Film: Men For Sale
Year of production: 2008
UK Release date: 23rd May 2011
Distributor: Bounty
Certificate: TBC
Running time: 145 mins
Director: Rodrigue Jean
Genre: Documentary
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Canada
Language: French
Review by: J Michael Bradley
Rodrigue Jean is a man with a career so varied you could almost label him a polymath. A student of biology, sociology and literature, he originally trained as a dancer and choreographer. After dabbling in a few shorts, he made three features in a decade, melodramas all. He has now turned his considerable talent in an altogether different direction.
Action Séro Zéro is a Montreal community organisation providing free healthcare and HIV prevention services. They helped to give Rodrigue Jean access to some of their clients, to better cast a light on the work, experiences and history.
The film follows the lives of eleven men who sell themselves to make, or rather scrape, a living. Filming for hundreds of hours over the course of a year, and working with a skeleton film crew to gain the men's trust, Jean has distilled the footage down to an eye-opening two hour documentary.
These young men have resorted to prostitution to dull pain, feed drug habits and exist on the outer fringes of society. Mindful of the stigma they attract, Jean merely points the camera and lets these people talk. Presenting the film chronologically, we are asked to enter their world...
The documentary has come of age in recent years, the best known examples by the like of Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me and the forthcoming The Greatest Movie Ever Sold) and Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man and the recent Cave Of Forgotten Dreams) garnering plaudits, awards and, most importantly, audiences. Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room (2005) shows just what a powerful film can be made with an interesting subject, lots of talking heads and great editing. Rodrigue Jean clearly aspires to make a thought provoking, provocative film, wanting us to see and hear harrowing stories and individuals whilst hoping that we don't simply turn off. The stated aim was to make an “unflinching portrait with neither voyeurism nor false sympathy, (that) acknowledges those society prefers to ignore.” Quite what would constitute false sympathy is unclear, for the stories told here, chronologically over a year, are, for the most part, potentially some of the saddest you are ever likely to hear.
Eleven main subjects are too many for the viewer to develop any sort of bond or, indeed, coherence of narrative with. Jean has opted not to caption any of the participants and with the free-flow, year in the life style he adopts, some appear far more regularly than others and you are left wondering, at times, who is whom and what it is they've experienced since you last saw them. This lack of information is, perhaps, indicative of Jean's desire to maintain the distance, and keep himself and the viewer free from the voyeurism and false sympathy he is so keen to avoid, but it sure does make it very confusing and hard to follow.
Of course, you do have sympathy. It would be a cold-hearted viewer who wouldn't - although some may find their compassion straining when one of the young men gets some money, spends it immediately on jewellery and a phone, only to sell these hours later to buy drugs. That he has a child on the way could also cause you to hold a somewhat stronger opinion of him, but Jean would rather you just watch and take it all in.
On the whole, most of the subjects are quite unlikeable and almost certainly unlikely to elicit much in the form of empathy. The exception is the funny and likeable Danny Brown who's in his forties, not his twenties. Possessed of an older head on broader shoulders, Danny used to be a porn star in straight, bi and gay movies and now makes his living performing for a few hundred dollars in the occasional gonzo porn flick, as well as servicing clients in his modest home, still trading on his little bit of fame. He's honest and funny, but also in the film the least, which is a real shame. He brings some very welcome light relief to the proceedings.
Men For Sale does feel like a bit of a lost opportunity. You could argue that a subject matter such as this demands the totally neutral approach, allowing the viewer to hear these stories and make their own conclusions without them being tainted from the off by the filmmaker. That's okay for nature documentaries, but the human story, in all its guises, demands a human approach. At almost two-and-a-half hours, it’s literally too long by half.
Worthy, honest and unflinching, Men For Sale is ultimately cold, harrowing and hard to connect with. These are stories, situations and individuals who need society to cast a mirror at them. This is not that film. And it’s very long. A missed opportunity. JMB
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