by Douglas Messerli
Raphaël Deslandes (screenwriter and
director) Les maladies extravagantes (The Extravagant Illnesses) /
2022 [24 minutes]
17-year-old Louis (Guillaume Lenain) spends time, so it appears, with
his boyfriend Thibault (Martin Villlemonteix) on a small wooded island in the middle
of a lake. But back at school things are different, where Thibault hardly even
takes notice of Louis, except to recognize that he is constantly staring at
him. It is clear that in the social reality of school Thibault is in love with
a girl named Sophie (Alice Thillard).
French director Raphaël
Deslandes’ first film seems confusing in its overlay of fantasy and reality, often
quite intentionally but at other times perhaps because it is not really clear
of its own intentions. But one can argue than in general, the work reads more
like a fable or fairy tale than a realist story. All we know is that one day as
a classroom test ends, Thibault accidently leaves his pen behind on his desk. The
romantic dreamer Louis picks it up and attempts to cast a magic spell with the
seeming talisman, attempting to make Thibault love only him instead of Sophie.
At a party both boys and
Sophie attend the electricity suddenly goes off in the house, and Louis
believing that perhaps the spell has worked, quickly grabs Sophie and kisses
her. In his private mythology the act makes perfect sense in that he is both
apologizing to her in some manner for her for having stolen her lover and
perhaps also attempting to transfer Thibault’s kisses to his own lips. He
rushes out in the confusion in the dark of night.
But the lights come back
on. It has only been a temporary outage, and for some reason, as Sophie later
explains, Thibault, wondering where Louis has gone, asks after him.
The next day Thibault
disappears, no one knowing of where the missing boy has gone, the entire
village fearful of what might have happened to him.
Louis, of course, is
convinced that he has retreated to their special island, and goes in search for
him, finding Thibault just where he expected, the two greeting one another with
pleasure.
Back in town, Sophie
talks to Louis, trying to find out if knows anything about Thibault’s
disappearance. Even more startlingly, Sophie seems to know that they are a
couple, that they have loved one another all along. Louis is justifiably
amazed, hardly having been able to imagine that Thibault has spoken to her of
him.
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Back on shore, Louis continues to reassure Sophie and others that
Thibault will eventually return, and she grows closer to Louis in her former
boyfriend’s absence, realizing that his love for him and belief in his return
is all that she has left. She queries him how they met and fell in love, Louis
explaining it quite vaguely, explaining that he felt Thibault’s warmth whenever
he was near him, the power of his presence.
For Sophie it was far simpler.
Thibault gave her a look of interest which as a teenage girl she trained to
ignore; but seeing her ugly pen, a tourist pen so she describes it, he asked if
he might have it. Later, it became his “lucky charm,” she explains, which he
took it everywhere with him.
Louis now has that red
pen, and is troubled by what she has told him. On his next visit to the island
he apologizes for having stolen it. All we wanted, so he explains, was Thibault’s
love. “And so you have it,” answers Thibault as the two finally, and evidently
for the first time, kiss.
Afterwards, Thibault,
holding his hand to the spot just above his heart grows ill as a butterfly
(symbol of rebirth and transformation and often represented as the soul or a sign
of a visit from a dead one) flutters out of his mouth as he falls dead. Louis
also grabs the same place above his heart and grows sick, but survives, now
sitting utterly alone on his island, even Thibault’s body having magically
disappeared.
Back at home, Louis shows
the red pen to Sophie, who angrily slaps his face, but soon turns back to hug
and hold him, realizing finally that her lover has gone forever.
The film’s audience must now
separate out fact from fiction, willful imagination from what is left of realist
truth. Did the boys truly have a relationship or was it just one of Louis’ many
desires and delusions. Perhaps they truly visited the island together as
friends, even behaving from time to time flirtatiously as they do in the very
first scene. The kiss Thibault gives Louis is not a real kiss but a gentle
tease.
Might Thibault, however,
have truly loved Louis but was afraid to leave the safety of his heteronormative
relationship with Sophie? Perhaps he was secretly torn between the two. If so,
that might explain his decision to leave.
That Louis met up with
his friend again on the island, however, seems to be pure desire on his part, a
fantasy that keeps his would-be love alive and protected, a being who remains
just for him alone. The imaginary illnesses perhaps are simply the heartbreak
of two lovers, the reality always threatening to take hold of the body as it
finally does, when reality comes crashing down upon Louis with his realization
that Thibault, wherever he is, will never be coming back.
For Sophie and Louis both,
all they have left of the boy they loved is one another.
The quality of this
freshman tale shares elements of Charles Perreault and other French fabulists
such as Jean la Fontaine and even the 20th century filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Were
it only as beautifully told.
Los Angeles, May 1, 2024
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (May 2024).
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