Festivals: Review of “Le Lycéen” (“Winter Boy”), by Christophe Honoré, with Paul Kircher, Vincent Lacoste and Juliette Binoche – #TIFF22 #70SSIFF

The new film (with a strong autobiographical imprint) by the prolific director of Forbidden relationships, In Paris, Love songs, La belle personne, Les bien-aimés, Plaire, aimer et courir vite Y room 212among many other titles, had its world premiere in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section and will later be seen in the San Sebastian Official Competition.

Le Lycéen / Winter Boy (France/2022). Script and direction: Christophe Honoré. Cast: Paul Kircher, Vincent Lacoste, Juliette Binoche, Erwan Kepoa Falé, Adrien Casse, Pascal Cervo, Christophe Honoré and Anne Kessler. Photography: Remy Chevrin. Editing: Chantal Hymans. Music: Yoshihiro Hanno. Duration: 122 minutes.Lucas Ronis (Paul Kircher) is a gay teenager in his final years of high school. His life in a small town like Chambéry doesn’t seem too different from that of so many 17-year-olds, but a tragic event is about to change his existence forever: his father (played by Christophe Honoré himself). dies in a car accident. Devastated (there is a heartbreaking scene in which he lets out a guttural scream), like his mother Isabelle (the great Juliette Binoche), Lucas goes to Paris for a week, where his older brother Quentin (Vincent Lacoste), an artist, lives. quite successful plastic.

While Quentin tries to continue with his artistic career, Lucas becomes obsessed with a friend of his brother named Lilio Rossio (Erwan Kepoa Falé), tries to process and go through the mourning, as well as materialize some sexual experiences (even linked to prostitution). In that sense, the film has something coming-of-ageof discovery and initiation with a 17-year-old boy dazzled by an attractive 29-year-old black man.

Although the film takes place today (in most scenes almost everyone is wearing a mask due to the pandemic), the story is inspired by some personal experiences of Honoré himself (since he was born in 1970, they should be set in 1987), but in in terms of sensitivity, aesthetics, climates and problems Le Lyceen It also refers at times to the films of François Ozon and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Despite its starting point, the film does not fall into sentimentality or tear-jerking melodrama. There is, of course, an undercurrent of angst, but the film flows in its youthful energy, curiosity and empathy thanks to a Kircher who carries the story on his shoulder and to which the secondary actors contribute with conviction. In the few scenes in which Binoche appears, she shines like that mother who has lost her husband and tries as best she can, as she can, to connect -many times from a distance- with her children. The great actresses are the ones who also shine in small roles like this one.

The overly recurrent and somewhat overloaded use of Lucas’s voice-over at times takes away more than it adds, but it is Honoré’s choice to give the story a more intimate and confessional slant. The other parts of the film, on the other hand, have to do with moments of tenderness in the midst of pain, with those strange moments of emotional intensity and lyricism that arise, for example, when singing alone or accompanied by an old Italian song.


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Festivals: Review of “Le Lycéen” (“Winter Boy”), by Christophe Honoré, with Paul Kircher, Vincent Lacoste and Juliette Binoche – #TIFF22 #70SSIFF