House of Boys (2009)

A glamorous, colourful coming-of-age story that follows the dramatic journey of Frank, a high school kid in 1984 through an exciting world of sex and music, when his deep new passion is ... See full summary »

Director:

Jean-Claude Schlim

Writers:

Jean-Claude Schlim (screenplay), Christian Thiry (screenplay),

Stars:

Layke Anderson, Benn Northover, Udo Kier

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Layke Anderson	...	Frank
Benn Northover	...	Jake
Udo Kier	...	Madame
Michael N. Kuehl	...	Christopher
Gintare Parulyte	...	Rita
Sascha Ley	...	Frank's Mother
Chris McHallem	...	Frank's Father
Natalie Slevin	...	Amanda
Kelly Jake	...	Boyd (as Jack Kelly)
Loïc Peckels	...	Young Jake
Emma Griffiths Malin	...	Carol (as Emma Griffiths-Malin)
Elias McConnell	...	Young Hippy Boy (as Elias Comfort)
Roya Zargar	...	Young Hippy Girl (as Roja Zargar)
Marco Wirges	...	Bouncer 1
David Imper	...	Bouncer 2

Storyline

A glamorous, colourful coming-of-age story that follows the dramatic journey of Frank, a high school kid in 1984 through an exciting world of sex and music, when his deep new passion is suddenly turned into a struggle for courage, facing a new disease - the "gay cancer" and becomes deep, true love in the expectancy of his friend's horrible death and beyond...

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Plot Keywords:

love | coming of age | gay | male prostitute | reference to jimi hendrix | 

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Taglines:

This glamorous coming of age story tells the dramatic journey of Frank in 1984 through an exciting world of sex and music, when his deep passion is suddenly turned into a struggle for courage.

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Genres:

Drama | Musical | Romance

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Details

Country:

Luxembourg Germany

Language:

English French German Luxembourgish

Release Date:

29 July 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dom chlopcow

Filming Locations:

Cologne, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Delux Productions, Elsani Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

American author Laura Albert penned a draft of the screenplay in 2005.

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Soundtracks

"Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)"
Music and Lyrics by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson
Performed by Roy Orbison

User Reviews

An amateurish mess and an insult to the history of HIV/AIDS

If good intentions were everything then this film would be great. A comedy drama about the early years of AIDS set in a decadent Amsterdam cabaret/strip club. Unfortunately when a film is so ineptly conceived and made on every level, it ends up doing a disservice to the issues it raises and when it gets exposure in a prime spot at a major Gay and Lesbian film festival whose future is under thread, then it does a disservice to the future a gay film festivals as well.

The best I can say about the film is that is is professionally shot, but otherwise nothing here works. Why is the film set in Amsterdam when obviously nothing was shot there ? I'm all fine with low budget film-making but if there isn't any money, why not adjust the style of the film to the budget. Instead this sorry mess keeps aiming high only to fall short again and again. We get melodrama ( a death is foreshadowed by a clip of Sirk's Imitation of Life, just so we get it), garish flashbacks, a musical numbers, gross out humour, but all of it is done badly and nothing coheres into consistent tone.

The main culprit here is the terrible screenplay, full of one dimensional gay stereotypes we have seen a billion times before. Everything is sign posted and spelt out in terrible dialog. The two uncharismatic leads must have been purely cast for their abs, because the acting here is so embarrassingly bad, it would put a school play to shame. I have no idea how Stephen Fry (whose phone call to France got some unintentional laughs) and Udo Kier let themselves be roped in. The only thing that looks reasonably professional are a couple of animated birds by German comic artist Rolf Koenig, but what they are doing here I'm at a loss to understand.