I'm a fan of Pierre Deladonchamps and have been since seeing all of his glory in "Stranger By The Lake". He has something that is the epitome of the sexy French man and it's hard not to be drawn to him. It was a shame then that I was so disappointed and even a bit bored watching this film.
I don't think it really had much of a story, it was certainly hard to follow and as with so many things these days, I found it lacking in the supposed romance. There was however a lot of lust and sleeping around, drugs and all the other things that get attached to gay storylines.
The history of the AIDS crisis is very important and perhaps, with all of the other films out there, this one tried not to focus too much on that element in an attempt to make something different. In that case though, why make it about that at all? He could quite easily have just been depressed or had cancer.
As with most foreign cinema that I watch I did find that it was beautifully, carefully and thoughtfully filmed and produced, but I honestly did get bored and was frustrated that I couldn't speak French, because it meant that I couldn't play on my phone whilst waiting for the end to come. It may be that, once again, not knowing the language has put a barrier up that prevents me from enjoying the story. If I could hear the exact words and the inflections I might be wowed by the performance, but sadly in this case I just didn't get it.
I think that there are better films out there that cover the same story without it being as muddy, but Pierre is still very beautiful.
Plot summary
1993. Arthur, early 20s, is studying in Rennes. His life changes when he meets Jacques, a writer who lives in Paris with his young son. All summer long, Arthur and Jacques enjoy and love each other. But Jacques knows that this kind of love needs to live fast.
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Sorry, not for me thanks.
Stoic and touching romance.
It's too long and the characterisations lack depth - but it is still quite an interesting story to follow. Pierre Deladonchamps is "Jacques" a (slightly) older Parisian writer who meets a young Breton "Arthur" (Vincent Lacoste) in a cinema. Initially neither are looking for much more than a quickie, but before long something clicks and the couple begin to test, probe and like each other. It transpires that "Jacques" lives every other day with his young son "Loulou" and that he isn't a well man - all of which serves to focus the emphasis of this film on their priorities and their desires - physical and emotional. It's set in the early 1990's so it's pretty clear what's going on, on the medial front - the relentlessness of the author's decline is evident but not allowed by Christoph Honoré to overwhelm what is essentially quite an engaging, but too shallow, character driven study. Denis Podalydès and the young son Tristan Farge provide potent diversions to the prevailing theme as the relationship and it's implications gather steam. The writing doesn't allow us to get bogged down in sentiment either; it's sexy and provocative, funny and sometimes just a bit course - and that gives the piece a bit more richness. I could have been doing with a little more one-on-one time between the principals. I still wasn't quite comfortable with the speed, or plausibility, of their romance - but this is much more than your bog standard gay romantic drama, and I'd suggest you stick with it.
Well made and acted but not an easy film to like.
Fundamentally ordinary yet incredibly self-centered, the characters in Christophe Honore's "Sorry, Angel" are not easy people to like. They are mostly a group of gay and bisexual men with complicated lives who find that relationships aren't necessarily what they're good at; even having a job, earning a living or just being 'themselves' also seem to pose a problem. The two main characters are Jacques, a writer in his thirties, (Pierre Deladonchamps),and Arthur, (Vincent Lacoste),a younger student, who meet, have sex and then go about the business of falling in love but find 'happy ever after' something of a pipedream.
It's territory Honore has explored before and more explicitly but this well-crafted, if overtly cool, movie represents something of a step forward if only in terms of style. This is a more formal, less kinetic, Honore but one still unable to shake off that sense of ennui. The performances are excellent but the characters aren't engaging. Also setting it at a time when AIDS was more prevalent than it is now seems like an unnecessary plot device rather than an attempt to get us to understand or care more about the people we see. Throw in a girlfriend and Jacques' young son and you get the impression that Honore is going out of his way to be 'cool' as if making a gay epic but one without a centre. Add a load of references to cinema and literature and you know exactly who this is aimed at. One for the fans, i'm afraid.