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THE MOVING PICTURE BOY ARCHIVE

L'ÎLE ATLANTIQUE

 LIle Atlantique cover of Arte magazine
Finnegan Oldfield as Jean-Baptiste in L'île atlantique, on the cover of the 10-16 December 2005 issue of Arte magazine, issued by the film's co-producer Arte France.

 


Title: L'île Atlantique
Production Type: TV Movie
English translation of title: Atlantic Island
Year of Release: 2005, the film was first transmitted on the evening of 13 December 2005 at 10.45pm.
Director: Gérard Mordillat
Principal Boy Actors: Finnegan Oldfield (as Jean-Baptiste), Léo Poupard (Philippe), Martin Jobert (François-Gérard), Ivan Assouline (Hervé), Louis Fresse (Joachim), Elias Magnin (Alain), Nathan Franck (René), Laurent Lazanave (Marc), Jean-Charles Deval (Camille)
Genre: Drama
Country of Production: France
Length: 91 min
Language: French
Availability: A digital file exists, albeit with far from the best picture quality; be sure to get the file whose audio has been repaired so as to be in sync with the picture throughout. Until the movie gets an official release, this is the best that is available.
English subtitles: A serviceable file is available from opensubtitles.org (uploaded by 'diogenes').

Synopsis
A band of boys between the ages of 7 and 14 slip from their homes at night in order to burgle houses on their island, less for the loot than for the excitement and as an act of defiance. But when a woman dies of a heart attack during one of these burglaries, a commissioner is called in from the mainland to investigate.

Further information
The production company Arte issued a movie brochure to coincide with the transmission of the film, which can be viewed by clicking on the image below (text in French, PDF opens in a new tab). You can also view the programme with the text translated into broken English by AI, by clicking here.

Lile atlantique programme cover

Source material
Based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Tony Duvert (1945-2008), the main difference between the novel and the film adaptation is that in the latter the sexual content of the original novel has been eliminated. Specifically, in the novel, Marc (14 years old) has sex with Julien (10) and Hervé (13) masturbates (and at the end of the novel fellates) his cousin Joachim Lescot (8). François-Gérard (12 in the novel, though he looks younger in the film) masturbates whilst admiring his own body in front of the mirror, and later in the novel pedicates Camille (11). None of this is portrayed in the film, though the relationship between Hervé and Joachim is hinted at. Despite these omissions, the film nevertheless succeeds in capturing much of the spirit of the novel.

Below left, film tie-in edition of novel, Les Éditions de minuit, 2005, cover photo from film; below right, first English edition, semiotext(e), 2017, cover art by Louie Otesanek.

   Lile atlantique 2005 movie tie in edition         Atlantic Island 1st English translation 2017

 

A Youtube tribute to Louis Fresse, who plays Joachim in the movie, can be viewed here.

Screenshots
(Clicking on a still will open the full size image in a new tab.)

Lile atlantique 1   Lile atlantique 2

Lile atlantique 3   Lile atlantique 4

Lile atlantique 5   Lile atlantique 6

Lile atlantique 7   Lile atlantique 8

Lile atlantique 9   Lile atlantique 10

Lile atlantique 11   Lile atlantique 12

Lile atlantique 13   Lile atlantique 14

Lile atlantique 15   Lile atlantique 16

Lile atlantique 17   Lile atlantique 18

Lile atlantique 19   Lile atlantique 20

 

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