It’s been a spotty year for queer cinema, at best—until now. Before I Forget—a French film written, directed by and starring Jacques Nolot that is screening as part of the Chicago International Film Festival—is, hands down, the queer movie of the year. Nolot’s film is an unsentimental portrait of Pierre, a 58-year-old former hustler trying to hang on in a world that is swiftly passing him by. Battling the long-term effects of HIV and the inevitable encroachment of old age, not to mention the disappearance of his livelihood and supportive social network of johns and fellow gigolos, Pierre shrugs his shoulders, lights yet another cigarette and gets on with life. Much of the film is made up of observational scenes so long they seem to be happening in real time, and there is no music score and a minimum of dialogue. It sounds like a drag, doesn’t it?
______________
Image from: Lust Caution
______________
But Nolot’s film is anything but a drag (and it’s beautifully photographed to boot). Pierre’s comme si/comme sa attitude and circumstances are leavened by a droll sense of humor. Pierre and his aging friends also fascinate because they’re characters we don’t see represented in the movies, gay or straight. Gay hustlers are supposed to be young and hunky and handsome, outfitted with witty repartee and impeccable style. We see Pierre was that way late in the film, when he glances at a picture of himself, young and gorgeous, in a photo album left behind by his dead sugar daddy. But he is completely unsentimental about that past and it’s what ultimately arms him to deal with an unforgiving future.
As noted, much of the film is spent observing the reduced circumstances of Pierre’s world, but in Nolot’s hands the everyday tasks aren’t boring. Perhaps that is because Nolot doesn’t distinguish between the mundane and the audacious; simple acts like Pierre reading a book, taking his medication or opening a (nother) package of cigarettes are interspersed with a matter-of-fact visit from a young hustler that features graphic sex or a quickie blowjob Pierre gives a delivery boy.
The conversations between Pierre and his cronies—as to be expected—focus on money. Fear of losing everything and being tossed back to those Mean Streets is foremost in the minds of these aging gigolos. When Pierre’s lover of many years dies, having promised him the bulk of his fortune, the family (unsurprisingly) quickly steps in to sweep aside any claims Pierre might make on the estate. In one of the film’s most unflinchingly honest scenes, Pierre and another gigolo visit the lover’s estate auction and he points out pieces of jewelry, artwork and other items he was promised without a hint of nostalgia for anything other than the loss of income the objects could have brought him. In a few broad strokes, we see how quickly the bourgeois world that supported Pierre for years moves on to the next beautiful boy toy and how Pierre the realist expects nothing less. Nolot emphasizes this when Pierre takes up a young friend’s offer to go to a nightclub in drag. Pierre’s ‘what the hell’ response to his circumstances ends the movie with what may be one of the most emotionally powerful scenes since the two former child-abuse victims bonded at the conclusion of Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin.
‘Nothing’s more boring than an old queen with a head cold,’ Robert Preston quipped in Victor/Victoria back in the early ’80s, getting knowing laughs from both straight and queer audiences. We’ve been conditioned to disparage, pity or entirely ignore older gay men within the community from the moment we became a community, and have usually depicted ourselves this way in our own movies. Before I Forget—tough, flinty and refreshing in its emotional honesty—is a great film with a tremendous performance from Nolot that refuses to go that route. C’est magnifique! In French with subtitles.
Screens Sat., Oct. 6, at 5:15 p.m. and Sun., Oct. 7, at 4 p.m. at AMC River East, 322 E. Illinois, and Wed., Oct. 10, at 4 p.m. at Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema, 2828 N. Clark; www.chicagofilmfestival.com
Ang Lee, Academy Award-winning director of Brokeback Mountain and the earlier queer-themed The Wedding Banquet, is back with Lust, Caution. An epic tale of espionage set in Shanghai against the panorama of World War II, the movie focuses on a band of college theatre majors who transform their flair for the dramatic to the political in an attempt to bring down a traitor in service to the mysterious Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu Wai). The lengths to which this band (which includes Wang Leehom’s ambitious character, Kuang Yu Min) will go—especially the lovely Wong Chia Chi (Wei Tang)—is audacious. In a variation on Hitchcock’s Notorious, Wong impersonates the wealthy wife of an exporter who catches the eye of Mr. Yee (whose own wife is played by the ever-gorgeous Joan Chen). Complications arise at first but, eventually, Wong and Mr. Yee become involved in an extremely heated affair (garnering the picture an NC-17 rating) that brings with it a surprising test of loyalty for both.
Lee’s movie—claustrophobic, lush (aided by the sumptuous production design and Alexandre DesPlat’s ravishing musical score), and a touch florid—feels as old-fashioned as the classic movies it builds on. (There are hints of Casablanca and other wartime pictures as well.) But two sequences—the sudden, unexpected murder of the traitor (thrilling and violent with hints of Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain) and the first full-on sexual encounter between Wong and Mr. Yee—firmly update the classic references for modern audiences. ‘If you pay attention, nothing is trivial’ Mr. Yee comments at one point, stating the essence of Lee’s character-driven and very entertaining movies, this one included.
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com. Readers can leave feedback at the latter Web site where there is also ordering information on my new book of collected film reviews, Knight at the Movies 2004-2006.
Read about the Chicago International Film Festival on page 28.