For his first short film as director, Frédéric Lavigne hits hard and right in the heart with the hyper sensitive Coeurs perdus .
Paris, 1992. Julien (Guillaume Soubeyran) is a science thesis student. A bisexual who doesn’t really accept himself, he logs on to a gay phone line from time to time to have anonymous encounters. It is through this channel that he meets Christophe (Isaak Dessaux), a boy his age who is a bit of his complete opposite. Julien is taciturn, discreet, speaks little, internalizes or even represses his feelings, dresses in little vintage T-shirts. Christophe, who is a hairdresser, is an assertive gay man, who may seem extravagant at first glance, extroverted, with a queer look. Opposites attract and their first meeting immediately causes sparks: Julien is clumsy and not very comfortable but Christophe with his kindness and spontaneity will quickly take the lead. In the weeks and months that follow, they will live an up-and-down relationship: while Christophe becomes attached, Julien remains elusive, inaccessible, and undemonstrative. We understand that he feels things but blocks them, does not fully assume them. And then one day he learns news that will shake him up forever…
There are films that have this rare little magic that makes you know from the first scenes that you are going to love what you are going to see.
Hearts lost to this magic. Everything rings true in this highly melancholic short film that is extremely promising. Obviously, the director Frédéric Lavigne was not mistaken in choosing the ultra-cute Guillaume Soubeyran in the lead role, who explodes here on the screen with his performance of rare accuracy and sensitivity, of an often heartbreaking restraint. We immediately become attached to his character, we fall a little in love with him too… and we will really feel the pain and frustration of the one opposite him, the queer boy and “artichoke heart” Christophe (played by the influencer Isaak Dessaux, who surprises here with a beautiful composition, also full of sensitivity).
The story of this meeting in the early 1990s has a heady scent of paradise lost. In addition to the great accuracy of the interpretation,
Coeurs perdus grabs us with its disenchanted atmosphere, its careful photography, its raw side. We come out of it with chills.
