DVDebut--French porn star François Sagat goes a bit legit in Christophe Honoré's MAN AT BATH

Not having seen any of French porn star François Sagat's earlier work, I came to MAN AT BATH (Homme au bain) as a complete novice where M. Sagat is concerned. And, yes, he is indeed something. Possessing a body seemingly sculpted by an artist like Rodin and an ever-ready cock that we see in action, both hard and soft, this muscular man with beard and shaved head seems initially off-putting and a little scary. Until we see him dancing as he cleans house. Awwww... he's a pussycat!

Well, he's actually both of the above in Christophe Honoré's interesting little trifle in which François plays Emmanuel, the lover and roommate of Omar, who is off from the Paris banlieue to New York City. But before he goes, Emmanuel wants sex and so blows Omar a bit before forcibly fucking him. Not nice. And now the two must separate, and so the filmmaker follows both of them: Omar in NYC, where he hooks up with actress Chiara Mastroianni, playing herself, and the semi-hunky young kid she meets after a Q&A at a screening of her new film; Emmanuel, with the various tricks and friends, old and new, he hooks up with while Omar is out of town.

And that's pretty much it. The men are very attractive and easily able and willing to shed their clothes. Ms Mastroianni (below) is her usual alternately spacey and energetic self and has given over to her friend M. Honoré's movie with abandon. She does keep her clothes on, however, as does Kate Moran, who plays an old friend of Emmanuel (though Ms Moran does shows us her ass in a posterior competition with M. Sagat).

Sagat is actually rather OK in the various modes we see him: upstairs in the apartment of one of the johns he services, getting a rather pompous lecture on art and abuse; coupling with boys of all sorts, in all ways; and walking the city looking for funds and fun.

The movie was made back in 2010, but don't worry: A body this amazing and sex this varied doesn't date too badly. If M. Honoré is perhaps slumming here, let's let that pass, as he is also giving (some of us, at least) a pretty good time.

I should also mention the sweet but a little too spoiled kid Rabah (played by Rabah Zahi, seen the year after in Our Paradise), above top, getting fellated by François. Later, when the kid doesn't listen after he is asked to set the dinner table, we observe him getting an increasingly pink-assed spanking from his mentor.

Running a short 73 minutes, Man at Bath (the title, along with the poster, top, are meant, I think, to put us in mind of a "male rendition" of the Edgar Degas painting, below, titled Woman Drying Herself (After the Bath) -- from a fairly new distributor, Canteen Outlaws -- hit the streets this past Tuesday, August 5, on DVD. Eventually, I'm sure, it will be streaming somewhere or other.