Les Roseaux Sauvages is a brilliant story where three young teenagers are discovering not only their sexuality, but also discovering themselves, through sorrow, inner conflicts and the problems that come along with the Algerian independence war in 1960s France. Maité, François and Serge are all involved in a love triangle, where everyone experiences unrequited love, a very common feeling during adolescence. It's a pretty simple story, but the characters are portrayed in a very genuine and honest way.The interesting thing for me about the movie was how each character dealt with the same emotion: loving someone who doesn't feel the same way about you. Serge just tries to forget Maité, almost deciding to marry his brother's ex-wife. For him love is just an experience. Everything is fleeting. His character represents a regular teenager who doesn't know what love is yet, experiments anything and doesn't get too attached. While Maité has a platonic love for François, who doesn't return it. She doesn't know what love feels like and when she finally experiences it with Henri, she understands how François feels towards Serge, and she is no longer afraid to hide how she loves François. François discovers his hidden homosexuality, after sleeping with Serge once, and he doesn't give up, even though he doesn't stand a shot. He at first doesn't want to accept his sexual orientation but at the end accepts it.
Overall, it was a very nice movie, with nice scenery, great characters, great acting and carefully constructed dialogues. My favorite quote from the movie would have to be: "But there is something even tougher, tougher than war. It's that life goes on." No matter how bad the moments get, whether it's war, or love, or politics, life goes on and you just have to keep on going.
Verdict: 6.5 / 10
-possible cinephile.
