A Prince (Un prince) (2023)

[txfilmfan]

Just watched this French film from Pierre Creton on Criterion. It's about a young horticulture student who takes an apprenticeship, has an attraction for much older men, and develops relationships that end up as a throuple.

Coming from a troubled home (alcoholic and probably mentally ill mother in a failing marriage), he enters a botany school run by an ex-pat Brit. From there, he gets an apprenticeship at a nursery, and the relationships develop further from there. It's a portrait of rural French life not often seen, and the way it is portrayed is both sad (the characters rarely seem to be enjoying their lives) and beautiful.

Though beautifully shot, it's an odd film. I found it hard to grab my interest at first, but it slowly pulls you in. There's very little dialogue - most of the story comes out through narration by various characters (voiced by actors other than those on-screen).

I will probably give it a re-watch to get some things I missed. Since it's mostly narrated, there's a lot of subtitle reading that doesn't necessarily coincide with the on-screen action, so it was easy to miss things. Also, part of the film is done in Academy ratio, and I'd like to revisit that to better understand why.

There are nude/sex scenes, but nothing overly graphic, other than a few shots of porn photos unrelated to the story, so if that offends, you've been warned.

Released in 2023, it had a showing at the New York Film Festival last year, and was released for streaming in the US in June 2024. As far as I know, it's not had a theatrical release here.