Don't miss out on the Wed night/Thursday afternoon screenings of the new Jacques Nolot film, on Cahiers du Cinema's top ten list!
Cinema from across the Channel is always strongly represented in the Festival line-up, and this year is no exception. A particular highlight is Before I Forget, the final instalment in writer-director Jacques Nolot’s trilogy on gay life following L’Arrière Pays (1998) and Glowing Eyes (aka Porn Theatre, 2002). Nolot himself takes the central role of Pierre, a former gigolo in his late 50s who’s living with HIV.
The ailing Pierre, having been denied his rightful inheritance from his wealthy ex-client and lover, Toutoune, by the deceased’s family, is also forced to cope with loneliness and financial insecurity. With long, languid takes, the film dispassionately records his day-to-day life: the side effects of his medication, meals out with his aging, dwindling circle of friends, and his emotionless encounters with young men selling their flesh just as he once peddled his.
What could easily have been a terribly earnest and sombre tale is elevated by Nolot’s disarmingly blunt approach to sex, as well as a welcome streak of black humour. In one scene, Pierre reveals to his friends how his rich lover’s family considered their son’s choice of partner beneath him, telling him: "You can go down a floor, but not to the basement." A hard-hitting but ultimately hugely rewarding view, Before I Forget was named by French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma as one of the 10 best pictures of 2007.