MILD THINGS

REVIEWED - WILD SIDE: TWO musical influences hang over this beautifully made French drama. The film's title alludes to that ageless paean to polymorphous sexuality, Walk on the Wild Side, and, sure enough, this story of a transsexual's journey home revisits themes explored in Lou Reed's tune.

And the picture begins with a terrific performance of Fell in Love with a Dead Boy by the justifiably voguish Antony and The Johnsons, whose theatrical androgyny seems very much at home in this environment.

But this sombre, stately film exhibits neither Lou's wit nor Antony's talent for melodrama. Shot with characteristically harsh voluptuousness by Agnès Godard, Wild Side is ultimately a rather grim business. There is much to admire here, but little to enjoy.

Stéphanie (Stéphanie Michelini), a pre-operative transsexual working as a prostitute in Paris, heads to Northern France to care for her dying mother. Shortly after her arrival she is joined by the other two members of a surprising menage a trois: Mikhail (Edouard Nikitine), a Russian immigrant, and Jamel (Yasmine Belmadi), a north African hustler who shares her flat.

Stéphanie, a still, confident presence, calmly goes about the business of making peace with her conservative mother while managing this other surrogate family. Further complications develop when an old friend - her first love - makes an appearance.

Sébastien Lifshitz, director of the similarly elliptical Presque Rien, has assembled a talented team of collaborators. The score by Jocelyn Pook has an impressive grandeur and Michelini, who had never acted before, brings a moving dignity to her central performance.

Edited with a wilful disregard for continuity, the film eventually takes on the quality of a waking dream. Sadly, the pace is so lugubrious that many viewers may be enjoying dreams of their own long before the story staggers to its conclusion.