 80's!
javierubio24 August 2020
This movie is very interesting . I was very intrigued the passion and attraction between these 2 guys but also kind of catastrophic passion that emerged in a city so full of crime and dispersion!
Even made in 1982, I give a great credit for the story and the way this Director brought this film and gave to the audition one strong idea about real life in those times so well done!
What a wonderful and touching film...
claus-9528 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
When the film came out I didn't dare watch it. Now - thanks to Netflix - I had another chance and what a fantastic experience it was. Not only is there a young and moving Jean-Hugues Anglade, the beautiful Vittorio Mezzogiorno but also the outstanding Armin Mueller-Stahl in a smaller part. Also look for Denis Lavant (known from his work with Leos Carax) in an early part. Bravo!
Good film
EdgarST22 April 2024
Patrice Chéreau's first film is not a pleasant viewing experience, but an excellent portrait of male desire, dominance, and confusion, sometimes arousing in its explicit depiction of homoerotic activity, sometimes a horror film of dark and sordid spaces. It was also a turning point in the career of Jean-Hugues Anglade, who became a star with the suggestion of a quiet personality and a clean handsomeness as coverups of the stormy passions of a common man, in curious roles that illustrated, as this one does, the condition of the French young men during the 1980s... and possibly of many men in the rest of the world. Anglade was in his 30s when he made "L'homme blessé", but he projects the innocence and fragility of a teenager, wrapped up in his own addiction to violence, unrequited love and his death wish. Vittorio Mezzogiorno is the addictive complement to him, as the hustler accustomed to the lack of affection and the fight for survival. If you are looking for something happy, this is not the film for you. Believe the title, that is its content.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
