Rémi Bigot | Dans les yeux (In the Eyes) / 2014

when later is too late

by Douglas Messerli

 

François Peyroux and Rémi Bigot (screenplay), Rémi Bigot (director) Dans les yeux (In the Eyes) / 2014 [8 minutes]

 

French director Rémi Bigot’s short drama in Russian recounts the story of two boys, sons of families of the Russian Orthodox community in France. The film centers on a Sunday celebration of that community before and after mass. It is at these moments when the two boys, Victor (Pierre Andrau) and Alexandre (Léo Pochat) meet up to express their gay love for one another.

 

    Evidently some time has passed since their last gathering as Alex’s mother describes their vacation in Spain where, she proclaims, there were more Russians than in Russia.    

     The boys meet for a few seconds apart from the gathering, giving each other a deep kiss. But they are soon seen again at the mass and at the celebratory luncheon after, with traditional Russian foods. At all such religious gatherings, the young children run in joy meeting up with others of their age, while the parents, long involved in their religious gatherings, chat. Clearly, to attempt to explain to such a tight-knit community about their love would be nearly impossible, and the two 17-year-olds are still not out to their parents.

 

    At this particular event, however, Alex’s mother announces a great piece of news: her son has been selected at an American university, which all the members of the community toast. That is, except the shyer Victor who suddenly feels deeply betrayed, something we can clearly see in not only his eyes, but in his entire mien. He obviously has not been told of the inevitable separation.

     As the afternoon winds down, the boys surreptitiously meet again, Alex lightly kissing Victor, the latter of who says nothing but does fully respond. Alex suggests, “We’ll talk about it later,” but Victor reacts with colder recognition that it’s already time to go. But as his friend turns, Victor grabs him and kisses him with true passion, the other pushing and pulling away before he goes on the run.

     In the last frieze of the film, Victor stands sadly in the doorway, his sister joining him and, perhaps sensing her brother’s sadness, coming up to him, standing close by. He picks up and hoists her upon his shoulders as he looks emptily out into space, knowing apparently that the secret love he has between Alex is now over, as it he has just been hit with a fist.

     The shifting times of the transition between high school and college has often been the subject of gay love stories, the inevitable breaking up a relationship occurring for young gay men just as it does for high school heterosexual couples. But given the demands and limitations put upon these young men by their religious society, it is even harder to imagine where Victor might now turn in his search for new love unless he too breaks with his family and moves on to a new life.

     This film does not fully deal with the subject it evokes, but it remains a beautifully filmed portrait of a loving community that simultaneously destroys love that does fit its definitions of normative behavior. Bigot catches, time and again, Victor peeking out from corners, representing the boy’s feelings as he is locked away in a community which demands his full commitment but in which he feels clearly out of place and somewhat terrified by that fact.

 

Los Angeles, September 16, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (September 2022).