Frameline47: Le Beau Mec

We’re thrilled to present a pair of newly restored masterworks of the golden age of X-rated cinema: Wallace Potts’ Le beau mec and San Francisco iconoclast Curt McDowell’s Loads.

Lost for decades before a print was discovered in an Alabama garage, Le beau mec charts its titular heartthrob (Karl Forest) through a dreamscape of erotic fantasy—from outdoor exploits with fellow soldiers, twink cruising at the gym, onstage self-pleasuring at a cabaret, to a labyrinthine fuckfest at a Parisian fetish club. As the titular ‘handsome guy,’ Forest (also seen in Philippe Vallois’ queer classic Johan) plays Jean-Paul Doux — a Narcissus-like French hustler with a brutish, sculpted exterior. Doux narrates his own sexual history alongside ruminations on male beauty (not least of which his own) and desire.

Legendary for both its onscreen heat and its behind-the-scenes history, Le beau mec notably featured uncredited, but unmistakable contributions from two of director Potts’ paramours: choreography by dancer Rudolf Nureyev and camerawork by Oscar-winning cinematographer Néstor Almendros (Days of Heaven; The Blue Lagoon). With additional photography by François About (Equation to an Unknown), Le beau mec* will screen in a dazzling new 4K restoration by IndieCollect in collaboration with Gerald Herman and the Estate of Wallace Potts.

*Preceded by “Loads“, a 20-minute lurid confessional by Curt McDowell (Thundercrack!) capturing his adventures with straight boys and the hospitality he extends to them. Restoration courtesy of the Academy Film Archive, with thanks to Melinda McDowell.

Presented as part of Frameline47 International Film Festival.