{"id":49717,"date":"2017-01-29T12:21:01","date_gmt":"2017-01-29T17:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/queer-cinema-gets-a-bold-new-movie-in-paris-0559-theo-hugo\/"},"modified":"2017-01-29T12:21:01","modified_gmt":"2017-01-29T17:21:01","slug":"queer-cinema-gets-a-bold-new-movie-in-paris-0559-theo-hugo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/queer-cinema-gets-a-bold-new-movie-in-paris-0559-theo-hugo\/","title":{"rendered":"Queer Cinema Gets a Bold New Movie in \u2018Paris 05:59: Th\u00e9o & Hugo\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queer Cinema Gets a Bold New Movie in \u2018Paris 05:59: Th\u00e9o & Hugo\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Theo<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Nambot (left) and Geoffrey Cou\u00ebt (right) star in \u201cParis 05:59: Th\u00e9o & Hugo\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You\u2019ve seen the moment many times. Two future lovers see each other in a crowd, and something clicks. In West Side Story<\/em> that moment prompts a blur on the edges of the frame, with only the lovers in focus. In La La Land<\/em>, it takes the form of a camera<\/a> push-in with all the lights, but for a spotlight, going out. The moment is so\u00a0familiar in fantasies (and desired in reality) that there\u2019s even an old showtune about it.<\/p>\n

Some enchanted evening, you will meet a stranger
\nYou will meet a stranger across a crowded room.
\nAnd somehow you know, you know even then\u2026<\/p>\n

The last place you might expect to see it deployed is in a French film which begins with 18 minutes of explicit activity in a\u00a0sex<\/a> club but there it is in Paris 05:59: Th\u00e9o & Hugo<\/em> when the titular men<\/a> lock eyes and, apparently, souls while initially f***ing other people.<\/p>\n

\"theohugo-red\"<\/p>\n

Directors\u00a0Olivier Ducastel<\/a>\u00a0&<\/span>\u00a0Jacques Martineau<\/a>\u00a0pull out all the movie stops to sell the moment, taking us for the only time in the movie, out of reality to stare at\u00a0<\/span>Th\u00e9o (Geoffrey Cou\u00ebt) & Hugo (Fran\u00e7ois Nambot) as they stare at each other bathed in light with nothing at all around them: No sex<\/a> club, no groping men<\/a>, no time.\u00a0Then it\u2019s back to the rutting.<\/p>\n

Unexpectedly they leave the sex<\/a> club together, presumably to pick back up for round two at home, but things don\u2019t go quite as planned for reasons best left to experience in the theater. Their restless night prompts confessions, arguments, small talk and dreams as they roam around Paris together for an hour and fifteen minutes or so.<\/p>\n

\"tumblr_ocypo4PcPV1r9sup8o3_540\"<\/p>\n

While the \u201creal time\u201d gimmick has generally been deployed for Hollywood thrillers or intense dramas like 12 Angry Men,\u00a0High Noon, Rope<\/em>, it also has a more relaxed and equally classic French thread in talky mood movies like\u00a0Agnes Varda\u2019s sublime\u00a0Cl\u00e9o from 5 to 7<\/em>\u00a0and the insanely romantic\u00a0Before Sunset<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While the opening reel is jarring and sweaty and not at all what you might think of when you think of \u201ctalky relationship drama,\u201d it\u2019s actually a bold opening gambit \u2014 we\u2019re in it with<\/em> the characters, knowing them physically and then backtracking to knowing them personally. And isn\u2019t that how a lot of relationships begin, backwards, if we\u2019re being honest? Not at a sex<\/a> club per se, but physically intimate before true intimacy arrives?<\/p>\n

Who knows how they found lead actors who could carry out the character and conversation demands of the movie and<\/em> were willing to blow each other onscreen, but Cou\u00ebt and Nambot pull it off. When they discuss the future towards the end of the movie, you can practically see it unfolding, their personalities have become so clear.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the brave young actors and the cinematic verve of the directors (a real life couple<\/a>, best known previously for the gay<\/a> road trip movie The Adventures of Felix<\/em>, 2000) what follows their anonymous encounter, is an unexpectedly moving and even sweet movie about budding relationships, personal responsibility, and frank honesty.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Paris 05:59: Th\u00e9o & Hugo<\/em>\u00a0is now playing in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. You should see it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Queer Cinema Gets a Bold New Movie in \u2018Paris 05:59: Th\u00e9o & Hugo\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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Queer Cinema Gets a Bold New Movie in ‘Paris 05:59: Th\u00e9o & Hugo’<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n