“Garçon stupide” in Paris cinema since 19 January
20.01.2005
The first long feature film by young director Lionel Baier, from the canton of Vaud, has been running in cinemas in Paris, Lyon and Montpellier since 19 January 2005. The film was well attended starting on the opening day: 495 admissions were sold at the MK2 Beaubourg Les Halles cinema in Paris alone, according to distributor Maurice Tinchant (Pierre Grise Distribution). The film has received an extraordinarily positive response by the French media, with the radio program “France Culture” proclaiming it an “astonishing film” with a “promising director”.
The monthly cinema magazine “Premiere” reports: “Baier is interested in inner conflicts and analyses longing and desire with a confident sense of staging”. In her review of “Garçon Stupide” in “Cahiers du cinema”, Charlotte Garson emphasises the montage of split--screen sex scenes which are “successful because neither do they suggest a trace of porno or nor do they succumb to a prudish fade-out”. Furthermore, the weekly newspaper “L’Express” highlights the acting in the film by “amateur Pierre Chataigny in the leading role and, in particular, the outstanding Natacha Koutchoumov”, an actress who was nominated for the Swiss Film Prize 2005. In an article entitled “Cherchez ce garçon, Premier film tout en délicatesse du Suisse Lionel Baier”, Gérard Lefort, the star critic of the daily newspaper “Libération”, devoted a long text to the film, expounding on the young boy Loïc’s existential search for the meaning of life while creating a link to the maestro of film from the western region of Switzerland, Alain Tanner. Pierre Murat concludes his review in the highly circulated film and TV magazine “Télérama” with the following statement: “Lionel Baier’s point of focus, and this is no small achievement, is consistently straight and to the point as regards human beings and the world.”
Zurich, 20 January 2005
Zurich, 20 January 2005