Ma Saison Super 8

By: Scott Cranin
In-House Review - Aug 09 2012

Paris, May 1968. In France, there was a radical leftist student rebellion that united workers, homos and communist radicals for a brief moment. Set in that stirring period, (which also inspired The Dreamers) Alessandro Avellis' evocative film captures not only the politics but also the unbridled (pre-AIDS) sexuality.

Marc (Axel Philippon) is around 20, a student and gay in a time period when gay men hadn't yet won the civil rights we take now for granted. Arrested in a park for cruising, his Dad threw him out of the house and his brother scorned him. Marc moves in with his best girlfriend Julie (Célia Pilastre) and they go to the demonstrations and endless meetings together. Julie's boyfriend took off the US and she finds solace with a radical lesbian. In the park, Marc picks up the sexually alluring working-class Andre. Marc becomes fixated on Andre, who won't admit he's gay. Meanwhile Julie has moved into a lesbian commune, and the revolution has vanished. Marc keeps up with the gay rights movement, but even that peters out. Marc finds love, loses it and get's it back in this hot little French film.

Made as an homage to the FHAR, the Front Homosexual d'Action Révolutionnaire, the first gay rights movement in France, Ma Saison Super 8 is a touching testimony to an important moment in French history.

By: Marty

Part historical documentary. Part human drama. This movie shows the early days of the gay/feminist rights movement in France. Entrapment, abortion, bi-sexuality, family disputes - in other words real life between 1968 and 1972. Well acted. You'll need your speed reading skills to keep up with some of the subtitles. Overall a good film. And for those who care about such things, you get two lingering glimpses of an exposed penis.