Whether they are successful, average or unsuccessful, films based on novels are commonplace. This goes back to the very beginnings of cinema. But sometimes, two adaptations of completely different works enter into dialogue. At the Toronto International Film Festival, this was the case with Queerby Luca Guadagnino, and Hello Sadnessby Durga Chew-Bose. While the fact that they are presented at the same event is a clear link, the two films share certain common themes, and, most importantly, are based on the cult novels of an iconic author, William S. Burroughs and Françoise Sagan, respectively.
In QueerDaniel Craig (Skyfall ; Knives Out / At Knives Out) delivers a dazzling performance as “Lee”, an American living in Mexico City whose daily life consists of scouring bars and bringing back to the hotel men of the moment: sailors, prostitutes… To Lee’s great dismay, one of these handsome foreigners, Eugene (Drew Starkey), arouses in him a passion as unprecedented as it is immoderate. But is it mutual?
Ambiguous in the signals he sends, Eugene is at one point compared to a fish by a friend of Lee (Jason Schwartzman): “He’s cold, and he slips through your hands.” What follows is a surreal journey into the equatorial jungle. There, William hopes to get his hands on a hallucinogenic drug that would grant telepathic gifts: finally, he will be certain of Eugene’s intentions.
Camped by the sea, on the Côte d’Azur, Hello Sadness tells the story of the summer of Cécile (Lily McInerny), a privileged teenager who lives in a villa with her father, Raymond (Claes Bang), and his new partner, Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune). At Raymond’s invitation, Anne (Chloë Sevigny), the best friend of Cécile’s late mother, shows up one day, and her arrival will upset the young girl’s comfort.
So, when her father and Anne fall in love, Cécile, out of jealousy, hatches a plan to separate them, with unsuspected consequences.
Both films revolve around protagonists who are temporarily transplanted elsewhere than at home, in warm lands. They are characters who lead carefree lives suddenly turned upside down by a major inner tremor of a sentimental nature: this second element is central to both novels.
An interesting fact about the books is that apart from their exploration of what turns out to be an obsessive, purely amorous love in Queer and filial in Hello Sadnessthese were written during the same period.
In fact, although Burroughs published his novel in 1985, he actually wrote it between 1951 and 1953, the year in which Sagan wrote his, which appeared in 1954.
Unifying contrasts
That being said, the respective approaches of Luca Guadagnino and Durga Chew-Bose, in their ways of bringing said novels to the big screen, could not be more dissimilar.
Indeed, the first, in keeping with William’s singular energy and vivacity, opts for a staging of feverishness, furtive movements, discreet poetic flashes, and also intimacy; a staging with sometimes dreamlike, even experimental accents.
Durga Chew-Bose, on the other hand, offers delicate modulations, a measure in short, and a succession of skillfully composed tableaux. Here again, this is perfectly in phase with characters who are constantly represented in a bourgeois universe with the appearance of an art gallery.
In Queersex is raw, eager, devouring; the streets are dusty, the sun is blazing, and the heat is humid. In Hello Sadnesssexuality is modest, gentle, languid; the environment is luxurious, the sun is caressing, and the heat invites indolence.
And all these contrasts, paradoxically, come to exacerbate the similarities, the beautiful similarities, shared by these two films, neither failed nor average, but successful, very successful.
The release dates of Queer And Hello Sadness remain to be confirmed. François Lévesque is in Toronto in part thanks to the support of Telefilm Canada.