Pascal-Alex Vincent | Far West / 2003

grandpa’s hired hand

by Douglas Messerli

 

Olivier Nicklaus, Paul Raoux and Pascal-Alex Vincent (screenwriters), Pascal-Alex Vincent (director) Far West / 2003 [17 minutes] (TV film)

 

Ricky (Julien Gauthier), rehearsing with his dancer his friends, Mika (Gilles Guillain) and Koko (Tony Granger) in Paris, is depressed. Having for years refused to see his grandfather, his parents have insisted that he visit the farmer in what Ricky describes as the “far West,” in the Beauce region of France, a major producer of wheat, rapeseed, potatoes, mustard, and other agricultural products.

 

   Not only is Ricky frustrated for not being able to be with his dancing friends, but is certain to feel utterly isolated in rural France where he feels he will be the only gay boy for miles around.

     His taciturn grandfather (Jean Haas) doesn’t make it any easier; nor, the local girl Julie (Chloé Berthier) who would clearly like to become a closer friend of the handsome young man who Ricky, formerly named Éric, has become, and who invites the transformed boy into town for Bingo night along with his grandfather who, she reports, has stayed away from the games for so long now that people are beginning to talk.

 

     The most pleasant aspect of rural life for Ricky is the new hired hand, Jean-Didier, a peasant beauty who helps Ricky get to sleep at night simply by calling up his image. Ricky tries to help out with chores, if for no reason than to get a better view of Jean-Didier; but he is not far from being utterly incompetent. And even most disconcerting for Ricky is the fact that his friends Mika and Koko suddenly show up, having traveled into the “far West” in commiseration with Ricky’s loneliness.

      They are great friends for Paris, but in the rural setting where Ricky now resides, they’re shockingly out of place, effeminate, outrageously campy, appearing even in their daily attire to be almost in drag. What’s more, in their attempts to help, they destroy the farm tractor. Ricky is suddenly put in the odd position of feeling embarrassed for the friends who in Paris helped to define his own existence.

    In the most astonishing scene of the film, Ricky and his friends are scattered around the yard sunbathing when Jean-Didier parades past them stark naked as he makes his way to the washing basin and hose where he turns on the shower and proceeds to clean his beautiful body for their greedy eyes. And Ricky is possessive about the farmhand who he now claims to his friends, is his alone to worship.

 

   The busy duo, however, check out the farm, on one occasion coming across an open door in the barn where they notice Grandpa and Jean-Didier are busily enjoying themselves with each other’s bodies. They don’t bother to tell Ricky.

     Finally able to bring his grandfather to town, the old man reveals the fact that he has now been able to face up to the narrower attitudes of his local community due to the influences of Jean-Didier, making it clear to his grandson also just how things stand.

    Éric-Ricky must finally come terms with the false dichotomies he’s created in his life. Being yourself gradually helps to make you comfortable wherever it is you choose to be.

 

Los Angeles, June 17, 2023

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (December 5, 2024).