Explicit and gritty, this French cruising drama was one of the most controversial films of the ’80s

For the first time in years, audiences will be able to experience one of the most controversial gay films in French cinema history.

Gay director Patrice Chéreau was a celebrated artist who dabbled in film, theater, and opera, but even with all of the acclaim, his 1983 drama The Wounded Man (“l’Homme blessé”) was met with as much criticism as it was admiration.

Written by legendary gay author and activist Hervé Guibert, the film opens on a quiet town in coastal France. We’re first introduced to Henri (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a young man who sneaks away from his family at the train station to go cruising. In a private bathroom, he encounters gruff hustler Jean (Vittorio Mezzogiorno) beating up an older businessman named Bosmans (Roland Bertin)—at Bosmans’ request.

Despite the danger Jean presents, Henri is entranced and finds himself following the swindler down the rabbit hole into a dark criminal underbelly of his hometown, with the curious and masochistic Bosmans never far behind.

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With plenty of male nudity and graphic sex scenes, The Wounded Man was certainly pushing the boundaries of taste at the time. Not to mention, these were still the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and some queer filmgoers were put off by its often violent depiction of gay male intimacy. At a time when positive depictions of the LGBTQ+ community in the media were practically nonexistent, this was not the kind of representation many people were looking for.

Still, Chéreau’s film had its fans—it made its premiere at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in 1983, and would even go on to win the César Award (basically the French equivalent of an Oscar) for Best Writing.

So, how does The Wounded Man‘s transgressive vision of the gay lifestyle hold up nearly 40 years later?

Related: Queer director Gregg Araki remembers the sex scene that shocked and angered audiences, 30 years on

Well, if you’re in the New York City area, you’ll soon be able to decide for yourself. The queer cinema purveyors at Altered Innocence have recently given the long-buried film a gorgeous HD restoration and currently have plans to screen it at the city’s Anthology Film Archives from January 5-11th.

As Altered Innocence puts it, The Wounded Man is “a revelation,” a finely crafted drama that channels a “transgressive, unsanitized sensibility…  The result is a rich, strange, and sumptuous film leading us to exhilaratingly mysterious and unfamiliar spaces both physical and psychological.”

You can watch the HD trailer for the film below:

The Wounded Man screens at New York City’s Anthology Film Archives from January 5-11th. Stay tuned for further screening information or potential streaming details.

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