Boys On Film: Director Benjamin Parent Talks It’s Not A Cowboy Movie

Boys On Film 9: Youth In Trouble is out today, and over the last week we’ve been catching up with some of the actors and directors whose LGBT themed short film are included in the collection, such as Prora’s Tom Gramenz and The Wilding’s Grant Scicluna.

Today we have Benjamin Parent, the French director of It’s Not A Cowboy Movie, a short about straight teenagers and their reaction to watching Brokeback Mountain. It’s a smart film, looking at ideas of masculinity and how actually being faced with homosexuality can change a young person’s ideas about it, especially if they’ve only previously thought about it as an abstract idea.

Here’s what he had to say:

Where did the idea for It’s Not a Cowboy Movie come from?
The main idea was all about the building of masculinity when you’re a teenager. It was funny to play with the emotions of a young character. At first, with Joris my co-writer, it was a comedy piece, a sketch. When I re-wrote a part of it a few years later, I added more emotion and meaning. Between the funny bit about confronting a young bully with the Ang Lee movie. It was the first draft. 2 years later, my father had his coming out. At this point, I knew that Cowboys was going to be my first short. A couple of years later, I rewrote 16 versions even at the last minute. I tried to give it more deepness and make it very personnal. It’s a movie about my family but no one can notice.

Did you spend much time with teenagers to make sure you got the way they talk correct?
I did a bit but most of the “talking right” approach is based on two steps: listen to the teens when they are in casting session. That’s the moment where you know if the text is flowing and how they would change some sentences to make them their own. The second step is one month of rehearsal: To get them to seem real and natural, I asked them to know the core of the text by heart. Meaning they had the liberty to start and end a line the way they wanted but they had to respect the core, the main idea, emotion and humour of the line. I let them use some of their words when it was going in the direction I wanted. And last but not least, work with terrific actors. Finnegan [Oldfield] is so convincing, sometimes I forget he’s acting.

Do you think the whole area of sexuality is more complicated for teenagers than it used to be?
Just after Cowboys, I worked on a mini web series, Puceaux (Virgins). It was a job from the french health department to help teenagers with their first time. It was about porn and the way it confused them. So yeah, the all sexuality area is more complicated. When I was a teen, porn already existed but you had to “deserve” it (ah ah ah). It was always an old VHS whom belonged to a friend’s dad and it was stolen… Now, you’ve got a smartphone and BIM! Porn for free! I don’t blame porn at all but it’s for adults not teenagers. Because a lot of them, especially the younger ones, don’t really get the fake part of those movies. It’s not reality. So in a way it’s more complicated with that free porn access – but now we can really talk about sex, there are less tabous than before. And I’m talking about heterosexuality. Being a young gay is still difficult because teenagers can be really mean. That’s a subject that moved me a lot and I’ll make a movie about it.

Where did you find the actors?
It took 5 casting directors and 5 months to find my prodigies. Garance [Marillier] is a pro, I knew from the start she’d be perfect with her deep deep teen angst. Leila {Choukri] was found by Emma, my casting director, in a street near her office. She has no experience and she’s a clumsy (she really broke her arm 4 days prior to the shooting). It was a perfect match because I wanted to be hurtfull by accident. It was a first time too for Malivaï [Yakou]. His brother was an actor, he was not but he nailed it. It was a lot of work but I was very confident because he has a very peaceful face, his character is all about listening and most of all, he was driven by my ace in a sleeve – Finnegan Oldfield. He was the last one to be cast. It took me 15 seconds to know it was him. He was exactly the character with his tormented eyes.

Normally LGBT themed films just look at sexuality from gay people’s point of view, but I thought it was interesting with your film, that it’s about straight people negotiating their feelings about gay ideas. Do you think that an underexplored area in film?
It’s a straight point of view about characters with a straight point of view. I can only talk with sincerity about what I know. And yeah I noticed that “gay” shorts are always made by gay directors and included gay characters. By using a character like Vincent (Finnegan Oldfied) I tried to show how a heterosexual bully works. He’s afraid about his own feelings, about looking weak and, in a sense, about homosexuality. When you’re a kid and you want to be a “real” man, you know you have to take your distance with homosexuality because it can’t be a model… It’s a very simplistic way of thinking but basically that’s that. Finally he discovers in daring watch that gay film, that it’s all about love. Gay love, heterosexual love, who gives a damn?

Likewise, kids with gay parents aren’t often seen on screen. Do you think that should be explored more?
One of my favourite movie is The Kids are Allright. That kind of film is rare but I’m pretty sure it’s gonna change. Recently, in France with the gay marriage, we saw that homophobia is still here and still dangerous. It’ll take time but those kind of movies will flourish. For my part, my first feature film will be about my dad’s coming out and how it made my brother and I better men (I hope it did… I think it did). All my work, for now, is focused on family and homosexuality. It’s beyond my own will…

Was it difficult to get the movie made (e.g. finding funding etc.)?
I would lie if I say it wasn’t! It was very easy. We had the CNC, which is a big thing in France and they never give money to comedy. And then we got Canal +. 6 months later, our first festival was la Semaine de la Critique in Cannes. We were blessed.

Are you a fan of Brokeback Mountain?
I am! I loved the movie and even reviewed it for a feminine magazine, And most of all, I offered the DVD to my dad without knowing at the time he was gay. True story.

What is it about that film that you think makes it work for both straight and gay audiences?
I don’t have the formula. I know only one thing – the movie is sincere. Sincerity touches everyone, no matter what. That’s the only thing that matters in my work. My first award was the Queer Palm in Cannes. I was so proud, it was like being knighted by the gay community.

Do you think that in reality Brokeback Mountain is a cowboy movie?
I think that’s a beautiful love story, very deep, very powerful. It’s like Romeo and Juliet, except the family issues are now their apparent heterosexualities.

Thank you Benjamin