San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, August 5, 2001
Wesley Morris, Chronicle Staff Writer

In the scheme of things, the guy in Ducastel and Martineau's new movie has a better deal. "The Adventures of Felix," which opens Friday at the Castro, is less about suffering and more about living. It owes a debt to Hermann Hesse, Mark Twain and Jacques Tati. It's a jolly picaresque whose hero (Sami Bouajila) takes a vacation from his boyfriend and embarks on a road trip from the northern coastal town of Dieppe to Marseilles, looking for his estranged father and meeting an assortment of strangers who assume the roles of certain family members.

Felix is Arab, HIV-positive and deeply addicted to a trashy soap opera that none of his road buddies can stand. The filmmakers' agenda comes into sharp focus: Joy is spread like jam, and the proof of life is that the lightness of being is bearable after all.

"Well, we don't want a lot of suffering in our films," says Martineau, who, with Ducastel, spoke to The Chronicle during a recent visit to San Francisco. Ducastel and Martineau do not consider themselves activists. Boyfriends, yes. Intellectuals, sure. Polemicists, not really. Still, a passive social strain on AIDS runs in both their films: the politics of representation. When the two seized upon the idea that Felix would be HIV-positive, they knew the second film would have a kinship with the first.

"We met a lot of people when we did 'Jeanne' who told us that it should have been less fun because it is a film about AIDS and a guy who is HIV- positive," Ducastel says. "But we met a lot of people who said they'd like to see something more contemporary about AIDS, which is relevant to their lives."

The casting of Bouajila (who played Annette Bening's Palestinian lover in "The Siege") may pose as many questions as the film's treatment of a person with AIDS. "It's obvious that the more things you give to a character, the less it focuses on one point," Martineau says. "In France, people spoke more about his being Arab than that he was HIV-positive. It's not very common that there are characters of Arabic origin in French movies. I think it was exciting for us to try to capture something about that from the French culture. "

Loosely, the story of Felix is a chapter from Ducastel's life. He hasn't seen his father since he was 7.

"I don't remember asking my mother to see him again," he says. What he does remember is the anguish caused by a few biological inevitabilities. "It was strange. When I was 14, we had this lesson about genetics. The teacher said, 'If your father is bald, you have a lot of chance to be bald.' I said, 'Oh no! ' "

Incidentally, that teacher was right. Ducastel's hairline has ebbed to the middle of his head.

Off and on, Ducastel would wonder whether he should try to see his dad again.

"The fact that I did it once and it was a bad thing made me not really want to do it again," he said. "But I was interested in the idea. So I said maybe through a character we can experiment with things in a different way.' "

Ducastel met Martineau at a brunch at the home of some mutual friends six years ago. Ducastel showed up with one of his short films. Martineau arrived with a pineapple on his head.

"He looked like Carmen Miranda," Ducastel says.

They fell in love and gave birth to "Jeanne."

Their next project will likely be about a 15-year-old ice skater who keeps a video diary. While making it, they plan to seek funds for an ensemble piece for 11 actors that explores the question: What if a fairy tale and reality met?

Well, for starters, it would be an ordinary day in the Ducastel-Martineau household.

"The Adventures of Felix" The movie opens Friday at the Castro Theatre. E-mail Wesley Morris at wmorris @sfchronicle.com.

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