This Special Friendship
Publicerat av lucas4you den mars 30, 2008
Directed by Jean dellanoy from Roger Peyrefitte’s controversial 1945 novel,This special friendship is set in a Jesuit school for boys. The school bristles with sexual tension, and the youths are counselled daily to guard themselves against impure friendships. Sixteen-year-old George, a naive new arrival, is shocked to discover that the classmate who first befriended him is having an affair with another boy.
Before long, however, George himself has fallen head-over-heels for Alexandre, a striking 12-year-old in the lower school. They meet in secret, exchange poems and swear eternal friendship in a blood ceremony. Both young men blossom and grow as a result of their first fleeting intimacies, but it is only a matter of time before the nature of their relationship is discovered- with tragic consequences.
Considered scandalous upon its initial French release i 1963, This special friendship remains just as moving and memorable three decades later. Its sensitive handling of controversial subject matter, superb production values, and the haunting, open innocence of Didier Haudepin as Alexandre make this lost classic a cinema landmark.
Black & White.
From “Award Films International”
Original title: “Amitiés particulières, Les”
Laius sade
I don’t think Georges is shocked at all to learn of Lucian’s homoerotic relationship with Andre. He is told in a oblique way that both Lucian and Andre are impure and this is what causes Georges to purloin the love note and place it in the father superiors way, to eliminate Andre as a rival for Lucian’s affection. It backfires as Lucian repents after the close call of being expelled along with Andre. Georges is clearly exasperated at this turn of events and he turns to Alexander for a special friendship. The film greatly simplifies the novel, in which Lucian soon returns to his trysts with Andre over Christmas break as though Georges most despicably has removed Andre from the school, he cannot remove him from Lucian’s heart. But Georges is a sexual innocent, and when Lucian describes the
intimate details of his and Andres camping trip, Georges is shocked. Peyrefitte is careful to maintain a platonic relationship between Alexander and Georges for obvious reasons.