Following hot on the heels of BPM Beats Per Minute the powerful seminal French Aids movie that swept up every major César Award and at Cannes too last year, comes a new film from queer French auteur Christophe Honoré that tells a heartbreaking story from that same period. His movie is set in 1993 before the introduction of protease inhibitors and when been diagnosed with HIV usually was a death sentence. It may lack the sheer audacity and the brilliant shockingness of BPM, but this touching melodramatic tale is still a very sharp reminder of how the pandemic brutally curtailed so many young lives.
Honoré very quickly allows up to see that his two main characters are both hopeless romantics in their own way. HIV positive Jacques (Pierre Deladonchamps who won a Cesar for Stranger By The Lake) is a successful Paris based writer approaching middle-aged who has a penchant for younger men. On a working trip to Rennes he ducks into a cinema and notices 21 year old Arthur (Vincent Lacoste) in the dark, and they instantly hit it off.
They agree to meet for a date later that evening and there is an immediate chemistry between the two. Even so Jacques deliberately holds back from the possibility of getting involved, but Arthur who had been dating a girl and having sex with men on the downlow, uses the experience to finally come out of the closet.
The two keep in touch and it soon becomes increasingly clear that Arthur would like nothing more than to move to Paris to be with Jacques. However Jacques is brought up sharp about his own mortality when his friend and ex lover Marcos dies of AIDS, and he is made aware that his own health is fading too.
Jacques also has a young son known as Lou-Lou who he fathered with a friend and with whom he shares custody . He is aware enough of the effect that how his impending death may affect him, and is not prepared to add Arthur to the mix.
The two men both seem to be in love with the idea of being in love with each other, and whilst young Arthur is more than willing to throw caution to the wind, the articulate Jacques overthinks things in too much detail, and even though he is a hopeless romantic, he is still prepared to let his head rule his heart.
The electrifying chemistry between the two lead actors doesn’t just add such an impressive reality to the emotional and moving story, but their authentic performances have you completely engrossed to the very end. No spoilers here, but it is a story about AIDS so have kleenex handy.
Sorry Angel will certainly resound (maybe too much) for audiences who personally experienced loss throughout this painful period in our history, but it also serves a very useful purpose of reminding us, and others, of how this totally changed the face of our Community, which we should never ever forget. May seem weird in light of the subject, but this movie is a sheer joy.
