- guardian.co.uk,
- Wednesday March 26 2008 16:04 GMT
An artful, sometimes beguiling film about the onset of Aids and the radical changes it made in sex lives and friendships. Set in the early 1980s, before the new disease had a name, André Téchiné's film is by no means for gays only.
It centres on a carefree couple, living an open marriage complicated a little by the arrival of a baby. Any traditional maternal affection seems to come from mixed-race father Sami Bouajila, while the new mother (Emmanuelle Béart) is anxious. She's a children's author trying to write a first adult book, and resents the new commitment. When a doctor who is their friend brings a boy he covets to visit, many lives are thrown into confusion. First by an unexpected gay affair; and second by the onset of the disease that defined a decade.
At all stages, Téchiné avoids the obvious: there's no sentimentality about this and he largely leaves you to work out who's who and how they are connected among this multiracial, multigenerational mix of flawed but interesting protagonists. From a character study, he increasingly throws in suspense thriller aspects, catching you out with twists and turns that never feel forced. Hard to say if Téchiné is identifying with the elderly doctor or the young ingénu, a teenager from the Pyrenees, as is the director, who also co-wrote this with Laurent Guyot - the two collaborated on Téchiné's previous film, the nostalgic Deneuve/Depardieu drama Changing Times. Depardieu's daughter, Julie, has an important role here as the boy's more worldly sister. There are a number of sub-plots that don't all work, but this is an unusual and thoughtful piece of work.
