Popular reviews

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  Review by Mike Kennedy ★★★★

  This week’s movie night choice was, in many ways, the flip side of writer/director/actor Jacques Nolot’s previous film, La chatte à deux têtes (Porn Theatre (2002). In that film, Nolot plays an unnamed 50-year-old man who tries to strike up a sexual relationship with the young projectionist (Sébastien Viala) in the porn theatre where he spends his days.  All of this happens as the patrons hook up with each other and with the hustlers who hang out there looking for business.  The camera of cinematographer Germain Desmoulins prowls the aisles like another punter in the choreography of desire that surrounds the pair.  Much of the dialogue comes as the patrons tell each other snatches of their personal stories (real or imagined).

  Nolot…

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  Review by Mark Thiedeman ★★★★★

  John Waters called it “the best feel-bad gay movie ever made.” As this is my personal favorite genre, I can say he might be right (though there have been a couple extraordinary downers this past decade). In any case, what a movie!  And, trigger warning, it gets harder to watch the older you get.

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  Review by Abrom ★★★★½ 2

  Des films putréfié comme ça, entre le calme cadaverique et la douceur. C'est vraiment très beau. Nolot joue super bien. (Peut grave monter à 5)

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  Review by Lingy

  A brutally slow film depicting the daily routine of an aging gay man reminiscing about his past and meeting up with old friends after the death of a lover. I'm probably the only person in the world that was blown away by this film but I loved the mundane realism and stark honesty of the main character's situation and relationships. A splash of coal black humor helped too. The last scene sealed it for me. A rare work of uncommon power that begs to be underrated.

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  Review by Matt Fisher ★★

  Sort of like Death In Venice but even more boring if you can believe it.

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  Review by skythesheep ★★★★★

  Nolot's final film as director (I do not imagine he'll make another at this rate) is a significant progression from his previous two as a character study on a similar character. In Before I Forget he stars as an ex-hustler whose age, health (especially as an HIV+ gay man), and waning relationships with friends and lovers leaves him a bitter existence as he writes, fucks, eats, and tries to sleep his life away. The opening shot of a white frame which zooms into a black dot until it engulfs the screen displays the pathway of despair to follow while regularly undermined by a wry humor to displace the pain. DP Josée Deshaies and Nolot amplify this effect by shooting the…

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  Review by saturnino ★★★★

  A memória afetiva atrelada ao valor de certas transações e a dificuldade de se adaptar à nova moeda — pensando em francos e negociando em euros. Outro cigarro; outro dia. Até que os pombos caguem sobre nossos túmulos.

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  Review by Eugene McCrann ★★½

  First twenty minutes are some of the most up close and personal that I've seen from a director/actor, spending a vast duration on establishing intimacy - seeing the man naked, hunched over, gut out, bowels shaky - and pushing us into a psychological space of vulnerability. Gets creaky after that, once I realized all the protagonist wanted to do was sit in fancy restaurants and reminisce about the redundancy of his youth.

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  Review by Jeremy Heilman ★★½

  I almost want to chalk my take on this one up to festival fatigue, since I absolutely adored the opening and closing shots, and found much of what came between downright amusing. Following the pathetic exploits of an aging gay Parisian writer, the movie has both a sense of wit about the sad predicament of being old, homosexual, and alone, and a sharp eye for the sorts of practical details that fill up his days (e.g. discussing the price of hustlers with his friends or beating a traffic ticket after an embarrassing bathroom-related accident). Similarly sly is the way the film, so centered on transactions throughout, equates its protagonists therapy with his romps with his tricks. Ultimately, on Day 8 of the Festival, sitting the film's endless dialogue scenes was a major test of patience, with little of the visual assurance that I dug in Nolot's Porn Theater.

  *TIFF 2007 Reivew*

  44/100