Sauvage is a film that could have been exploitive and melodramatic, but Vidal-Naquet’s direction and his script, helps keep the film grounded in a sense of realism.

| Oct 10, 2024

This film is an observational visit during which Vidal-Naquet achieves an amazing feat: he makes palpable the phenomenal boredom that weighs on street hustlers, but it’s never monotonous for the audience.

| May 9, 2023

Provocative, tender and moving, this is a profoundly human portrait of an occupation that society considers dehumanising.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 1, 2021

This is a well-made movie that's somewhat pointless, but also kinda sweet in a depressing way, or vice versa. It's the type of film whose enjoyment (or even profundity) may well mostly rest on just how cute you think the lead is.

| Oct 15, 2020

A terrific character study and Felix Maritaud easily gives one of the year's best performances.

| Sep 30, 2020

An entertaining but dark take on the Parisian male hustling scene.

| May 28, 2020

Félix Maritaud's performance is such that the audience immediately connects with him. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Oct 1, 2019

It is a very interesting movie both visually and dramatically. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Sep 27, 2019

The film is erotic, shocking, tender, brutal, funny, & bears repeated viewings. 4 times so far for me. Just watch Leo cuddle up with a septuagenarian widower while a photo of the man's wife looks on kindly. & so forth. Sex for survival. Sex for bliss.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 9, 2019

Lying bare, exposing all, Leo's world is introduced in an abrupt manner which comes to define the matter-of-fact nature of this film

| Aug 9, 2019

Sauvage/Wild is a hard watch at times, mostly thanks to Félix Maritaud's uncompromising and unflinching portrayal.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 15, 2019

Frequently as beautiful as it is bruising, never moralising but not lacking in empathy for its subject, either.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 12, 2019

The director conceives his character as an essentially free man. It's a first original and surprising work. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Jul 3, 2019

Frank, intense and emotional, Sauvage transmits, through its splendid protagonist, a fragile and indomitable vitality. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 17, 2019

A complicated portrait of a character that Genet or Pasolini would have applauded. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Jun 14, 2019

Maritaud fills [the screen] with his perfect mix of charisma and vulnerability. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 14, 2019

Sauvage/Wild earns a place among the descendants of Pasolini, Fassbinder and Genet. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 11, 2019

The central thrust of this graphic French drama may be a radical notion to some: that a sex worker can enjoy the wild, carnal freedom that his or her job can provide, while also being vulnerable to its dangers.

| Jun 7, 2019

"Sauvage/Wild" is compelling and moving - and much of that is because of the magnetic Maritaud.

| May 31, 2019

What's the old saw about war? That it's long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror? Tweaked a little, the line serves pretty well as a description of Sauvage. All that's required is the addition of "and/or emotion" at the end.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 31, 2019