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.

Christophe Honoré's BELOVED: a mother-daughter movie musical that makes use of Deneuve, Mastroianni and Ludivine Sagnier

For fans of the song These Boots Were Made for Walkin', 2011 was a banner year. The wonderful Italian film Kryptonite (click and scroll down) used it prominently and pointedly during the movie (which had its NYC debut at this year's Open Roads festival) and again over its end credits. Now the new French film BELOVED (Les bien-aimés) uses it equally well at the beginning -- over its title credits, which are a knockout.

After sitting through this inspired credit sequence, you are so captured by the movie, it's as though the filmmaker Christophe Honoré (shown at right) has been given a get-out-of-jail-free card -- for the rest of this film, at least. Which is good, because he occasionally needs it during the movie's two-hour and fifteen-minute running time. Very much in the style of his earlier and often enchanting Love Songs, Beloved has its characters now and then break into song to tell us their innermost thoughts, hopes and fears. As with Love Songs (and many of Honoré's films, the score is from composer Alex Beaupain, whose tiddly-wink melodies are pretty repetitive and sound an awfully lot alike from song to song.

This drove the companion with whom I attended the screening a little crazy (he's an opera buff), and pretty much soured him on the movie. "If they'd simply dropped the music and used the lyrics as dialog, they could have saved twice the time," he insisted. While I agree about the repetitiveness and the somewhat ditzy style of the music, it didn't bother me much, for the songs give the characters the opportunity to let go, emote and be honest. And if we heard all this in dialog, we'd say no way -- too expository, for Christ's sake!

Beloved covers three generation of women, beginning with the wonderfully open, sassy and I'll-take-mine, please, performance of Ludivine Sagnier (above, left) as Madeleine, a young woman who love shoes (two photos up), the more stylish the better. She takes to the street to support her style habit, then meets and falls in love with Jaromil an emigre physician (Rasha Bukvic, above right), who sweeps her off her feet and then off to Eastern Europe, where, rotter that he is, he fucks around on her regularly.

The offspring of this odd twosome, Vera, grows into Chiara Mastroianni, above, left, here looking more like her father than I have yet seen. (At times, she could be Marcello in make-up and a blond wig.) Though ostensibly attached to best friend Clément (Honoré regular Louis Garrel, above, right),

Vera falls in love (at first sight, of course) with rock musician Henderson, played by the real surprise of this movie, Paul Schneider, above right. Mr. Schneider, somewhat in the manner that he accomplished in Bright Star, creates an indelible character in this confused but very game fellow.

By this time Madeleine has aged into Ms Mastroianni's real mother, the reigning queen of French cinema, Catherine Deneuve (above, center), while her dad (who makes regular visits to Paris from eastern Europe) has turned into everyone's favorite Czech director Milos Forman, above, left. (This latter morphing is the movie's most difficult to accept: tall, sexy Rasha into short, squat Milos? We don't think so.)

In spite of the stellar cast and performances that deliver the goods, the movie does have its longueurs. Those lyrics do repeat themselves -- for effect, yes, but -- too much. Yet the sweep of the film, its enormously romantic feel and its intelligent probing into the darker side of romance should keep you pretty consistently provoked and entertained.

Stick with Beloved, and you'll have made a journey into lives that encompass the 1960s through 2010, with all the changing clothes, cars and hair styles that this entails. On another level, however, you'll be made aware of how the ties of family play with and against those of limerence and love, along with the evergreen theme of youth, so light and carefree, eventually aging into sadness and loss. What happens in this movie, however, is the one thing that never should.

Very French, Beloved, from Sundance Selects, opens tomorrow, Friday, August 17, in New York City at the IFC Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and in Los Angeles at Landmark's NuArt Theatre, before making its way into foreign film venues around the country in a limited release.

Christophe Honoré's MAKING PLANS FOR LENA: the "entitlement" film of the year?

MAKING PLANS FOR LENA is writer/
director Christophe Honoré's third film to use Chiara Mastroianni, but it comes nowhere near the level of his earlier Love Songs. I find myself running hot and luke-warm to the work of this filmmaker; his latest is definitely in the latter category. Beautifully filmed in what I gather is Brittany (see photo at bottom), the movie -- as well as the Lena character played by Mastroianni -- fairly reeks of entitlement.

After a time, it is extremely difficult to watch Lena in action without wanting to haul off and smack the woman. Her behavior toward everyone around her grows more appalling as the movie progresses.

Could Honoré (shown at left) and Mastroianni be unaware of this? Is their film some kind of feminist statement? Embarrassing, if true. Women -- feminism -- need better agitators and explicators than are found here. But maybe that's just movie folk for you: They tackle life from, shall we say, a somewhat privileged position and expect to be congratulated for their efforts.

On the plus side is a cast filled with fine French actors -- from Marina Foïs (pregnant, center right) to Jean-Marc Barr (below, left), Marcial di Fonzo Bo and especially Marie-Christine Barrault (as the family's overbearing but dedicated mom). What a pleasure to see this great old actress in a good role again! Even that Honoré staple Louis Garrel (shown two photos below, bussing Ms Mastroianni) makes a short appearance, proving himself sexy and watchable, as always.

It's odd how differently we all react to watching the same thing. Stephen Holden, in his NY Times review found the odd section that tells (and shows) a folk take -- about a local bride, the villagers and dancing -- an kind of interruption that brings the film to a dead halt. TrustMovies found it much more pleasurable, if not completely comprehensible. At least it took us away from the the ridiculous Lena -- a character Holden found more interesting and worthwhile than did I.

Fans of Chiara Mastroianni, Honoré and the rest of his fine ensemble will certainly want to see the film, as did I prior to this theatrical run when the movie made its American debut last March during the FSLC's Rendez-vous With French Cinema. You couldn't have kept me from it, so maybe my warning review should not keep you from it, either.

Making Plans for Lena opens via IFC Films today, at Manhattan's IFC Center; click here for showtimes, etc.  Interestingly enough, the movie began its IFC-On-Demand run a week ago.  If you prefer at-home viewing, cilick here to see if it's available in your neighborhood.