The visuals are stunning, as is the use of music...unforgettable.
Comment
08/04/08
Before I Forget (2008)
88 %
Reviews Counted: 17 Fresh: 15 Rotten:2 Average Rating: 7.1/10
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Theatrical Release: Jul 18, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: The third in a trilogy of semi-autobiographical films by writer-director Jacques Nolot (PORN THEATER), BEFORE I FORGET is a harsh and darkly deadpan character study at the intersection of aging, homosexuality and prostitution. Pierre (played by Nolot himself) is an HIV-positive male... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Jacques Nolot, Jean-Pol Dubois, Marc Rioufol, Bastien d'Asnieres, Gaetano Weysen-Volli
Reviews
1 - 17 (sorted by date)
[Jacques] Nolot, in his actor's hat, creates a melancholy, often-sad character that I grew to have a great deal of empathy for.
08/04/08
Before I Forget is a film one can admire, but it is not 'likable,' per se, nor does its director wish it to be.
08/01/08
Top Critic
[A] strikingly different and oddly funny French drama about a 60-year-old former hustler-turned-writer whose later years aren't exactly golden.
07/18/08
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
Top Critic
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
Top Critic
[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 - 17 (sorted by date)
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