Another Gay Movie: Ma Vie En Rose

"Another Gay Movie" is a series of posts contributed by TNG gadfly and frequent commenter "Adam Isn't Here."



Tranny-stories are sad stories. Stories about young kids getting fucked around by a cruel and unforgiving world are sad stories. Belgian stories are sad stories (despite the evidence that the Smurfs, Asterix and TinTin would present to the contrary). So, by inductive reasoning, it is safe to say that Ma Vie En Rose, which is about Ludovig, a seven-year-old, Belgian transgendered boy, or garconfille as he would call it, is a sad story.

Being the only outspokenly homosexual kid in my high-school presented some issues, but at least I was always sure of my gender. I caught flack for being “girly” but I knew I wasn’t a girl. Don’t get me wrong—I like flipping through Vogue and cutting down people’s outfits as much as the next stuck-up queer, but the absolute last thing I want is to go through life teetering around on a pair of high-heels and wasting all my time (and money) on make-up. Also I really like my dick. Like, a lot.

Getting called a fag for listening to Tori Amos or whatever faggy thing I was doing at the time didn’t hurt that bad because I knew I was a fag and if listening to Tori Amos was a manifestation of that, then it was one I could certainly deal with. My inside matched my outside so it was just a matter of time before I could spring-this-shitty-town and head down that long yellow brick road to the big city in the sky that was full of fags just like me (never happened, at least not like that. But that’s another story).

Trans-kids don’t even get it as easy as that. Even if you feel sure of your gender internally (as little Ludovig seems to be) you still have to convince the world of it. And forming an identity that you feel is right isn’t necessarily just a matter of time. I imagine it to be pretty grueling and confusing and that it would make me feel angry and sad at the same time. Or maybe I just think that because of this movie.

It all begins with a happy family moving into their happy new house, in a happy new neighborhood. They’re throwing a happy party with all of their happy neighbors and the weather is perfect and everything is just fucking great. You know when the happy bar is set this high in a movie that it’s only an indication of how low it will go.

Time to meet the neighbors! Here’s dad, he’s Belgian. And Mom too! And the lovely first born son! And a daughter too, isn’t she pretty? And who’s that, that just arrived? In the princess dress? Oh that’s just Ludovig, our transvestite son. They send little Ludo (that’s what they call him, isn’t that so cute!) up to his room to change and everyone can laugh it off. This time. But Ludovig keeps on showing up in that same goddamn princess dress, and always in the most dramtic way possible (born to be a queen, this one). First the big block party. Then the school play. Then in the neighbors’ dead daughter’s wardrobe. Oh, mon dieu.

Well Ludovig’s transgressions don’t sit well with Joneses (or should I say les Bertrand) next door and it pretty much ruins all of their lives. The parents are at each other’s throats, and the other siblings don’t know what to think. One particularly heartbreaking scene (is this a spoiler?) shows Ludovig getting beat on in a school locker-room, while one of his brothers restrains the other from helping him. Even his “liberal” grandmother (who is first introduced as the paradigm of indie-movie quirk, all “If you wanna sing out, sing out”) can’t let Ludo be.

Obviously it’s even harder on Ludovig. He knew what he wanted. When he grew up he would be a girl. When he finds out that that isn’t exactly how it works, he falls apart too, escaping into brightly-colored fantasy world with a kind-of kick-ass soundtrack. It’s called Le Monde de Pam and it’s Ludovig’s favorite TV show. It kind of reminds me of how I wanted to move into Jem’s orphanarium when I was seven. When everything gets a bit much, he just closes his eyes and he and Pam fly around le monde together.

It takes a long time of stuff getting worse before it ever gets better. Ludo gets subjected to all the same bullshit as you would expect. He gets sent to therapy, he gets ostracized at school, he gets blown off by his little boyfriend, he gets blamed for everything that’s gone wrong.

There are a few rays of hope, and the story isn’t a totally tragic one in the end. His therapist finally tells him what I’d been shouting at the screen for an hour already and he finally finds a real friend. But man oh man are things tough for him, and he’s not even a teenager yet.

Verdict: Hard to tell. I’m pretty biased on this one. Honestly, this is the fifth time I’ve seen it. I saw it for the first time at a very specific point in my life, and now every time I hear that music in the opening credits I think of Hernan, and Luisa, and oh-no-not-Marco, and being an exchange student. So I have fond memories. And I think you should watch it.

Next Week: There’s nothing left to say about Brokeback Mountain, so I’ll watch the other gay Ang Lee movie, The Wedding Banquet. Though you could argue that all Ang Lee movies are at least a bit gay.