Arte, Please Remove This Film From Arte’s Streaming Library

In the French comedy The Runaway from 2009, a gay man in the midst of a midlife crisis abducts and seduces a 16-year-old girl he believes he has fallen in love with. A film that isn’t merely aging badly; it’s a genuine provocation, and one hopes it will soon disappear from Arte’s Mediathek.

For Armand (Ludovic Berthillot), in his early forties, life offers little beyond the routine. As a tractor dealer crisscrossing the southern French provinces, he hustles tractors and other gear to the local market. Even his regular trips to the area’s cruising spots and secret sex dates with married clients no longer provide the thrill he craves. “You’ve got to take what comes,” his buddy tells him, but Armand longs for something more meaningful.

One evening, when he saves Curly (Hafsia Herzi), a junior high student, from a group of predatory teenagers, Armand believes he has fallen for the girl. Could he be not gay after all? With Curly’s family and the moral guardians alarmed, even a court-ordered ankle monitor for sexual offenders doesn’t stop the ostensibly homosexual man from approaching the girl inappropriately. Together they embark on an audacious flight from Curly’s parents and the police, who do not approve of their illicit “relationship.”

Not a Question of Age

French comedies still carry a reputation for being different. They’re often seen as stubborn, offbeat, and darker in humor than comparable productions. Yet rarely does a film leave you as stunned as The Runaway, and one wonders whether anyone in 2009 really laughed at this premise. Not a question of age, certainly not.

A gay man abducts a minor, and after taking an emboldening substance, he has sex with her multiple times and finally abandons the girl when she becomes too domesticated—when she starts cooking for him at home. What would compel openly gay director Alain Guiraudie, who also gave the queer indie hit The Stranger by the Lake and the drama Misericordia, to treat this material as suitable for comedy?

In The Runaway, homosexuality is alarmingly equated with sexual interest in minors. “He’s gay, after all,” says a police inspector during the film. “So it’s only natural that he might be attracted to younger people. The old gentlemen can’t be satisfied forever.” Did such dialogue ever earn a laugh?

A Heterosexual Old-Man Fantasy

There’s a prevailing sense that the gay central character exists primarily to cloak a heterosexual old-man fantasy, one that the film indulges in even more explicit sex scenes. Curly warns him, “Be careful you don’t come inside me,” as the overweight man makes his move. He dismisses her concern: “Don’t worry, I don’t have any diseases.” “That’s not what she means,” the girl retorts. Indeed, she has a point. So far, Armand hasn’t had to worry about accidental pregnancies. When he tries to shift to anal sex with Curly, the student objects, “You should at least ask first.” “Not necessarily,” Armand replies.

It’s alarming that the few contemporary reviews of this film don’t address how profoundly problematic the premise and its presentation are. The film is described as a clumsy robber tale with a faintly comic edge, at best. At the end of the movie—spoiler alert—Armand returns to the gay cruising life. When an older man makes a pass at him, Armand politely declines, noting that he’s simply too old for him…

If you’re looking for laughter, you’d best head to the cellar. Because The Runaway belongs there—locked away, once it leaves the Mediathek. Fortunately for Guiraudie’s broader body of work and for the landscape of French comedies, it remains, in a sense, a runaway from the filmography as a whole.