Customer Reviews

Before I Forget

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jacques Nolot wrote, directed, and stars in "Before I Forget", a frank look at the somber realities of aging for a gay Parisian man entering his twilight years. Pierre Pruez (Jacques Nolot) is 60 years old, having spent most of his life parlaying his good looks into income from older men. Now his patron of 35 years is dead, and it is Pierre who pays young men for sex. Swindled out of his inheritance, no longer desirable, with declining health from 24 years of HIV infection, Pierre visits old friends and young acquaintances to talk about men, money, life as it was and gripe about how it is now, as Pierre considers what exactly he is going to do and be a this point in his life.

I appreciate the unromantic view of aging and of the gay lifestyle. The men of "Before I Forget" are not interested in a same-sex version of bourgeois marriage. This is a relief after decades of the American media portraying gay men as innocuous and sexless to make them non-threatening to the middle class. As a woman, I empathize with Pierre's waning looks and desirability that translate into a loss of freedom and power with age. But Pierre is an idle, neurotic man whose friends have gotten too old, lovers gotten too expensive, and things are only going to get worse. The trouble is that we get the point quickly, and this film plods on for an hour and 40 minutes. Too much wallowing for too long.

The DVD (Strand Releasing 2008): The film is in French with English subtitles that cannot be turned off. The only bonus feature is a theatrical trailer (2 min), also subtitled.

"Before I Forget" is a tough film to sit through. It is the unblinking chronicle of a 60-year gay man, Pierre Pruez, who has lived off his looks for many years and has reached the point of life where that is no longer possible. He also deals on a daily basis with the serious problems of HIV infection, loneliness and boredom. Because the filmmaker takes the viewer at length through the protagonist's daily life and routines to emphasize their present dreary states, the film often moves at a snail's pace. There is no possible redemption on offer here. Indeed, Pruez is reduced to streetwalking in drag in the film's final frames.

"Before I Forget" is unmistakably French in outlook and attitude (and language) and those are virtues, in my opinion. Interesting film, but not recommended for the depressed or morally squeamish.

In gay culture, the ultimate commodity is physical desirability. Once that disappears, a gay man essentially becomes invisible. This film, from one of the masters of French Queer cinema, explores the decline of a former hustler who struggles to cope with disease, deceit, and old age. Brutally honest and unflinching in its depiction of the perils of becoming unattractive in a culture that prizes physical attractiveness above all else.

"Before I forget" is a depressing, dark and, in some moments, very slow picture. I am pretty sure it won't get a wide audience due to its plot which concerns around life of old fags (one of them being former giggolo).

World (shrinks, hustlers, whining old gays, cash cash cash) presented in this movie is completely unattractive to me, thus my low rating.

Lovely film, gorgeous central performance, this is poignant and moving. But for f***'s sake don't read "Blue in Washington"'s 'review', s/he has the thoughtlessness to reveal, as s/he puts it, the content of "the final few frames". Are you simply trying to prove you actually watched the entire movie, "Blue"? Why else would you risk ambushing others' enjoyment without even the courtesy of indicating "spoiler ahead" at the top of your review???