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wen-kexing-apologist · 1 year

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Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus

For those who are not aware, I have decided to run the gauntlet of @bengiyo’s Queer Cinema Syllabus and have officially started Unit 2: Race, Disability, and Class. The films in Unit 2 are: The Way He Looks (2014), Being 17 (2016), Naz and Maalik (2015), The Obituary of Tunde Johnson (2019), Margarita With a Straw (2014), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Brother to Brother (2004), and Beautiful Thing (1996)

Today I will be writing about

Being 17 (2016) dir. André Téchiné

[Available on Amazon Prime, Runtime: 1:54, Language- French]

Summary: Damien lives with his mother Marianne, a doctor, while his father is on a tour of duty abroad. He is bullied by Thomas, whose mother is ill. The boys find themselves living together when Marianne invites Thomas to come and stay with them. (from IMDB)

Cast Sandrine Kiberlain as Dr. Marianne Delille Kacey Mottet Klein as Damien Delille Corentin Fila as Thomas Chardoul

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There is something I desperately love in film and television that I certainly do not talk about enough, and that is when an object or a setting acts as a character within a story (i.e. the Poor Boy shirt in Only Friends or Wilson in Castaway). While I have a background in technical theater and I am a slut for lighting design especially, I have realized over the past few months of writing immense amounts of media analysis that I never really set out in watching a show with a particular technical element in mind to discuss (by which I mean I did not go in to movie with the intention of paying attention to the costume design and discussing it’s significance). But in Being 17 what very quickly became apparent to me was the weather, the landscape, and coming out the other end of this film, the weather felt like a character all on it’s own.

The film begins and all we see on screen is white, snow covered mountains, minimal dialogue, just the sound of snow crunching beneath feet, sniffles from runny noses, etc. During the entire first trimester of Thomas and Damien’s school year there is snowfall for as far as the eye can see. I recognize this is probably a strange place for me to start in writing up my thoughts on this film, but I am working my way through the Race, Disability, and Class Unit of the syllabus right now, so I think paying attention to setting is vitally important. Especially for this film, because Thomas is Black, Thomas is poor, and Thomas is the adoptive son of a white couple.

Personally, I don’t think the movie does a deep dive in to the subject of race, but that does not mean that conversations about race do not exist in the film. I just see them being placed there more subtly. In the way that the only thing our eye can differentiate in the vast blanket of thick, white snow, is a backlit, black silhouetted figure trudging across the screen. Thomas is the only Black person in his family, Thomas goes to a school with very few people of color, Thomas gets invited to stay with Damien’s family who are also all white. And I loved that in the beginning of this story, when Thomas is reserved, withdrawn, aggressive, and self-isolating that there is almost no place that he can go to escape whiteness. The whiteness at school, the whiteness at home, the whiteness at Damien’s, the whiteness outside.

And literally just now as I was writing that up I realized that there is one place that Thomas frequents in the movie, especially when there is still snow on the ground, and that is a lake at the top of a mountain, where the water is black.

Anyway, I say all this because the weather in this film is a character to me, a physical manifestation of the feelings between Thomas and Damien. In the first trimester, in the winter, the feelings Thomas has for Damien are ice cold (or at least appear that way). Damien and Thomas are actively hostile to one another, Thomas especially initiates a number of fights between himself and Damien (oh the intricate rituals that allow men to touch the skin of other men). Damien recites poetry in class and Thomas trips him, Thomas can’t solve a math equation and Damien insults him, if they are in the same space for more than thirty seconds blows will be exchanged.

We learn in the first trimester that Thomas’ mother is sick, that he lives up in the mountains on a farm and travels three hours round trip to get to school, we learn that his mother is pregnant, and that Thomas is a consolation child. I love how much subtlety there is in this film, how much a single line can reveal so much about a character’s behavior. Soon after Thomas learns of his mother’s pregnancy, he is talking with his father about all the failed pregnancies that had happened before Thomas. Thomas asks his father “If she had [birthed a child], I wouldn’t be here?” to which his father, smiling, light hearted, and jokingly says yes. Yes, if Thomas’ mother had had her own biological child, then they would not have adopted Thomas. The line is delivered, the actors react in such a way that an audience might not see the emotional impact, until the scene cuts to Thomas sitting in bed, staring out the window.

Tom’s mom goes to the hospital, and Dr. Delille suggests that Thomas come and stay with her and Damien for a while. The reasoning is that Thomas is falling behind in school, he has a long commute, he works the farm at night. It is very difficult for him to concentrate on his studies. The Delille family lives closer to the school, they are close to the hospital where Thomas’ mother is staying. Thomas wants to be a vet, he knows that the more his grades slip the slimmer the chance that he can make it to vet school. But he is incredibly resistant to the idea of staying at the Delilie’s, saying he loves the mountains, he wants to be able to help take care of the farm, and despite the fact that these are both generally true for him, you can see and understand exactly why Thomas is pushing so hard to stay at the farm. He has heard mere days ago that a successful pregnancy of his mother’s would have resulted in him never being adopted, and now here is a pregnancy that is seemingly going well, and his parents are suggesting he move away from home and go stay with another family.

I want to make it clear, this is not a conscious or insidious effort on his parents’ part to get rid of Thomas, they genuinely want him to stay at the Delille’s because they believe being closer to school, and having a smart adult around to help with homework questions will help get Thomas’ grades up. But we know that is where Thomas’ mind is wandering because he makes a half-joking comment to Dr. Delille about it: “Finally, a real child,” and to Dr. Delille’s credit, she does not let that comment just skate by, telling Thomas “there are no fake children.”

Now that Thomas and Damien are living under the same roof and have been forced by Damien’s mom to call a truce to their constant fighting, they are starting to tolerate each other, to get along, to be able to share space. And when they do want to fight, they make a plan. Thomas picks a time and place, and both of them drive in the same car to the middle of the woods to fight each other. Rain falls, and they pause their fight to retreat to a cave for shelter, sharing a cigarette after they just beat the shit out of each other. [It is here where Ben’s voice popped in my head with his commentary on how boys fight, get it out of their system, and then are chilling with each other very soon after they’ve fought. This is a very accurate depiction of that observation from Ben.]

Thomas takes Damien to the lake he hikes to in the middle of the night, and wouldn’t you know it, Thomas and Damien sharing more about themselves, growing closer to become friends, happens at the same time that the snow begins to melt. The warmer months are approaching, and so too is Damien and Thomas’ relationship beginning to warm up.

With less pressure on him, more time to study, and a shorter commute, Thomas’ grades start to improve, and one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Thomas’ teacher tells the whole class he got the highest grade, and Thomas is trying to hide his smile. I love that this film takes the time to show that Thomas does actually really care about school. That he cares about his grades. And I think adjacent to that, it adds additional weight to Thomas’ initial refusal to leave his parents due to his fear of being replaced. Damien starts his gay awakening, at which point we get a “I don’t know if I am in to guys or just you” moment.

And it is at that point I remember this whole syllabus is a warm up to BL, which makes me much more tolerant of the passing gay for you trope. (That said, considering the number of posters of men Damien has in his room, I think he is definitely queer). At the place in the story where Damien says this to Tom, there have been zero conversations about Damien’s growing feelings for Thomas. So, props to him for just coming right out and saying it. But with that comment spoken, the summer months are approaching. All the ice has melted, we start moving towards lighter clothing, fewer layers, and well, wouldn’t you know it the boys are getting along.

Where before Thomas would never be caught dead in the same space as Damien, even walking on opposite sides of the street to go back to Damien’s house so it didn’t seem like they were together. Now, they are sitting next to each other in class, they are acknowledging each other’s presence, they are talking and smiling, where everyone can see them. The weather is warm, the ice is gone, and the boys are sharing awkward, quick, exploratory, and messy kisses that bring Thomas’ internalized homophobia to the surface.

Thomas hits Damien, is expelled from school, is made to return to his home in the mountains, and he stays there until Damien’s father dies, and Thomas’ own father drags his sorry ass out of the house and makes him go to the funeral. Damien’s mom spirals in to a major depressive episode, and Thomas is the first person to drag her out of the house, and to get her outside. He takes her to the mountains, the mountains that he loves, and they get out of the car and they are surrounded by fog.

Which, again, on the subject of weather being a character, the weather being reflective of the emotional state of the characters. Thomas is a child, taking care of an adult, an adult who has just lost the love of her life, and who cannot see the sunlight through the clouds. Thomas wants to show Dr. Delille something beautiful, but she can’t see it yet. Thomas moves back in to the Delille’s house to help Damien take care of his mother. She steadily improves, the sunlight returns to the mountains and there is greenery as far as the eye can see. Things are bright, and colorful, and rich just in time for Thomas to get cool with his feelings for Damien, and fuck him.

And, god the sex scene was cringey in the best possible way. The fact that I recoiled at Damien using his spit as lube, and Thomas just inserting his penis in to Damien’s asshole without any prep, I was like, “if you’re gonna show cock and balls, why are you showing such irresponsible- oh yeah, they are literally seventeen year olds having gay sex for the first time” which makes it work quite well for me.

By/For/About

I would put this somewhere between By and About Queers or By, For, and About Queers I think. Fun Fact though, the title, Being 17 came from a 1870 French poem called ‘Roman’ by Arthur Rimbaud, who was a gay man.

Favorite Moment

My favorite moment is after Damien’s dad’s funeral, Thomas finds Damien practicing on a punching bag. Thomas who at this point has run from his feelings for Damien, head butted Damien after Damien kissed him, and had initially refused to go to the funeral says “I’m with you, for your Dad,” which results in Damien sobbing in to Thomas’ arms. Which is glorious on its own, but to follow it up with them having to pry themselves apart from on another because Dr. Delille has walked outside, to follow her together, and then have to physically manhandle her and bring her back inside their house so she didn’t injure herself was just so expertly done. Full of love and tragedy, and was equal parts beautiful and heartbreaking to witness.

Favorite Line

“They tell me things will get better. I know they’ll get better. I even hope so. But I also know that I won’t have accepted his death then. I’ll just have forgotten he died.”

If I had seen this movie a month ago, it is likely that I would have had a different favorite line. But as it so happens there has been a surprising amount of death happening inside and on the outskirts of my life recently, so these lines just hit different.

Score

9/10, it was a little slow for my tastes and it did not capture me emotionally the way some of the other films I've seen so far have, but it was all very well done, especially considering that it was filmed in 8 weeks.

#being 17 #being 17 the movie #being 17 (2016)#queer cinema syllabus #queer stories #gay film

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