[A] strikingly different and oddly funny French drama about a 60-year-old former hustler-turned-writer whose later years aren't exactly golden.
Comment
07/18/08
Before I Forget (2008)
86 %
Reviews Counted: 14 Fresh: 12 Rotten:2 Average Rating: 6.8/10
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Synopsis: Acclaimed French actor Jacques Nolot (PORN THEATER) directs and stars in this drama about an aging gay gigolo. After his wealthy benefactor dies, he struggles to keep from falling back to the streets. But, with countless temptations at his reach, it's uncertain whether he can overcome their... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Jacques Nolot, Jean-Pol Dubois, Marc Rioufol, Bastien d'Asnieres, Gaetano Weysen-Volli
Reviews
1 - 14 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Before I Forget is, in the broad sense, 'gay-themed'. But it's also one of the loveliest, most direct and most devastating pictures about aging that I've ever seen.
07/18/08
Not a lot of ground is covered, but that might just be the point. The end of days are near, and the film is the interim itself, watching a man wind down ever so slowly while trying for a few last gasps to stave it off.
07/18/08
An unblinking portrait of a complicated, solitary gay man who has outlived his working years.
07/18/08
Top Critic
With verbose and eloquent characters (let alone the fog of cigarette smoke), Before I Forget won't easily shake off the label of a "French film," and all that that implies.
07/18/08
It's a simple-looking film with a complicated center. But there's a kind of sadness in the film that remains untapped, perhaps because Pierre himself isn't ready for it.
07/17/08
It's hardly a rosy picture of what it's like to be gay and 60 in Paris. But it's an engrossing picture.
07/17/08
Nolot’s portrait of senescence isn’t about rainbow visions; his film, one of the most honest, courageous and witty of the year, instead looks at decay, insufferable loss and humiliation--all endured...with defiant, wilfull abjection.
07/16/08
This isn’t gay self-hatred, but an authentic unnerving portrait; it dares to oppose cinema's false romanticism with ruthless honesty.
07/16/08
What saves Before I Forget from unenlightening depression is not just Nolot's refusal to beg for audience pity, but also his dry sense of humor.
07/15/08
There is not a single laugh or really emotionally involving moment one can cling to here.
07/14/08
The film doesn’t feel like a tragedy, but instead a droll slice of life -- perhaps a bit too muted and overlong, but often compelling in its own way.
07/14/08
[Jacques] Nolot writes, directs, and stars as Pierre Pruez, an HIV-positive bottom boy-no-longer who navigates his ruined life and beauty with aplomb.
04/19/08
Third installment in Jacques Nolot's trilogy on the pragmatic side of gay life finds the straight-shooting poet of matter-of-fact sexual transactions in fine narrative form, exhibiting his aging body and mindset without a trace of vanity.
05/24/07
Top Critic1 - 14 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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