Who says smut can’t be beautiful?
These days, so-called erotic films aren’t necessarily recognized for their sumptuous cinematography or their elegant compositions, but there was once a time when France was the hub of what’s been considered the “golden age of gay adult cinema.”
Leave it to the French to blend high and low art with panache!
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The 1979 film Le Beau Mec is often remembered as one of the high-water marks of this era—hailed for its evocative imagery and its unflinching glimpse into the gay male psyche—but it was long considered lost… until recently.
From director Wallace Potts (who would later helm 1989’s schlocky B-movie cult classic Psycho Cop), Le Beau Mec is a “docu-fantasy” portrait of hustler, athlete, and actor Karl Forest, who is recognized as France’s first gay adult film superstar.
The film follows Forest all around Paris as he offers up real, candid reflections on his own life, from his early years working off the streets to his more recent notoriety, also sharing his philosophies on gay life and male beauty—especially his own (no one ever accused him of being modest!).
As the star shares stories, Potts intercuts them with highly stylized recreations of his past exploits, positioning each as an almost mythical sexual encounter with various men, from soldiers, to blue-collars, to even some of Forest’s biggest fans.
And Forest is far from the only talent involved in the film. We’re treated to rare footage of his live stage show, a cabaret act featuring a scintillating striptease, choreographed by famed queer ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who was said to be lovers with Potts at the time.
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On top of that, Le Beau Mec was lensed by acclaimed French cinematographer François About with additional work from Barcelona-born Néstor Almendros, who came up through the French New Wave scene and won an Oscar for best Cinematography for his work on Terence Malick’s Days Of Heaven. That’s quite an impressive team of collaborators for a p*rno!
Though Forest sadly passed in 1984, his legacy lives on. For a number of years, Le Beau Mec only existed in low-quality VHS rips, passed around amongst social circles, which only added to its mythic quality.
But after its negatives where discovered in—of all places—a garage in Montgomery, Alabama, the non-profit IndieCollect restored the film in 4K from its original 16mm elements and began to screen it at a number of LGBTQ+ film festivals around the world, cementing its place in the cinematic queer canon.
And now, thanks to indie specialty distributor Altered Innocence and its classic film restoration banner Anus Films, Le Beau Mec will be available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital platforms for the first time ever on November 12.
The DVD/Blu-ray restorations come loaded with special features, including rare print materials and photo galleries, and interview between cinematographer François About & historian Hervé Joseph Lebrun, and audio commentary provided by filmmakers and “fringe queer cinema” experts Adam Baran & Elizabeth Purchell (the latter of whom directed the gay adult film archive doc Ask Any Buddy).
Ahead of the film’s re-release, Queerty is thrilled to host the exclusive premiere of its titillating trailer which you can watch below, featuring fresh, sexy new key art by Sam Ashby (of Little Joe magazine):
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dwick
It’s dubbed in English? Americans can’t handle subtitles.
Kinkslola
Speak for yourself. Some of us can watch and read at the same time. Its called multitasking. Duh!