Dealing with the sudden death of a loved one is tough at the best of times but when you, and he, are in your 20’s, the loss is that much harder to come to terms with.
Soon after Isidore Bethel graduated from Harvard and moved to France to studying filmmaking at École Normale Supérieure he received word from back home that Liam his best friend from childhood, had been killed by a drunk driver. He was just 23 years old.
Like most filmmakers who use their art as a form of therapy, Bethel started to make a documentary on Liam as part of his ongoing grief process. Bethel, an only child, immediately came out as gay to his liberal art-loving parents, who had no issues at all accepting their son’s sexuality.
They and Liam’s own parents feature very heavily in the film as Bethel explores his own feelings about their loss and how their futures will now automatically take completely different paths. He also involves Liam’s ex-girlfriend who although the pair had split up way before his death, had remained relatively close.
It seemed that losing his best friend so suddenly was the catalyst for Bethel’s determination to examine his own feelings in a very public way which would have been totally out of character for him prior to this. He intimately involves his French boyfriend in this self-examination, and despite their very public declarations of love to each other, we suddenly discover at the end of the film, this was simply not enough.
This highly personal piece of retrospection actually seems intrusive at times and even a tad excessive. However, its very authenticity will deeply move anyone who has suddenly lost a friend and feels that they too were deprived of an opportunity to share their innermost feelings.
Bethel is most definitely a very talented cinematic voice, and we are intrigued to discover what he will follow this very compelling documentary with.
Labels: 2018, documentary, grief
