Henri (Jean-Hugues Anglade) is a frustrated teenager living with his parents in a provincial French coastal town. When they drag him to the train station to bid adieu to his sister, Henri sneaks off to a secluded bathroom and interrupts a hustler named Jean (Vittorio Mezzogiorno) satisfying the masochistic desires of an older male client.
Henri falls desperately in love with the sexy criminal, but Jean evades Henri’s affections. Undeterred, Henri shadows Jean as he traverses the dark and dangerous underbelly of their sleepy village. But as he descends deeper and deeper into Jean’s world, there may not be an easy way out.
Adrift in a French underworld of hustlers and pick-ups, Patrice Chereau‘s 1983 drama The Wounded Man (better known internationally as L’homme blessé) is a revelation: an amazingly accomplished work that genuinely channels the transgressive, unsanitized sensibility of Jean Genet, boasting a breakout lead performance by young Anglade and a script that took co-writers Chereau and legendary gay French author and activist Herve Guibert six years to perfect.
The result is a rich, strange and sumptuous film – leading us to exhilaratingly mysterious and unfamiliar spaces both physical and psychological. It’s soon to be available once again on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD thanks to a brand-new restoration by the cult indie distribution label Altered Innocence.
Watch the trailer for the new restoration below and click here to pre-order your copy. The Wounded Man (L’homme blessé) will be available starting May 23rd.
