Product Description

An HIV-positive French North African takes an unconvential journey on a quest for his father who he's never met. On his way, he discovers that family need not always be connected by blood.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72402 in DVD
• Brand: Genius
• Released on: 2002-02-19
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.com
Unlike many gay-themed films, Adventures of Felix isn't about how the title character comes out of the closet, falls in love, or contracts HIV. We meet Felix (Sami Bouajila), who is of Arab descent, after these things have already come to pass. He and his partner live happily together in Dieppe, and his condition is under control. When he loses his job, he decides to travel to Marseilles to meet the father who left before he was born. Thus begins a road trip that is divided into five parts ("My Grandmother," "My Sister," etc.) as Felix meets strangers who help him out in various ways and come to fulfill these roles. By the time he reaches his destination, he realizes that family is what you make it. It may sound simplistic, but Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau spin the tale in an engaging manner, and Bouajila is a real find. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Pleasant Film Indeed about Normally Adjusted Gay Male
I saw this at an alternative cinema and am only now buying it in DVD to have. Felix decides to take a brief trip away from his boyfriend to search for his long-lost father in the south of France (Marseille). Along the way he comes across people that he fits into the category of relative: my sister, my little brother, etc. It is a simple story, but one that the French and, with few exceptions, only the French, do so well. You will like Felix the person, laugh at his adventures, recognize his virtues and his faults, and be astounded with the mystery of life by the end of the movie. Highly recommended if this is your thing. Even a straight person not into gay cinema (i.e., 99.99% of straight people) would find it an amusing French slice-of-life and not egregriously scandalous from a sexual nature.

Entertaining and unpredictable
I can count on the fingers of one hand the gay-themed films I would watch more than once -- most of them are either catty sit-coms stretched out over two insufferable hours, or they're an excuse for badly acted soft-core porn. "The Adventures of Felix," bad title notwithstanding, is a pleasant surprise featuring normal, well-adjusted and attractive (in a real, non-Hollywood way) men. It's a picaresque saga of a young man hitchhiking from Normandy to Marseilles and the encounters he has along the way: some pleasant, some not, but all very real and surprising. There is one preposterous coincidence near the end of the film, but by then you're hooked on the characters' charm. My favorite gay film, with the possible exception of "Wild Reeds."

Families can be created
This is a film about an orphan man hitching his way through France to meet his father for the first time. In his journey he learns that families do not have to be biological to be of value. The film is broken up in seven pieces: the introduction of the main character, a plot thread (murder!) to weave the film together, then a meeting of 5 people that becomes his family. The "grandmother" and "sister" story lines are very well done. They clearly illustrate the needs of these characters to make deep connections with each other and the brief events that tie them together. Unfortunately, the other three encounters fail to do as well. It is hard to imagine that the lead would actually keep in touch with the men he meets along the way. The "little brother" story is cute and has many great monents, but the characters fail to connect in a lasting way. The "cousin" vignette is simply gratuitous and nothing more (like too many American gay films). The "father" section wraps up the film without really establishing any significant connection with the two men. I am giving this film four stars because it is a nice film about discovery and family. A welcome change from many of the other gay films out there. Still I am left wishing for a remake that could demonstrate some real male bonding. If you like films that are French, gay, or the theme of creating a family is one that has touched your life, then this film is worthy of your collection.