The Jokers Films
“Jim Queen” arrives in theaters this Wednesday, June 17.
Due to a lack of tickets sold, Lady Gaga’s concert was canceled. Worst: Ricky Martin just married Kristen Stewart. Do you find it hard to believe? Us too. Yet this is the astonishing, but no less biting, story told in Jim Queena crazy animated film to be seen in theaters this Wednesday, June 17.
His story is that of a certain Jim. Icon of the Parisian gay scene and gyms, the latter saw his life turned upside down the day when, without warning, one of his abs failed. The belly is waiting for him. It’s panic. He runs to the emergency room. The result is clear: Jim is ill. He contracted Heterosis.
The Hété-what? Heterosis, this strange virus that transforms homosexuals into straight people. In the capital, it is a scourge. For some, it results in a loss of clothing style. In others, an absence of libido and a devouring passion for football. No one escapes it, not even Jim, to whom everyone has turned their back.
Everyone except one of his subscribers, Lucien. The nice, effeminate boy with the body of an ephebe has lost none of his admiration for the arrogant colossus. Together, they set off on a quest through the bushes of the Tuileries, the Rosa Bonheur, the Berghain and other historic cruising spots to find a mysterious cure.
Check out the trailer below:
Epic worthy of a video game, where our heroes climb the levels to meet fetishists, bears and drag queens, Jim Queen of Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané is a declaration of love to the gay world peppered with unfiltered winks, ranging from a militia of torturers called the “Gaystapo” to a cock ring “taken for a napkin ring».
Homophobia, Christine Boutin…
Outrageous and joyful, this animated film for adults is like its childish drawings: it does not take itself seriously. A certain sense of self-deprecation, which its authors nevertheless invoke to titillate with humor a slew of hot topics, such as the dangers of the extreme right or homophobia in France.
When they started writing seven years ago, “there was a real lightness“, breathes Simon Balteaux in the production notes. “At the time, there was not this political hardening around usadded Marco Nguyen. Today, it resonates differently. We had to adapt».
How? Like a character inherited from Christine Boutin and the Bayer laboratories (which are accused of having knowingly sold products contaminated by HIV in the 1980s), the two friends decided to make a fuss, to overplay, as before them several cult comedies, including the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
It doesn’t stop it. Outside of LGBT+ circles, they fear the reception of the film. “I’m afraid of finding myself in a sterile debate, like “it’s a film against straight people†, when we are the opposite of this approachs’inquiète Simon Balteaux. I hope that his remarks will not be diverted by too basic a reading. »
Chemsex and conversion therapies.
That would be ignoring the rest. Because in addition to conversion therapies (banned in France since 2022, only) or the current chemsex epidemic neglected by public policies, Jim Queen does not fail to highlight what undermines the gay world from the inside, including the stigmatization of homosexuals suffering from HIV which continues.
The same goes for the cult of appearance, and all that is ageist, grossophobic and virilist. Ditto for the divisions within the LGBT+ community, still very largely dominated by some of the most visible representatives of the acronym, namely gay, cis and white men.
An aspect on which the film makes irony, without however correcting the situation. You will not see any lesbians or trans people in Jim Queen. Its authors debated it internally, but say they encountered a major obstacle: financial constraints. “We wanted to add subplots, but we didn’t have the means“, details one of them.
Partly financed through a crowdfunding campaign (thanks to which they raised more than 119,000 euros), the project – which nevertheless benefited from great visibility at the last Cannes Film Festival – also tells something of the economy of queer cinema, affected by subsidy cuts and the sidelining of platforms, according to them. They haven’t found anything to cure the industry, but a very good remedy for gloom.
