Laurent Perreau | Devine / 2011

a revelation

by Douglas Messerli

 

Laurent Perreau (screenwriter and director) Devine / 2011 [8 minutes]

 

A group of 4 teenage friends, Yann (Louis-Emmanuel Blanc), Axel (Raphael Goldman), Camille (Charlotte-Victoire Legrain), and Joseph (Romain Merle) are playing a game of mime, this one based only on film titles.

     The first of the game we observe, where one of the group attempts to mime the 2008 film Wall-e, ends in a loss for the performers team. Another figures it out only after Camille announces their time has run out, a sub-theme throughout this gathering, perhaps player’s last time together as a group.

      Joseph admits he hasn’t seen the film, and Axel jokes that his friend hasn’t seen anything, putting Jo for a few moments into a sulk. When Joseph hands Axel the film he is to mime, Axel claims it cannot read it, as Joseph whispers the title into his ear, Axel insisting that he can’t mime that work since it’s not a film. Yet Camille quickly perceives it to be Gossip Girl, the US television series from 2007-2012. Obviously there is some tension between these two young men.

     Joseph is now up, and attempts to give clues such as a Dutch windmill, a woman, and finally growing frustrated moves over to kiss Axel directly on the lips, holding the kiss just a little to long and clearly irritating the recipient. Joseph has been attempting to reveal a gay film with a windmill and a woman, whom Christine soon after declares was Mulholland Drive.

     But something has happened with that kiss, Joseph moving further into his funk, particularly given Axel’s immediate rejection. Christine attempts one further mime, but no one guesses the title, and we are never told what it was. The game is suddenly over.

     On the balcony, Joseph alone seems to be crying as he is joined by Christine. When she asks if he’s been crying, it says it’s only the cold, Christine gently giving him a kiss. Axel has observed the scene but ducks back into the room. As they look out over the city, Christine observes, “Just think, in 10 years, we’ll be thirty.”

      The film hints of insignificance of the moment while also making clear just how important it has been, that clue into Joseph’s deep feeling for his fellow friend, its rejection or perhaps maybe the beginning of something these four friends had never before imagined. French director Laurent Perreau, as if he himself were creating a mime performance, doesn’t provide any answers. He’s only given us a clue of a relationship between two of the boys not previously revealed—perhaps even to themselves.

 

Los Angeles, February 2, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 2024).