Le roi de l'évasion (2009)

An oddball comedy about a 43-year-old gay man who makes a stab at going straight, infused with unexpected streaks of whimsy and fantasy.

Armand, a man who sells farm machines in the country, is a popular middle-aged homosexual. Just as he was getting sick of life, he falls in love with a young girl called, Curlie, and goes on the run from her parents and the police.

This inspired comedy chronicles the midlife crisis of a pudgy, gay tractor salesman (Ludovic Berthillot, in a shrewdly and hilariously minimal performance) who, for a change of pace, runs away with a 16-year-old beauty (a charmingly earnest Hafsia Herzi, who also shone in Abdellatif Kechiche’s La Graine et el mulet aka The Secret of the Grain). The young woman finds herself smitten with her unlikely knight after he defends her (with cash, not brawn) from a group of toughs. After a clumsy consummation of their ardor, the unexpected lovers find themselves pursued by the girl’s father, a rival tractor salesman, his associates and the local police. But the pursuit narrative is arguably only an excuse for an exquisite assortment of lovingly drawn eccentric characters, who in this delightful film prove a fully justified raison d’être.

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INFO:
ORIGINAL TITLE: Le roi de l'évasion
ALSO KNOWN AS: The King of Escape (International: English title)
YEAR: 2009
DIRECTOR: Alain Guiraudie
GENRE: Adventure | Comedy
RUNTIME: 93 min | 97 min
COUNTRY: France
LANGUAGE: French
CAST: Ludovic Berthillot, Hafsia Herzi, Pierre Laur, Luc Palun, Pascal Aubert, François Clavier, Bruno Valayer, Jean Toscan, Mauricette Gourdon, Georges Vaur, Jeanine Canezin
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INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE:
NUMBER: 1354564
USER RATING: 6.6/10
AWARDS: 1 win
KEYWORDS: Gay Kiss | Underage Sex | Hedonist | Bicycling | Gay Man Has Sex With Woman | See more