J'embrasse pas

He doesn't kiss; nor, according to the subtitles laying down conditions to prospective male clients, does this Paris rent boy (Blanc ) 'suck off or take it up the bum'. The innocent country boy has come a long way since arriving with high hopes of making it in the big city. His only contact (with equally vulnerable middle-aged widow Vincent) provides a bed to sleep in, but under impossible conditions. Film producer Noiret offers 'no sex' overtures of friendship, which he only later realises are more predatory than they seemed. Auditions end in humiliation and flight from his tentative ambition to become an actor. Only tart-with-a-troubled-heart Béart seems honest in this world without pity. Despite odd moments of truth and affecting scenes, Téchiné's episodic film is a downhill racer: what at first seems art house austerity reveals itself to be mere posturing.