‘Being 17’: André Téchiné's latest triumph

Few filmmakers have portrayed the messy reality of human desire and sexuality  as consistently, as elegantly, and as powerfully as André Téchiné.

The French writer-director explores a remarkable range of straight, gay, bisexual — and even asexual  -- romantic relationships in finely crafted films such as Alice et Martin (1998), Changing Times (2004), and Unforgivable (2011).

His 1994 masterpiece, Wild Reeds, tackled the sexual awakening of a gay teen, while 2007's The Witnesses chronicled the experience of a group of straight and gay adults during the first years of the AIDS epidemic.

In each case, Téchiné approaches his subjects with a bold mix of immediacy and objective distance that saves his work from descending into sentimental dross or giving way to sexual sensationalism, the two hallmarks of Hollywood romances.

If Téchiné's films have anything in common, it's the conviction that there's no such thing as pure love. Desire for Téchiné is experienced always through a rich, complicated prism of gender, ethnicity, age, and economic status.

His characters aren't merely men and women who fall in love. They are old French men or young Algerian-French women; they are poor city boys or rich country matrons.

Téchiné returns to some of the themes of Wild Reeds in his 21st feature, Being 17, a richly observed coming-of-age drama about two teenage boys who are drawn to each other with a complicated mix of attraction, repulsion, tenderness, and aggression.

One might expect Téchiné, who turned 73 this spring, to filter his story through a wistful, if not sentimental, lens. Nothing could be further from the truth. He avoided that temptation by cowriting the screenplay with 37-year-old filmmaker Céline Sciamma (Tomboy, Girlhood), whose films are noted for exploring contemporary youth culture.

It was a smart move: Set in a small semirural town in the verdant Pyrenees in southwestern France, Being 17 is one of Téchiné's most vibrant, exciting, and passionate films. It burns with a rare intensity that recalls France's celebrated adolescent poet Arthur Rimbaud, one of whose verses provides the film's original French title, Quand on a 17 ans.

The Rimbaud line is deeply ironic and totally apt:  "You're never serious when you're 17."

The characters in Being 17 would beg to differ.

That's especially true of Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein of Gemma Bovery), an awkward, geeky high school student, whose devotion to academic excellence makes him a target for bullies, most notably the vicious, muscle-bound Tom (newcomer Corentin Fila).

For Damien, nothing could be more serious – or miserable – than youth.

His dad (Alexis Loret) is a helicopter pilot in the military who goes away for months at a stretch, leaving Damien in the care of his mom, Marianne (Sandrine Kiberlain), a doctor who doesn't quite understand the boy, despite her obvious devotion to him.

Tom, for his part, is just as alienated, if for different reasons. A dark-skinned African French orphan adopted by local farmers, he's embittered by his outsider status.

Téchiné turns up the heat with a slightly screwy set up: When Tom's mom has to be hospitalized, her doctor – who happens to be Marianne – invites him to stay at her house.

Thrown together despite their apparent loathing for one another, Damien and Tom find their strange conflict taking on a darker, more sensual turn. Things become more complicated as it dawns on them that their animosity cloaks an attraction. The more they resist or deny it, the more their desire seems to intensify.

Téchiné brilliantly evokes the confusion that accompanies sexual awakening, the uncertainty, the vertigo.

Being 17 isn't exactly a romance. It forges a disturbing link between sex and violence that lingers even after the two teens become lovers.

Yet it also has moments of heartbreaking tenderness, passages of breathtaking beauty that are all the more startling for the darkness.

Being 17

3½ (Out of four stars)

Directed by André Téchiné. With Sandrine Kiberlain, Kacey Mottet Klein, Corentin Fila, Alexis Loret. Distributed by Strand Releasing. In French with English subtitles.

Running time: 1 hour, 56 mins.

Parent's guide: Not rated (violence, profanity, sexuality, nudity).

Playing at: Ritz at the Bourse.

EndText