L'Homme blesse

LHomme blessé is a 1983 French film that depicts homosexual desire and queer sexual cultures in an unapologetic and complex way. It was controversial due to its dark tone and treatment of an adolescents obsessive homoerotic desire, but its visual composition depicts queer ways of seeing and generates queer ways of feeling. Robert Payne argues that the film sidesteps fixed identities and draws viewers into the ambiguous spaces of queer desire. Original interviews trace the lives of the film across three continents and three decades and measure its enduring value beyond its prestigious debut.

Format: Paperback / softback
Publication date: 07 April 2022
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press

Drawn into the circuit of men cruising for sex in and around a train station, restless adolescent Henri embarks on a frenzied pursuit of a dangerously charismatic older man, with sometimes violent and ultimately tragic consequences. Premiering at Cannes in 1983, Patrice Chéreau's LHomme blessé (The Wounded Man) was one of France's first major cinematic releases to depict homosexual desire and queer sexual cultures in an unapologetic and complex way. It is a film that continues to resonate to this day.

LHomme blessé generated controversy with its dark tone and its treatment of an adolescent's obsessive homoerotic desire, as well as Chéreau's denial that the film is about homosexuality. Robert Payne guides readers through the powerfully erotic underworld of LHomme blessé, where the film sidesteps fixed identities and draws viewers into the ambiguous spaces of queer desire. Payne argues that its visual composition depicts queer ways of seeing and generates queer ways of feeling. A look into the production's historical and cultural backdrop uncovers a behind-the-scenes story of power and desire between its two screenwriters and the presence of HIV/AIDS hovering ominously and inevitably off screen. Original interviews trace the lives of LHomme blessé across three continents and three decades and measure the film's enduring value beyond its prestigious debut.

Payne cements LHomme blessé in its rightful place within queer cultural history and introduces the film to a new generation of viewers.

Dimension: 203 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780228011040