North Sea Texas

By: Raymond Murray
In-House Review - Aug 31 2012

Belgium-born filmmaker Bavo Defurne has been making gay themed short films that have played festivals since the early 1990s - and they have proven to have been amazing training ground. This film - a tender, sexy and sensitive tale of a boy who falls hard for his best friend - may well become a gay film classic of first love.

Set in a Belgium costal town in the 1960s and '70s, we are introduced to eight-year-old Pim who lives with his buxom, man-hungry ex-beauty queen mom. He is a quiet, introverted boy who is immersed in a fantasy world.

Fast forward several years. Pim, now a teenager, remains a quiet dreamer and is secretly and madly in love with his neighbor and best friend, Gino - an assured, motorcycle-driving dark-haired boy. The two fool around sexually, but for one it is love; for the other, some fun relief before he finds the right girl. As Pim's mother boozes it up and takes in different men (including the macho gypsy, Zoltan), and Gino begins seeing a girl, Pim either needs to toughen up and face reality or sink. And just when his life looks darkest, things begin to change.

With terrific acting, amazing set design and wardrobe, and a tender story of innocence and love, this languid romantic drama will entrance the entire audience.

By: gbelly

By: Amos Lassen

The coming-of-age story has always been a staple for the movies but we rarely get a fresh new look at a young man reaching adolescence. Let's face it, adolescence is the one period of life in which every moment is important and if the one reaching this period is gay (or thinks he is), adolescence is perhaps his most important time of life. "North Sea Texas", however, does not see it that way. Adolescence is vital but there are other times that are just as important and that is what we see here. Pim (Jell Florizoone), our hero, is a kid who has his wits about him and he knows what he wants. He knows who and what he is and he never waivers or changes.

Pim lives in a rundown house (we might even say it is "seedy") on a dead end street somewhere near the Belgium coast. His mother, Yvette Bulteel (Eva van de Gucht) (also known as Yvette Mimosa) is an accordion player who smokes and drinks and she is not exactly what we would call the motherly type. Pim has always dreamt of a better life-one with beauty queens and princesses. However when he reaches , his attentions turn to Gino (Mathias Vergels), the boy who lives next door to him. It has always been tense between Pim and Gino and now it is about to shatter. Gino gets a motorcycle and begins to taunt Pim but our boy does not give up or lose hope but he does retreat to his dream world when the real world becomes too harsh.

One day Yvette comes home with "young, hunky" Zoltan (Thomas Coumans) in tow. She met him at the fair. His mother leaves Pim alone in the house and he decides that the time has come to act on his dreams. He moves to the neighbors' house to leave with Marcella, a woman he thinks of as his second mother. Sabrina, Gino's sister is also in the house and she acts as Pim's protector. Pim in Gino's bed but Gino is living with a girl from across the border and Pim's dreams are shattered-or are they?

Pim is filled with angst but it comes from the inability of others to be honest about themselves and not because of his own self-awareness. This is true of his mother and of Gino. Gino tries to see his relationship with Pim as just a phase in which two guys let off steam.

The film is a sincere and heartfelt look at the emotional feelings of a young gay boy and it is portrayed with sensitivity. We see Pim's despair that can develop after a first love and Florizoone plays the part beautifully. The scenes of the relationship between him and Gino are amazing as are the scenes of Pim and his mother. Everything from acting to script to costume design to cinematography are special and there is a wonderful retro feel to the film. We are invited in to a story of young love of an adolescent who finds it hard to accept that his first love may not be his only love. Bavo Defurne masterfully directs and the result is up there on the screen for all of us to enjoy.

If I relate all of what is in this film to you, I am not being fair because how the story is told is more important than just the story. It is not just a coming-out story about Pim but his mother and Marcella, the neighbor accept him as he is. In fact, Marcella is more of a mother to him than his real mother, Yvette.

The love scenes are wonderful and there is nothing but beauty in them. They are passionate yet they are tender. Pim is devastated when Gino leaves him to live with a French girl and with he does so with no advance notice. Zoltan is a bit of a distraction for Pim-it shortly pulls him out of his grief over Gino but then we see that Zoltan really prefers Yvette.

Pim is a young gay boy who possesses a great deal of inner strength and is certainly the most stable of those around him and it is his strength that affects the way he lives his life. It is Florizoone's wonderful facial gestures that let us into Pim's life and he made this film when he was only 15. I see a new star rising.

In short, this is an honest film about growing up and discovering who you are and what love means and how to deal with self-acceptance and love.