Paris-set gay two-hanr hs home wh highly explic openg. DVD film review by Tom Birchenough
Contents:
MORN FRENCH GAY LOVE STORY
Thanks to the brave young actors and the cematic verve of the directors (a real life uple, bt known prevly for the gay road trip movie The Adventur of Felix, 2000) what follows their anonymo enunter, is an unexpectedly movg and even sweet movie about buddg relatnships, personal rponsibily, and ank honty. Is HIV still the biggt threat gay men nowadays? Such is the se wh Paris 05:59 - Theo & Hugo, a remarkable French movie (wh English subtl), wrten and directed by the real-life uple of Olivier Dustel and Jacqu Marte, that begs wh a lt-filled, "harr, harr" enunter between two young gay men at 4:27 a.
The dynamic that follows is not only believable, but reflective of oft-harsh reali among timate gay men the Age of AIDS. ” — e almost 20 mut to a dreay choreographed ee-for-all the basement of a gay Parisian sex club.
” Unlike that film’s characters, however, Théo and Hugo have thoroughly explored each other’s bodi before openg up their nsequenc of that will e the men to fight and the film to shift to an almost clil tone as the reali of gay romance — and how Paris seeks to protect s more reckls lovers — temporarily rail the uple’s growg fatuatn. Olivier Dustel and Jacqu Marte’s “Paris 05:59 Theo and Hugo” is a French gay film that opens wh an 18-mute y scene. But today, exceptns-that-prove-the-le like “Weekend” and “Stranger by the Lake” notwhstandg, such films rarely pe cema’s gay ghetto.
FRENCH, GAY, AND L NEON: WHY DON'T LOOK DOWN CHECKS ALL MY BOX
Pl, gays of the characters’ age are likely to fd curly outdated, sce PrEP is never mentned. 59 is the bt gay movi I’ve seen sce Girdie’s Stranger by the Lake and a le of films like those of Girdie’s or Travis Matthews’ I Want Your Love and others that feature explic sex as part of the narrative whilst keepg the foc on feelg. Inially Felix’s posive stat seems no more or ls fg than his beg om Dieppe or unemployed or gay or fatherls or half-Arab… the fact Félix is HIV+ is a major element drivg the events of the film’.
Few external characters t on this reverie of disvery of the self, the other, and of feelgs they’re sure of but n’t expla: there’ s a nice and helpful doctor at the hospal, a homophobic elrly man at the A&E, a Syrian refugee at the kebab shop who tells them how lucky they are not to grow up a war-torn untry.
I thought the film was terg to what perceived to be the worst of s dience, s homophobia, and by terg to that stead of a gay dience, the majory of whom would have trouble regnisg such a scenar, flirtg wh homophobia self. By that I take him to mean that ’s ank about the thrills, physil and emotnal, of sex but don’t rce everythg to sex, that als telligently wh the dangers around sex for gay men at the moment, even wh the availabily of the triple batn therapy the film discs so telligently, and dramatis them nvcgly; that spe of all the sexual explicns, a sire for sex so powerful young people and the easy availabily of sex for young gay men, all of which the film treats telligently and valoris, the film also dramatis, romantilly, a sire for love.