YOU ARE NOT ALONE (CMV AN - MO [DVD] [1978]

I was really impressed after watching this movie. Selfishly, maybe I was thinking there would be more action between thecute boys. There wasn't a lot of it, but maybe that led to the quality and credibility of the film. Honestly, I loved many things about the movie. First, plenty of attractive young guys with long hair and tight, form fitting clothes. (Yes, I like both of those on young boys.) On to the main characters of the movie. They are truly what made the movie so amazing, so magical. I almost think it wrong ton call it a "gay" film. It is a film about to very beautiful young boys who become friends, and their friendship grows into an obvious physical attraction towards eachother. That is where this film excells. It is not a hard "throw you lover on the bed and bang him." Rather, it is a sweet display of desire and attraction. Love it when Bo, the taller, broader, older, handsome guy with lots cool curly hair smiles, and watches as adorable younger, sweet, slender Kim peddles his bike past, with his awsome long, silky blond hair. Also, Bo watches, smiling from the hall, as his cute young friend has a piano lesson in the living room. The amzing shower scene, with both boys nude, was very low keyed, Bo gently washing the back and shoulders of his young love. It could have been so much more graphic, but wasn't. Just like the party in the forest where a potential passionate kiss by Bo was passed over. I really found the movie believable for as much as it was, as what it was not. The love between the boys was so obvious. And I can see how they could be attracted to eachother. Kim, young, cute, sweet with all that hair!! And Bo. Taller, older, broader....well filled out for a boy his age. And that long,thick curly hair. I can see why they like each other. Also, i really loved the fact they were both truly boys. Neither feminine, overtly gay. Some much more i could mention but i wont. A lot has already been said in prior posts. I missed though, anyone saying of the obvious gentle attraction between the two beautiful boys. And the last scene, the kissing, huging, Kims shirt coming off. That alone was worth buying the movie, for me. Agian, it seemed to show the passion between the boys, and how gently and lovingly it was expressed. It really showed me how two boys can love each other, and not making just about hard, nonstop sex! Gay boys, or just two beautiful boys loving each other.

Of all the coming of age movies I've ever seen, this one goes to no.1 on my list, way ahead of any other. (avoid 'Genesis Children'...total waste of time and money). Described as a groundbreaking classic, this wonderful 1978 danish movie is totally honest, unpretencious and beautifully acted. For those of my generation, you are taken back in time where the flower child era was at it's best; you are almost uncomfortable watching the teachers with long hair and so open with the teenagers; at an experimental boarding school (avant garde), a boy who is gay is infatuated by a blond schoolmate (in the photo); they become friends, secretly at first, but then decide to be open about it, much to the dismay of some parents and school principal; there is nothing sordid or 'dirty' about it; simply affection, brief nudity, but the story would have been just as good without it; they are not the only ones discovering their sexuality; many other young teens have their first love with girls who work at the school; it brings you back to that awkward time, early teens, when you dont quite know how to approach a girl you like, let alone have your first kiss; the two main characters are the only ones who experiment with homosexuality (except for one other who tries both). There is the school thug, two clans who face off at some point, but the main storyline, two boys who become close, romantic friends, is to be commended for the honesty, sincerity and boldness (even by today's standards) for touching on a subjet matter that is still too often taboo in some countries. I was frankly surprised it was sold in the USA, to be honest. The story is sweet,interesting and well worth seeing; it, indeed, broke down many barriers in it's day and, despite the naive attitudes of youth in the flower power era, is still a great eye opener for those who had no clue about how teenagers behaved (and still do), with pranks, school, adults and most of all, the other kids they like, weather they are boys or girls. A must see for 'coming of age' fans; excellent cinematography, naive script true to the era it portrays, a simple, muti-layered story where you will recognise yourself in one or many of the characters; 5 stars!

I first heard about this movie in 1980. I was in my very early twenties. Time passed, and was not able to obtain a copy and I forgot about it. Browsing through You Tube, recently I found it by chance. When I saw the preview I went to my amazon found it, and ordered it. It made me feel good to relive the feelings and emotions of my boyhood and especially the crush I had on one of my best male friends. From the start of the movie it shows how boys that age relate to one another in a pure form of honest male friendship. The shower scene is perfect and is an innocent act of male puberty. Growing up in the early 70's made me feel isolated and alone with these feelings. Why is it so wrong to feel this way for your own sex. It's not wrong. It is beautiful. I believe its part of loving yourself. Studying through history one comes to the conclusion that this ignorant way of thinking here in America, had to be instilled by ancestors of the Mayflower! Only in Europe could a film of this subject matter and, its beauty have been made. Repressing those feelings for so many years left me sad and miserable for years to come. Some of us outgrow it to eventually love a woman and, have a family and some of us don't! We as a society must come to terms with the facts that it is common in young males. This society tries to make you feel shameful and make you believe that it is morally wrong and against god, that is a crime in itself. Have people forgotten the Kinsey reports. Because of all this puritanical bull in this part of the world it gives me a bitter taste of ignorance.This film is beautiful and wonderful. Its not only sexual but also shows togetherness, friendship, and for me an important lesson in loyalty and being part of the team. Had we as boys back then been able to express ourselves with each other, we might have turned out a little better. Kinsey in his study of male sexuality found out that repressing those feelings and not being able to fulfill a desire makes you only want it more. I recommend this film to all young men out there who have felt these feelings as i did growing up! Currently at these crossroads of life it is so redeeming and rewarding to finally fine out that indeed, i was not alone!

Being a gay person, and also being incredibly interested in Denmark, I found this film to be a wonderful and largely unique viewing experience. The story is a simple one: two boys at a live-in school, one a student, one the headmaster's son, dig one another, and the film is an extended series of sequences showing this transformation from platonic to affectionate. There is nothing sensationalist or exploitative about the film's contents, and the sexuality is largely restrained. In fact, heavier notice is given to one of the rebelious heterosexual student's rather obsessive need to post female pornography all over any bare surface, which makes a nice contrast between the "deplorable" nature of homosexuality as the (minority) hyper-conservatives in Denmark saw it at the time, and the depths of average human sexuality across the entire sexual spectrum. In the end you're left with a wonderful and touching recording of youth during an era in European history that has largely passed, and a time capsule of this period of time. It also shows just how far behind this liberalization the United States continues to lag; this is the sort of film that, even today, wouldn't be made for cinemas in America, and probably won't for some time, as it humanizes the young gay experience. This is a thoroughly rewatchable film, great rainy afternoon fodder for those stuck inside. The long nature shots, and isolated views of ponds and waterways in the second half of the film that serve as dividers between emotionally-heavy scenes, are lush and hazy and everything that a memory is. A really great movie that I'm very glad I discovered.

Overall, this is a very good movie about teenage boys coming of age, it is not one-track gay love or sex focused, but rather deals with several teenage issues such as: friendship, boy's pranks, school life, the usual rebellion towards strict authority, banding together and supporting each other, acceptance, getting picked on and there is an element of innocent gay teenage love that runs throughout the film so this film is appropriately tagged gay romance. The film is very much a timeless piece; it is definitively relevant today even though it was released in 1978. It also demonstrates the cultural differences in relation to gay movies with teenage boys; Europe versus North America in the sense that this film is not afraid to show frontal nudity and it is done in an artistic film manner versus a pornographic film manner. I could easily imagine myself (when I was a normal everyday teen) in the nude scenes as they were very much normal "real life" scenes that many teens have probably experienced and do not come across as staged for the camera. Also refreshing is the liberal attitude of the Danish, they are obviously not afraid to make a film with teenage nudity knowing that it is quite innocent and honestly reflects life. In many parts of North America today, particularly in areas with strong conservative religious undertones that exist, this would probably be criticized as being particularly disgusting because you happen to see a scene with frontal teenage nudity, even though it is not filmed in a sexual or titillating manner. I am happy this film exists because maybe it shows heterosexuals that homosexuals are not so different in what they need in life and at the same time shows them that their support and kindness is much appreciated and helpful than the often seen hatred and bigotry. I think that it is nice to have a gay-themed movie that is sweet to watch and that you can relate to thinking back to when you were a teenager without it being another depressing tragic gay movie.

Ah, "You Are Not Alone", a film notorious among a certain group for a scene of two boys showering together. Yes, it certainly has that, but thankfully it also has much, much more. My first thought with this film was that it was rather like Dazed & Confused - Criterion Collection , except Danish and gay. Otherwise there are a LOT of similarities. You several story threads, some drug use, plenty of music and lots of sexuality, in addition to a huge supply of long-haired 1970's boys. The film centers around a group of boys at an all-boys boarding school in Denmark. We follow several of them through their adventures, but mainly focus on a student named Bo and the son of the headmaster, Kim, who he falls in love with. Other plots include a cafeteria worker who apparently enjoys deflowering underage boys, two boys who often fight with each other, a pair of other boys getting it on in the showers (to prove that, no, in fact the main characters are not alone), some townies who cause problems for our heroes, and one boy who gets suspended for display large amounts of pornography, which leads to a good ole (as it were), fashioned student uprising. I was actually surprised at how good this film was. I cared about all the characters, not just the main two, and was interested in the fates of all of them. I was also quite pleased that unlike in most gay fiction, we don't have anyone get gay-bashed, commit suicide, or wind up dead. The only thing that even slightly got on my nerves with this movie were the songs which I am sure sound great in Danish, but don't work so well when you're reading English subtitles. Overall this is a good movie I'd recommend to just about anyone, gay or straight. Especially teenagers, as there's several good lessons to be learned from this film about standing up to authority and tolerating other people's sexuality. It's a lesson more people can and should learn.

Amazing coming of age love story. I liked it a lot

You Are Not Alone is a good movie, but do not recommend purchasing it. Seems that all the DVDs are defective, freezing out the last parts of the film. Surprise Amazon is still offering it. Have had a four-time attempt to get a good copy.

Ottimo film che racconta la storia di due adolescenti che vanno oltre la loro amicizia .Consiglio di acquistarlo

portrays a true and honest reflection of a relationship in a world where many people are judgemental and intolerant

The movie was as expected in excellent condition no scratches or issues.

Bon, d'accord, il faut pouvoir visionner un dvd zone 1, et si l'on ne comprend pas le danois, mieux vaut prévoir pas mal d'arrêts sur image pour déchiffrer les sous-titres anglais. Il faudra aussi dépasser un certain agacement devant une grosse impression de déjà-vu: l'un des moteurs de l'intrigue, la révolte des élèves d'un collège de province contre un directeur caricatural de puritanisme psychorigide, cela a été fait mille fois avant et depuis.De fait, on perçoit l'influence de "If" (Ramsqy Anderson) et le poids d'un contexte "sixties" qui date sérieusement. Ajoutons à cela que la naïveté candide du petit Kim (fils du directeur, il lui sera beaucoup pardonné) frôle parfois de très près la niaiserie pure et simple, et l'on conviendra que ce film exige de notre part plus d'un effort. Oui, mais... il y a aussi des influences plus subtiles: celle de l'écrivain français Tony Duvert, celle du Blow-Up d'Antonioni, et celle de Truffaut... Et surtout, une véritable originalité dans ce film dont l'audace ne vaut pas que pour son temps, et conserve un potentiel d'incitation à la révolte bien perceptible et bien utile. L'extraordinaire qualité d'image, à la fois réaliste et poétique, qui capte à merveille la luminosité nordique, une excellente direction d'acteurs (le personnage de Bo, l'amoureux de Kim, est un alliage étonnant de sensualité et de détermination), la maîtrise consommée des effets de groupe,un thème musical envoûtant, drôle et élégant, tout cela est mis au service d'une idée simple et forte: à la raideur des dogmes et des tabous, tout comme à celle des préjugés haineux, s'oppose la rectitude de l'amitié, de l'amour et de la solidarité.Confronté aux structures familiales, sociales et religieuses qui voudraient lui faire croire le contraire, chacun de nous devrait se dire "tu n'es pas seul", parce que c'est vrai, et que le désir est ce vecteur qui nous ouvre à toutes les solidarités. La scène finale, où l'espoir d'un compromis boiteux proposé par les adultes se fracasse au son de la porcelaine brisée dans la joie sérieuse d'une prise de pouvoir par les forces (non-fumeuses!) du désir et de la dignité, est dans son outrance même un moment libératoire comme on en connait peu. Un très grand film.

It can be difficult getting what you want - this film is the only dvd I have ever known to get oxidised, over a ten year period, so that it no longer plays after 40 minutes. Reading another review here alerted me to the risk of other faults, so I bought a copy of the German edition, only to find it has a slight blur whenever anyone moves fast, or that the image jerks, say in a tracking shot. So it's back to ordering another copy of this tla releasing edition, and hoping it'll be a good copy ... It's a great pity the film is not released in the UK, but then, so much of value isn't. Particularly anything historical and of gay interest - the gay companies only put out what's brand new. The ineptitude extends to the cover, which quotes a misleading remark from The Seattle Times likening the film to "the best style of Truffaut" - on the German box, it is "the early style of Truffaut" whose early films are really not all that gentle. Les quatre cents coups is really a painful film about adolescence, far from the tone of Lasse Nielsen's Danish film; however it is definitely in the Truffaut class. It focuses on a group of teenagers in a boys' boarding school. There are a few young women on the kitchen staff who seem to be an extension of the learning body. The school is run by a fairly draconian headmaster, but actually has absorbed a lot of the freewheeling values of the 70s. Flower power suffuses every frame, still, and brightly coloured tops, and long hair. It is about two things: youthful rebellion, as embodied by one pupil, Ole, who puts pornographic images up in his room and almost scuppers the school's chance of getting a new gymnasium. He later repeats it in a more public space, is expelled, and brings about a revolutionary fervour in the other pupils. This is elided with an exploration of gay love, primarily between 15-year-old Bo and 12 year-old Kim, who happens to be the headmaster's son. Sexuality in general is a theme, treated both lyrically and frankly. The very young age of the main protagonists - Kim is younger than everyone else we see in the school, who range from about 14 to 17 - gives the film a radical feel that is nevertheless totally in the spirit of truth, I would say. The film highlights a brave new world in which feelings and tenderness are paramount, and the warmth that comes off the screen is remarkable. It was a brief moment in gay liberation when youth could be regarded quite like this - now the pendulum has swung rather the other way, It poses far-reaching questions about how we bring people up - what feelings are 'appropriate' at different ages? Western Europe is still much freer than many other places, but on a world scale, the picture is hardly rosy for youthful love, either of a gay or straight persuasion. People in America being proud of being virgins, gayness excoriated in many countries, and anything between boys of this age being automatically branded as abuse - but is the adult world any more enlightened for it, are we really going in the right direction at all? Or are we entering a new dark age? These questions are only tangentially posed by the film - it isn't presenting itself as all that serious, and the lyricism would cave in if it were too polemical. It is more like dandelion seed, blown on the wind. Utterly charming in many scenes, with a soundtrack of unmistakeable 70s appeal and openness; there is a drunken picnic in the woods, the girls wearing long tiered skirts; a lesson discussing the addictive nature of hashish; a history lesson on democracy and what it means to youth; creative drama that ends up looking like Pina Bausch, in an experiment to raise awareness of bullying. Also a confrontation with some thugs, one of whom ends up being forced to kiss Ole's bottom - while his clothing is just so cool - all the gear is, with 70s underpants of the sort that made life more fun as the outer layer came off - before lycra, in other words, streamlining everything (the underwear favoured by modern robots). These boys are not above playing pranks - there is a whole group of them who come to life over the course of the somewhat rambling screenplay, but in the end it is a bigger vision that it reaches for, and one that makes you think: yes, this is how school days should ideally be. It is a far cry from a modern film like Laurent Cantet's The Class; also an outstanding film in its way, but how we have fallen from this tenderness, this love. What a horrible edge there is now, how confrontation has become the norm in a way that lacks all proportion. To compare the two just makes you despair at how politicised, uptight and unpleasant the world has become - yet the other is still possible underneath all that ... isn't it? Beyond this, a part of the appeal is looking back and connecting with feelings one had in early adolescence oneself. The director does seem to have quite a lot of shots of 15 and 16-year-old boys in their underpants but really this is only a true reflection of what you would see if you were at a boys' boarding school in the summer, as opposed to being given the parents' tour. For a gay male, it can only tap into feelings one had and take us back, grateful to have felt these things, and still seeing them as a yardstick of truth.