Product Details

• Actors: Axel Philippon, Célia Pilastre, Roman Girelli
• Directors: Alessandro Avellis
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: WATER BEARER FILMS
• DVD Release Date: July 7, 2009
• Run Time: 74 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002AFX58M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,008 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Paris, 1968. After a failed attempt to gain national acceptance for gay rights Marc finds himself adrift, dealing with the joys and agonies of being gay at a time when homosexuals had no place in society. In a park pick up, he meets Andre and they begin a relationship that will last off and on for the next three years. Andre is a small town factory worker who is not sure of his own sexuality. He turns to Marc to fill a need he knows he has, but sticks to his claim that he will marry later in life. Their passion is heated but is also tempered by Marc s fierce advocacy for gay rights, a fight that will lead him to butt heads with his father, a Paris police officer.
Made as an homage to the FHAR, the Front Homosexual d Action Révolutionnaire, the first gay rights movement if France, Ma Saison Super 8 is a touching testimony of an important moment of contemporary French history

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Entirely Honest Film, September 17, 2009

By 

Alfredo R. Villanueva (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ma Saison Super 8 (DVD)

This film blew me away. It was like reliving my life, except that it was not Paris, it was New York in the 60's and 70's. What I liked the best was the total honesty in depicting the different factions and interactions between gays, straights, lesbians, bisexuals, one-timers, and the gradual disappearance of the revolutionary spirit as they are all absorbed into dominant discourse. Beautifully done, even down to the bothersome movie camera (I remember a time when absolutely everything had to be filmed). The protagonist is absolutely beautiful. And please, do not compare this movie to Bertolucci's major turkey.

3.0 out of 5 stars A Frenchified "Stonewall", February 18, 2010

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ma Saison Super 8 (DVD)

This was an account of gay rights activists in 1970s France. There's a lot of parallels to the film "Stonewall."

I want to mention the most memorable moment. A gay activist was arguing for gay rights during a leftist event and straights beat him up and said leftism and gays don't mix. An important gay international rights group started due to homophobia in the Soviet Union. Though possibly gay-friendly now, Cuba once rounded up its gays into camps. Author Helen Zia once recalled how Detroit labor activists of color told her she was forbidden from hanging with lesbians if she wanted to be with them. Though the ACLU has a gay rights project now, during the 1950s it refused to touch the issue. For anyone who's ever been told, "You can't be one of us if you are gay or support gay rights!", then this scene will make your hair stand up and give you flashbacks.

The US gay rights movement of the 1970s was heavily influenced by feminism and liberal activists. You see those groups in this French work, but one issue is conspicuously missing. Remember all the Black and Puerto Rican queens in "Stonewall"? This film is entirely white. That's fine: France isn't as diverse as the US. However, all the 1970s movements in the US were influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and not even hearing the word "race" in this film was an eye-opener.

This film was clearly made on a limited budget. The camera comes way too close to ppl's faces. Two of the actors looked so much like each other that I found it confusing. There are women here, so this has that Will-and-Grace feel. When Ebert and Roeper reviewed "Bend It Like Beckham," they warned American audiences not to let the strangeness of the title turn them off. The title here refers to the camera the main character records events on. Imagine if it were called "My Polaroid Summer" or something like that.

The Napoleonic Codes got rid of sodomy laws a century before English-speaking places did. Remember in "Maurice" when a psychologist told Maurice he should move to France or Italy if he couldn't change his sexual orientation? Well, some say gay rights and sexual orientation are not the divisive issues in France as they are in the US, so it was surprising to see gays organizing around gay rights when I've heard they really didn't do that as much.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars VERY DISAPPOINTING, August 1, 2009

By 

Peter Fraser "cinerama" (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ma Saison Super 8 (DVD)

Ultra slow moving film. The shakey hand held camera work and the day for night photography (blue sky at night) was very annoying to watch.Bertolucci did it far better and sexier with his erotic film THE DREAMERS which handled the same subject.