Category Archives: Thriller

The Times’ ★★★★★ Review for EASTERN BOYS

On 6th December 2014, the day we released EASTERN BOYS in the UK, the wonderful Wendy Ide from THE TIMES published the following ★★★★★ review of our ‘nail-biting’ film. Have a read below:

Some films take a while to engage their audience. Others, like EASTERN BOYS, grip you from the first frame. This constantly surprising picture by Robin Campillo (writer of THE CLASS) opens enigmatically. The camera hovers high above the Gare du Nord in Paris; it might have been shot by a surveillance drone. We pick out a group of young men, eastern European immigrants, looking for the opportunities that a crowded station offers. Daniel, an older man, moneyed and suited, gazes at Marek, one of the younger men, with something between hunger and longing. They arrange a meeting at his apartment the next day.

Then the tone of the film changes dramatically – the whole gang turns up. He watches as they drink his booze and empty his home of everything they can carry. It’s a brilliant sequence – sexually charged; fluid; dangerous. The camera gets in close, weaving through the dancing bodies at a party that the host has no choice but to join. It’s a credit to Campillo’s confident writing that despite this trauma a persuasive relationship grows between Daniel and Marek. And that, in a meticulously structured, nail-biting final act, Daniel will do anything to secure a new life for Marek.

– Wendy Ide, The Times

Why you should see EASTERN BOYS

At Peccadillo we have literally hundreds of films recommended to us every year and there just isn’t enough time to see them all. EASTERN BOYS was recommended by a sales company that we regularly work with, was premiering at the prestigious Venice Film Festival and the previous work from director Robin Campillo indicated he was definitely someone to watch, but the title of the film and the subject of Eastern European rent boys made it all sound so… 90’s.

It would have been very easy to skip the 9am market screening, but we’re glad we didn’t, because the film was definitely one of the best of the year and in Venice it picked up the Horizon Award for Best film – but that was after we had acquired it.

Eastern Boys Final UK Quad

EASTERN BOYS opens with what can be described as a classic cruising scene. Daniel spots Marek hanging out with friends at the Gare du Nord station in Paris and virtually stalks him until he gets him alone, agrees a price and arranges for the young man to come to his apartment the next day.

When Daniel opens his door it’s to a young boy called Marek, the trap is sprung and then “that scene” happens. It’s the scene that everyone who has seen the film talks about, a celluloid moment that is impossible to erase and is certain will go down in film history as one of the most memorable moments in film – ever.

EASTERN BOYS is both an edge of your seat thriller and an intimate exploration of the evolution and meaning of love, it seamlessly moves between one genre and the other toward an unexpected but ultimately very satisfying ending. The film is one hell of a journey and one that Peccadillo is very proud to bring to you.

So please seek out those few cinemas brave enough to show something different to mainstream holiday fare (there are fewer of them every year) and settle back and enjoy an utterly brilliant cinematic experience.

Director Robin Campillo will be in London to present the film On Friday at The Curzon Soho and on Saturday at The Hackney Picturehouse, click below for details of these and other screenings around the UK

For more and to book tickets: http://bit.ly/EasternBoysCinema

Feburary’s Must See: Stranger By the Lake

Peccadillo Pictures are thrilled to be behind the critically acclaimed and widely admired gay cinema sensation of 2014; Alain Guiraudie‘s intoxicating blend of bold homosexual erotica and compelling psychological thriller, Stranger By The Lake (L’inconnu Du Lac).

Stranger By The Lake has been praised in countless publications and chosen as a highlight of many must-see lists of the year – Time Out and French film journal Cahier du Cinema, Little White Lies, to name but a few – and it was awarded a five star rating by Empire. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it went on to win the award for Best Director, and the Queer Palm award. It also currently holds an 100% score on go-to film rater Rotten Tomatoes. Guiraudie – one of France’s most accomplished auteurs- is now on his tenth feature and finally earning his place in the art-house limelight. So what, you may ask, is this fuss about? The reasons are multiple.

There’s the atmospheric setting; a picturesque, serene lake in France during a balmy summer, which also happens to be a cruising spot for gay men. A setting that is at once erotically exposed and secretive. When the film gives way to mystery and suspense, the sense of place transforms from a place of natural, pastoral beauty to something more eery and sinister. Of the cruisers, the film focuses on Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps), a highly sought after cruiser in the spot. After several mindless encounters, Frank swims past Michel (Christophe Paou) and rapidly falls into love – or lust – with him, despite warnings from middle-aged Henri, a fat and disillusioned loner he has befriended by the lake. After seeing Michael commit a terrible act of violence, Franck’s unflinching passion threatens to disrupt his moral integrity.

There’s also how celebratory it all is of homosexuality and the male form. It would be a trying effort to find a more sexually explicit art-house film than this, (yes, even Blue Is The Warmest Colour) and a franker portrayal of gay sex so utterly devoid of any inhibition or apology. Likewise, the voyeuristic quality of the sex scenes, plus the treatment of the suspense, expertly echoes Hitchcock; a similarity many viewers are enjoying. The film also moves effortlessly from a sensual art-house film into a murder thriller. Not to mention, there is somehow humour in there too, in the form of an overweight and overtly optimistic cruiser named Eric, always hopefully trying it on with his superior looking fellow naturists. The comedy somehow blends in expertly well, in a film which you wouldn’t expect it to at all; leading this film to become a wonderful and unique hybrid of comedy, romance, erotica and murder thriller.

We could go on, but it would be wiser to believe the hype and experience this absorbing sexual thriller for yourself, in cinemas from 21st February.

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