Savage Nights Live Blog 4/16 by Matt Antezana

So these are just some notes I took in class during our viewing of Savage Nights, I hope that they contribute in some way to discussion/understanding concerning the movie. And also these were done on the fly.

The lead character is a film director named Jean. Jean represents a very masculine almost stereotypical male lead in a film, especially in the scene when he's driving his red convertible listening to music generally associated with men. However he is also bisexual and is liberal about sex such as in the scene at night when he's with random men under a bridge. Laura who lost her virginity at 13 and the scene where she tells Jean of how she lost her virginity made me think that she only did it because she felt like it was her role as a female. She also lies about being 18 and that made me think that she wants to appear older more like a woman. Jean also has feelings for his friend Samy who lives a stereotypical male life with a woman as a partner and plays rugby. Paco, the guy singing in Spanish, has a very stereotypical latino name. He is HIV positive and when he tells his friend his is positive he asks if he's gay because he associates that lifestyle with the disease. They portray Laura as being almost weaker and not caring about herself because she just wants to be with Jean even though he has AIDS. Samy and Jean also have a relationship. Also Jean assumes a gay man infected him when he tells Laura that he's been with a bunch of shady guys even though it seems he has also been with multiple women. Even though Jean does many negative things in the movie and has no real redeeming qualities as he is self-centered, he is portrayed as a sort of tragic hero since he is dying. However potentially ruins the lives or at least has possible severe negative effects on the other characters. The question I have is: what does Jean's sex and gender roles have to do with the way he is portrayed? What do you think the director Cyril Collard wanted the audience to get out viewing his film (his purpose in making the film)?