Our Paradise [DVD]

I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I expected to based on reviews on other sites. There is a good bit of nudity, but not a lot more of Dimitri Durdaine than anybody else, and (in contrast to at least two others, including Stéphane Rideau) none of him that would qualify as "full frontal" - "full side" is more like it, and even those rarely show much except skin. Some other reviews give the impression that he almost never wears clothes and that the camera examines every square inch of his body, neither of which is true at all.What there IS more of in this movie than most is naked middle-aged and older men, which may bother some people but delights me. Except for Durdaine, all of the naked men in this movie have pot bellies, including Rideau (who's getting comfortably close to middle age himself), which is wonderfully refreshing in an age when only bronzed and hairless gym bodies under 30 ever appear in American gay movies (Can we say BOR-ing?).Now that nudity's out of the way... There's something I like a lot about Gaël Morel's movies, but I'm not sure what it is. There's something very natural or unpretentious about them, something familiar and almost comforting, regardless of the subject matter. I feel like I'm among friends when I watch his movies. They FEEL good in some mysterious way comparable movies by other directors don't. He has an eye and a style and a language that are quite distinctive but not easy to define; whatever it is, I like it.Don't let the crime element fool you: Our Paradise is above all else a love story. Vassili (Rideau), a rough, surly, aging hustler who is already in the habit of killing johns who offend him (and many do, since he's getting old and out of shape), finds a kid (Durdaine) beaten unconscious in a cruising park in Paris, takes him home and cares for him. Because the kid looks like an angel and has an angel tattoo in the lower right corner of his abdomen, and since he won't tell his name, Vassili tries "Angel" in various languages; the kid likes Angelo best, so that's who he is from then on. And from then on he is devoted to Vassili. Nothing that happens (and a lot does) shakes his devotion, and that devotion is the heart of this movie.Angelo is not stupid or a masochist; he doesn't relate to Vassili as slave to master, cub to bear, boy to daddy, or any of the other gay May-December stereotypes. He simply loves Vassili. When Vassili sees that Angelo really does love him and has no desire to find somebody his own age, he relaxes and begins to trust the relationship too. It's lovely. All of their interactions, including several beautiful sex scenes, reinforce the growing strength of their relationship. None of the sex is gratuitous (whatever that means) or forced.The backdrop for this sweet and tender romance, of course, are Vassili's increasingly rough tricks (since he's no longer young and hot, he has to do kinkier stuff to stay in business), which are depicted in pretty graphic detail, and his habit of killing johns who make wisecracks about his age. Angelo tries to get him to stop the killing, but it becomes obvious he won't, so rather than leave Vassili Angelo stays with him and occasionally helps.It's really not much different from Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or any of countless other mainstream movies about criminal couples... EXCEPT: this is France, so even the murders are civilized, and (Thank God!) guns never play any part in the movie. (What a relief not once to hear the sound of a gun being fired!)There are no chases, no near escapes, no explosions, none of the noisy, overwrought melodrama that stuffs Hollywood crime movies like fat in a goose's liver. This is a quiet movie, a civilized movie, an intelligent movie. Every murder makes sense because we see them from Vassili's point of view. From the outside he may look like a psychopath, but we see the human being more than the crime; we see a man who is as gentle as a lamb with the (surprisingly many) people he loves and who wipes out the ones who make him unhappy. He's just doing what most of us would LIKE to do.Even toward the end, when his motives for killing expand, there remains something about everything he does that just feels RIGHT for that character. He does it because he has to. He does it because the ones he kills need to be killed. He has his own moral code, and within that code everything he does is perfectly consistent.I will emphasize again that Our Paradise is above all a love story, a sweet and surprising love story between a very young man and another nearly twice his age. This movie is about as unconventional as a movie can be - it follows no stereotypes of any genre, and yet it's somehow even more comfortable and familiar than stereotypes are; it's like a gift from an old friend. I don't know of anybody but Morel who can pull off a feat like this with what seems like no effort at all.

If you are a fan of Gaël Morel (whose films include the incredibly successful and engaging  Le Clan [2004] [DVD ] and  Apres Lui [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC ]) will not be disappointed with his latest exploration of human experience. Whilst inherently dark in its subject matter "Our Paradise" transcends the depravity of human misconduct, in a manner which is both enticing and sexual. It explores the motivations behind love, lust and human connection, whilst revealing the truth behind some of our most carnal motivations.Vassili (played by Stéphane Rideau) an experienced hustler, whose moment in the sun is fast fading. His clients are no-longer as interested in him as they once were, and he is fast learning the transient nature of lust and the power of youth. His age is therefore, increasingly counting against him, and he is finding it more and more difficult to attract clientele. As a consequence he is forced to engage in the more seedy practises one finds on the fringe of society, where a fine line is travelled between fetish and depravity. Ironically this appeals to his darker nature, and much like a apprentice he slowly starts to develop his own dark nature. Stealing from his clients, whilst subjecting them to cruel torture and humiliation seems to have no effect of him, as he moves from one experience to another. Yet in his subconscious he knows his time is short, unless he finds a new way of attracting clients.It is here that he finds the young hustler Angelo (played by Dimitri Durdaine) unconscious in a notorious cruising ground. Like his own clients, he is attracted to Angelo's inherent beauty, youth and innocence, so he takes him home to ensure his safety. This is perhaps one of the only times Vassili shows any sincerity to another, although it is difficult to tell whether he is motivated out of genuine concern or his own hedonistic desires. Quite unexpectedly Angelo develops an intense affection for Vassili, largely out of his own desires for love, human connection and a sense of safety. Each provide the other with the necessary security they need, and together they become a powerful attraction to a new pool of clientele.Beneath the facade of normality, they continue to engage in their respective professions, although the audience is never sure of who the real manipulator is within this perverse relationship. Not that the two do not have affection for each other, for clearly there is some deep, albeit foreboding connection between the two. Slowly they provide the catalyst for each others dark natures, and out of such affection births a new form of hedonism that preys on the lives of others.Typical to Gaël Morel's more intense and introspective exploration of humanity this movie seems more concerned with the motivations of self, as opposed to the manifestation of such. For this reason you are drawn into the lives of both Vassili and Angelo, experiences their emotional, physical and intellectual motivations. You cannot help but feel the intensity of their connection, and whilst dishonesty, abuse and even murder result, you have a genuine affinity for the two characters. Deeply sensual, and intense in its evolution, "Our Paradise" is a movie which transcends description.It is extremely well written and directed, with powerful performances from its two leading men. Perhaps human desire is at its origin, a dark carnal reality void of real concern for others. As long as one gets what one desires, one will do what one needs to do. Some will never sink to the depravity of Vasilli or Angelo, but will similarly compromise principle and truth at a level which negates one's being. After all, lust, desire, love and relationship are all but one convoluted reality.

Interesting and quite different - very European in content

Our Paradise (Notre Paradis) is the latest film from Gael Morel of `Le Clan' fame. It stars Stephane Rideau (`Presque Rien') as Vassili, an ageing rent guy who cruises the streets of Paris looking for tricks. He is also a dab hand at `finishing his clients off' and I do not mean in a `professional' way - yes he's a murderer. Then one wet, Parisian night he stumbles across a young man who has been attacked and robbed. He decides to help him and ends up taking him home. The boy has no name and says no memory of before he met Vassili.So they decide to give him a name and hit upon Angelo (Dimitri Durdaine in his big screen debut). They then start a passionate relationship that does not exclude paying clients. Then they start to work as a team, but Angelo is attracting most of the attention and Vassili can't let his own proclivities stay dormant for too long. They end up seeking their paradise which will involve others, with unexpected consequences.This is a really original piece of cinema, it is acted superbly the shots are framed with the eye of an artist and it is still tasteful, despite some of the less wholesome scenes. We have a plethora of scenarios especially with Vassili's clients and the stories of a number of the characters all told along the way. This is one of those films that you don't even think about looking at the clock, it is paced so perfectly and flows so well; there is some nudity as you would probably expect, but I did not feel any of it is gratuitous. For gay cinema fans or even fans of gay cinema this is an absolute must.

Alles gut

réalisateur accompli

Amazing movie, I would recommend it to anyone. I usually hate subtitles but the way they did it made it easy with an extremely light delay so you can watch the movie and then glance down and read the subtitle in between the characters speaking. It's not like they paused to allow this but the timing of the speech and when the subtitles pop up just happened to end up perfect so you can enjoy the movie and understand it as well. The storyline was also unique and I enjoyed seeing the way Angelo seemed to try to shower Vissili with love, as if he could possibly fix him. Very unique relationship but there are a few things that bothered me.There was more nudity of the unattractive extra's than anyone else. I am not a shallow person but I like to enjoy what I am looking at. You also never find out what actually happened to Angelo to cause him to be laying on the ground unconscious and you never learn his real name. They also really left a lot to want as far as his background is concerned. Parents? Friends? He makes a friend but you learn nothing about him or his life before he is found injured. Yet Visilli's background and person is much more explored when I honestly think that Angelo is the heart of the movie.Spoilers ahead.I also did not like that they had sex with that woman, it ruins the relationship factor and leaves me to believe that they were not enough for each other yet they were supposed to be deeply in love. Aside from this and one other encounter in which Angelo participates in a mans cheating, the two seem monogamous through out the movie, only hustling and swindling when they need to.Get the movie, it's worth it and see what you get from it yourself.

Vita da marciapiedi.....vita sui marciapiedi, ovunque l'amore sia disponibile, vero o a pagamento.Vassili trova il giovane Angelo insanguinato in un angolo appartato di un bosco. Lo soccorre e lo porta a casa sua. Da quel momento i due diverranno amanti e complici del loro medesimo lavoro. I clienti, per lo più attempati, divengono prede dei loro desideri. Angelo scoprirà che talvolta, l'amore può essere una lama a doppio taglio e conoscerà il lato oscuro di Vassili. La scelta sarà solo una: lasciarlo o seguirlo in quel limbo......Un bel film, ben diretto e recitato. Molte scene di nudo, girate con disinvoltura dai protagonisti, per cui, siete avvisati.Consiglio di vedere anche "A tutta velocità", sempre di Morel, disponibile in lingua italiana in dvd Cecchi Gori.Per quanto riguarda i dati tecnici, il film è solamente in lingua originale francese con sottotitoli in inglese. Ma vale la pena vederlo.

UN BON PTIT FILM QUE J AI AIME? BON TOURNAGE ET BONS ACTEURS STEPHANE RIDEAU A PRIS DU POIDS DOMMAGE POUR UN BEAU MEC COMME LUI? MAIS A PART CA UN BON FILM ET SCENARIO.