Wild Camp (2005) User Reviews

Stereotypical French movie--pretty ho-hum, but with good performances from the two leads

[lazarillo · 23 October 2012]

This is a pretty stereotypical French movie in a lot of ways. It takes place entirely in a holiday camp (the French always seem to be on vacation in their movies). It also involves a middle-age man having a torrid affair with a sexy teenage girl. They call these May-December affairs in the English-speaking world, but with the French it might be more April-December (or maybe late March) as the characters, and sometimes the actresses as well, often seem to be a little shy of eighteen.

To his credit, Dennis Lavant does not look to be in December of his years (early October maybe) and, unlike with some French films, it's not completely inconceivable that a bored teenage girl camping with here parents could fall for him, and even leave her more age-appropriate boyfriend. Of course, his character is also a paroled convict, married with children, and working at the camp for his brother-in-law. Pretty much everyone objects to the affair--the brother-in-law, the girl's parents, her friends, the other camp employees--but the two simply cannot resist each other. It's good old French amour fou, but it turns out to eventually be a VERY extreme case of it, and the film eventually becomes more than a little implausible.

Lavant is the more famous actor here, but mention should also be made of his co-star, Isilde LeBesco. Yes, she is kind of ordinary looking in the face. Yes, she's not terribly convincing as a 17-year-old. But she has one of the most incredible natural bodies I've ever seen and she ALWAYS shows it off in every movie she's in. Besides, she's certainly not a bad actress, and being from a more permissive country with no Hollywood reputation to protect, she takes on some interesting, if not always successful (or particularly believable)roles. She's one of a long line of French actresses, who are simply more sexy and uninhibited on the screen than the vast majority of their Hollywood peers. This is easily the worst movie of hers I've seen, but she and Dennis Lavant do manage to rise above the ho-hum material to make it marginally worthwhile.

Bait and Switch: From Steamy and Provocative to Desiccated and Lifeless

[madcardinal · 3/10 · 9 April 2011]

The photo on the DVD case may lead you to believe "Camping Sauvage" is an erotic masterpiece. Unfortunately, it falls far short of that. First, Isilde Le Besco looks too old to authentically portray a nubile nymph, and her acting in this film is uninspired at best. Also, there's the mystifying question of why she's attracted to the nearly anorexic, homely ex-con - simply because he's in close proximity? That's not a very compelling motivation. I don't remember seeing a news story about all French women suddenly developing persistent problems with their vision, so we're left with an inexplicable attraction. Second, the tone and atmosphere of this movie are so arid emotionally and spiritually, the viewer simply has no reason to care about the characters or their actions. It's like you're watching a bunch of insects performing a random dance in an utterly meaningless, godless universe. Well my question is, why should I care? The three stars are for the attempt to make a frank and forthright film about this provocative subject matter.

Lightly sensational, with two interesting actors

[ronaldsframe · 7/10 · 6 August 2015]

I humbly write my first review here on IMDb. I like this film. I'm not sure if the tone of the film, which I find slightly comical, and slightly mocking, transitions well into the darker last act.

Denis Lavant is wonderful in this. He's got this pockmarked straight-faced look on his face, like he's going to play it cool, but wanders himself into worry without expecting anyone to notice. There's something harmless and good about him. He's got the physicality and body frame of a 15 year old acrobat, (and something of that spirit too) and like in his other films he expresses so much idiosyncratic personality through physicality.

Islid Le Besco is radiant and beautiful. In her quieter moments, because of how she's shot I suppose, she looks like some 17th century painting of a young woman, a sad classical beauty if you will, transformed from a pouty teenager. (See A Tout de Suite for an even finer performance.) I think that's partly what's going on in this film. She likes being looked at. She wants to be immortalized. And he knows that everybody looks at him with disdain. What a lovable schlub.

What an odd and interesting pairing of Le Besco (who's taller and sexy and much younger) with Lavant who acts like a furrowed Buster Keaton. There's interest and energy in seeing Lavant stick up for Le Besco in a rather steely noble way, (she's delighted,) and take her sailing, with a crew of student sailors humorously watching their flirtation as if it's elevated on a stage.

I like the setting, a lake resort for camping families. It's colorful, with colorful extras peeking around corners, and warmer in palette, more in the sense of a summer idle than a lurid thriller. There are small details of environment I like: a perfect late evening cloudbank on the distant horizon, or Islid Le Besco being fetching and half nude next to ominous green waves as Lavant, treelike, looks on. I suppose its sincere, (or slightly funny) if a little shop worn, and an excuse for archetype and fantasy.

The story ultimately follows perhaps the requisite of its genre. There could have been a more interesting, if mundane, development of the story into its final 30 minutes, and yet it still works for me since I'm interested in the actors, and I circle around them, and so does the film with a modicum of energy and style. In its final camera take I reflect that I'm glad Lavant and Le Besco make movies. I'm better off for it.

Alex In Rags

[alex-825 · 3/10 · 24 September 2005]

I went to see this for Denis Lavant's face. He's up there with Kinski in my book in terms of a poetic cinematic visage. Anything he's in is worth watching based on this virtue alone.

Good directors know how to work with this and can make the movie be very rewarding. But unfortunately, there is nothing special here. The focus is on the character and the story. So we have a series of medium shots all throughout. This is a sad shame. He seems to know this. He locks his jaw with less vigor, and there is no pursing of the lips.

Notice the way he looks when in jeans. Lavant is the only 40-something man who can pull this off. I believe it's a posture problem. He has the frame of a 15 year old, but his mannerisms are those of an adult. Carax worked with this by making him wear those tattered baggy pants.

Lavant apart, this is a very good example of how not to make a movie. It lacks form. It might as well have remained the newspaper clipping it was inspired by. In fact, it seems like they took the journalistic approach: factual and logical. Not cinema.

Also, they quote his limp from _Lovers On the Bridge_ here, for the finale. Cheap shot. But it made me very happy.

"A Likely Story"

[gretsch-89824 · 1/10 · 3 April 2015]

Let's see; a 17 year old girl falling for a guy 2 1/2 times her age, 10x ugly to her 10x gorgeous, stupid beyond comprehension, a mentally disturbed teenage mind inside a 50 yr. old man's body ... what's not to like? With all that, the poor girl obviously just couldn't help herself. Wow.

The age difference is the least of the problems (not really a problem at all, by itself). But the characterizations of both protagonists were just so overdrawn, and in a very sloppy way. It was great that the directors let us see the lovely Isild Le Besco running like a gazelle on several occasions, but they made the viewers pay dearly for that privilege with their awful screen writing (the two were the same, if you look at the credits).

Definitely the worst French film I've ever seen, and in the bottom five of movies I've seen from anywhere.

Tragic love story

[jasontheterrible · 9/10 · 26 July 2016]

It is amazing the French can churn out so many well-acted, complex stories about relationships and American filmmakers cannot even get close. An unattractive loser is thrown a life-line by his wife's brother and given a job as a camp counselor (sailing instructor). The camp is aflame with currents of lust, rebellion and resentment. Camille is so angry about her own coming of age insecurities and controlling father who is living in the past thinking she should still be his little girl, that she despises him and attacks everyone. Everything she does now is to hurt him and assert control of her life, even if only symbolically.

She goes after the counselor who is a decent man but himself buried in troubles. She cannot go anywhere without flopping or showing her magnificent boobies. She is one part flirt and 9 parts hormonal nightmare. The gentle old guy submits and she leads him down a path of self destruction and lunacy taking herself out along the way.