WATCH: This long-lost erotic masterpiece offers a glimpse into the life of a French adult film superstar
Le Beau Mec is often remembered as one of the high-water marks of this era—hailed for its evocative imagery and its unflinching glimpse into the gay male psyche—but it was long considered lost… until recently.From director Wallace Potts (who would later helm 1989’s schlocky B-movie cult classic Psycho Cop), Le Beau Mec is a “docu-fantasy” portrait of hustler, athlete, and actor Karl Forest, who is recognized as France’s first gay adult film superstar.The film follows Forest all around Paris as he offers up real, candid reflections on his own life, from his early years working off the streets to his more recent notoriety, also sharing his philosophies on gay life and male beauty—especially his own (no one ever accused him of being modest!).As the star shares stories, Potts intercuts them with highly stylized recreations of his past exploits, positioning each as an almost mythical sexual encounter with various men, from soldiers, to blue-collars, to even some of Forest’s biggest fans.And Forest is far from the only talent involved in the film.
We’re treated to rare footage of his live stage show, a cabaret act featuring a scintillating striptease, choreographed by famed queer ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who was said to be lovers with Potts at the time.We chat about his approach to a gay icon in his wildly ambitious new film.On top of that, Le Beau Mec was lensed by acclaimed French cinematographer François About with additional work from Barcelona-born Néstor Almendros, who came up through the French New Wave scene and won an Oscar for best Cinematography for his work on Terence Malick’s Days Of Heaven.
That’s quite an impressive team of collaborators for a p*rno!Though Forest sadly passed in 1984, his legacy lives on. For a number of years, Le Beau Mec only existed in low-quality VHS rips, passed around amongst social circles, which only added to its mythic quality.But after its negatives where discovered in—of all places—a garage in Montgomery, Alabama, the.
