Saint Narcisse (2020)

Directed by: Bruce LaBruce | 101 minutes | comedy, drama | Actors: Félix-Antoine Duval, Thomas Niles, Tania Kontoyanni, Alexandra Petrachuk, Andreas Apergis, Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay, Jillian Harris, Michel Eid, Jonathan Emond, Michael Czyz, Cameron Geller

The Canadian ‘Saint Narcisse’ has an interesting premise, which the viewer must read before seeing this film – or not. You don’t understand a thing if you don’t have the context, that’s clear. Dominic (Félix-Antoine Duval), a beautiful young man with a beard and a motorcycle jacket, has undefined sex with strangers – including in a launderette. If the passers-by look through the windows, he does not stop with the deed.

The undersigned prefers to look blank, because then the maker has to do his best, and you will be surprised again. The intriguing thing about this film is that the story continues to occupy you, while the acting is not too good and the soundtrack is occasionally of the level of youth film. You want to know where it’s going, but it’s like this kind of behavior requires older actors. The twenty-something who has the lead role knows what he is doing, but not what he has done.

The ‘boy’ Dominic seems to have yet to grow up. In fact, affective relationships only take root when your heart is broken, and empathy only when you commit; not necessarily in that order. Perhaps this is what director La Bruce wants to show us, the dark side of the narcissism of adolescence: to hunt and be hunted, letting happen what is not satisfying, or at least no lasting satisfaction.

Dominic seems to seek spiritual redemption in sex. La Bruce shows us a lot of sighs and moans, and not just interpersonal sighs and moans. ‘St Narcisse’ has something of the egodocuments of Vincent Gallo (‘Buffalo ’66’) and later in the film the recent ‘Corpus Christi’. Dominic seems stuck in the past. Is he looking for a lost connection with the mother? Does La Bruce advocate bisexuality? Go see for yourself.