Nos Années Folles (French) [Golden Years]

First things first: This is NOT a gay film. If anything, this film is more an attempt to talk about theme of gender, sexuality and identity. At the core of it, my take is that this film is about a toxic love story. Two lovers who are very much into each other, willing to do anything but their actions eventually make the relationship quite toxic. Apparently this is based on a true story.

Louis, working as a seamstress is married to Paul. For WW1 he has to leave for war, but clearly is too much for a fragile Paul. When he gets into an accident and loses one finger, he gets depressed and homesick and runs away from the infirmary. Louise hides him in her grandma's basement, since military will be looking for him to punish him. But both Loiuse and Paul get very tired of this arrangement soon. Louise comes up with the idea of having Paul dress as a woman when he ventures outside. Initially very reluctant with the idea, Paul son gets that this might be his only way and starts dressing as a woman, with Suzanne beings alter ego, and becomes more and more confident as he steps outside. No soon that this starts, the next thing we know is that Paul/Suzanne begins turning tricks in public park. Is it for pure pleasure or sex or money, we don't know. But he is clearly very much into the attention he is getting by men, women alike dressed as a woman. And since the two love each other very much Louise joins him in a couple of these escapades but doesn't enjoy it anywhere close thaw much Paul does. In the process, a count falls in love with Louise, but she is still very much into Paul. When the war os over and Paul is pardoned but he is reluctant to leave Suzanne behind him. A local theatre celebrity decides to stage a play to tell the country about Paul's story. Soon Louise gets pregnant. She does have a child but Paul lashes out, raging against the pressures of domesticity and rejecting his wife’s plea to stop living and working as Suzanne. When Paul starts becoming a threat to her and her child, she kilvlshim with the very gun, Suzanne used to keep for her protection.

The story is interesting and the fact that it is true, makes it even more interesting; but sadly the film feels very shallow at quite a few places. Biggest shock comes is when Suzanne starts tricking and prostituting. Where does that come from? Why and how is he suddenly enjoying attention from men. Has he become gay or is it just attention. It can't be later since sex is involved. Even more puzzling is why does Louise start joining him. Yes, the dup are very much in love but the whole situation didn't make much sense to me. It would have been nice to know the psyche of the characters behind these actions. Was the idea to show that once Paul becomes Suzanne, he wants to keep that identity close to himself and enjoy being a woman or was it more of a convenience. He does say that he is more stringer as Suzanne compared to Paul, which is evident but that still doesn't explain facts. Louise's character is more straight forward. As actors the leads and others do a good job, but the film feels too similar to the very critically acclaimed 'The Danish Girl' and I am sure that the comparisons are inevitable. The film explores the trans side of the lead, but very much just at the surface. It never really explores in details of what's really happening with Paul and the reasons behind his actions, especially given that he loves his wife very much and even has very satisfying sexual relations.

A film about desires, identity, confusion, fluidity; this could have been so much more had it not been touched upon just on the surface. (4.5/10)