Review of Wild Side

Introduction

I am told that, given the right dimly lit settings and inebriated state of consciousness, it becomes extremely difficult to tell the difference between an actual woman and those with XY chromosomes merely masquerading as ladies during their pre-operational gender state. Similarly, a film can appear to be an overtly, but not disturbingly, sexual look at the decaying infrastructure and society of modern day industrial France, whereas in reality, it`s just a load of old pretentious nonsense getting by on the inclusion of nudity alone.

`Wild Side` is, as you have no doubt guessed, one of those movies. The story is lost somewhere within the lingering shots of nothingness and annoyingly sparse dialogue, but seems to centre around the life of Transsexual Prostitute `Stephanie` (Stéphanie Michelini) - formerly a boy named Pierre - who is looking after her dying mother. At the same time, boyfriend Mikhail and male prostitute Djamal are willingly sharing her bed simultaneously, which only helps to complicate things.

In fact, the very specific problem question posed by the film is seemingly `Can three adults, all involved in the same pervy relationship, share a bed for more than a short period of time - especially if one is Transgender, another is Russian and two are hookers?` Yet, before you attempt to work out the answer (Tip: `always remember to carry the 1`), you`d certainly hope that the film might give you a few clues.

Video

The most annoying part of the picture is that, amongst all the guff and arty nonsense, you can (almost) see what Director Sebastien Lifshitz was trying to do. Certainly the decaying cityscapes and aura of disappointment with both one`s self and surroundings comes across in the overall look of `Wild Side`. Visually, it is pretty much what you would expect from a modern French director working within their own country - that is to say there is a hell of a lot of bare skin, much of it not immediately attaching itself to any particular body part, accompanied by the requisite amount of wallpaper peeling from the walls

The picture quality itself is extremely good and does the widescreen presentation justice. If you like to be able to see goose-pimples in your skin flick, you`ll be happy!

Audio

Almost too predictably, the soundtrack is made up of a small excerpt of cello music repeated at points of interest. However, this is perfectly balanced by the odd inclusion not only of `Mercury Music Prize` winner Anthony from `Anthony and the Johnsons` warbling at the very beginning of the film, and some late 90s house music near the end!

Features

The DVD contains Deleted scenes and Interviews with cast and director

There were no previews available of the extra material, but one hopes that the bits that weren`t suitable for the final cut might actually shed some light as to what the whole thing was on about!

Conclusion

The immediate prediction would be that the film will be a clever and subversive deconstruction of gender and sexuality stereotypes in the early twenty-first century. With the French traditionally never scared to blur boundaries and challenge preconceptions, there is already a catalogue of films which fit this description. Unfortunately, in the present case, we have a movie which doesn`t even scratch the surface of what it intends to portray and comes away looking little more than a pornographic art-house mess.

One of the contributing factors to the calamity is the use of three languages, often in the same conversation. Mikhail, being Russian, only communicates to his bed-partners in broken English or French, making a subtitled film, in parts, difficult to follow. Even more annoying is the simple fact that, even when dialogue is delivered in an understandable fashion, it doesn`t really help to build a picture of what`s happening and certainly doesn`t help to further advance the plot.

Essentially, despite a promising premise, `Wild Side` is something of a failure. It won`t change the way you see the world, make you think in a different way or even give you pleasant memories of the 90 minutes you spent watching it. More likely than not, you`ll just be flummoxed, unmoved and slightly agitated when the credits role.

Oh, it has a certain `Je ne sais pas` - but just not the good kind.