Customer Reviews

Like a Brother (Unrated)

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

 

 

Sebastian is a 19 year old French boy living in a small town, who has unrequitted longings for Romain, who has been "Like A Brother (Comme un frère)" (2005) to him for many years. Jealous of Romain's developing relationship with a girl, Sebastian is torn between comforting his friend and jumping for joy when she goes off with someone else. While Romain is outwardly affectionate toward Sebastian, he senses his friend is gay and isn't surprised when Sebastian leaves their province to go to Paris, where he lives with his father (after coming out to him) and begins to explore his gay feelings in the club scene there. Those first few months are tough for Sebastian (who now calls himself Zack, after a character on an American TV show), who keeps thinking back to his best times with Romain. After a disappointing first sexual experience with someone who was just looking for a one night stand, Zack eventually meets Bruno, with whom he begins a tentative relationship. Then he gets a call: Romain is in town and wants to see him.

Beautifully photographed, with excellent production quality, and very attractive twink-ish actors in the two lead roles. It's short (only 55 minutes) and a little confusing, with most of the story told in abrupt flashbacks that alternate between a year ago and just a few weeks ago. In French with English subtitles (which cannot be turned off), DVD includes "making of" feature with writer, director and actors. I give it 4 stars out of 5.

'Comme un frère' (Like a Brother) is a brief film by writers and directors Bernard Alapetite and Cyril Legann that succinctly examines the development of identity of a young lad over a period of less than a year. The technique of telling the story of the coming of sexual age of a boy is one that may confuse some viewers - the present is combined with the past in a patchwork manner, the only key that the past is the subject is the use of near monochrome film color that successfully suggests the blur that past events now faded affect the senses - becomes one of the more unique aspects of this little French film.

The story opens in Paris where young Sébastien/AKA Zack (Benoît Delière) sits in a café with his current boyfriend Bruno (Johnny Amaro) and lets it be known that it is his birthday. Bruno's questioning as to why Sébastien is not in a celebratory mood begins flashbacks of a year ago when Sébastien lived in the small coastal town of La Baule where he doted on his best friend Romain (Thibault Boucaux). Despite Romain's devotion and physical closeness to Sébastien, Romain is in love with Sophie (Amandine Maugy) whose best friend Marine (Adeline Ishiomin) is trying to attract the love interest of Sébastien. The four are close, but something is missing: Sébastien loves Romain and while the two have some beautifully tender moments together, Romain is not the gay boy Sébastien needs.

Sébastien leaves his provincial town for Paris, connects with his father (Michel Derville) and confides his true identity as a gay young man. His father is warmly supportive and suggests Sébastien move in with him. Sébastien (now called 'Zack') begins to visit clubs and eventually is absorbed into the gay life, yet he still dreams of Romain. After months pass and Zack is in a comfortable relationship (Patrick Esilva), Romain comes to Paris and the two now young men meet in a park - but where will this new reunion lead?

The actors are for the most part very fine - especially Thibault Boucaux and Adeline Ishiomin - and the sensual aspects of the story are well captured with restraint. With a running time of only 55 minutes the story flies past the eyes much in the way memories bounce in the psyche and it is this manner that makes the story fresh. There should be more to come from the creators and certainly from some of the fine new actors in this film. In French with English subtitles. Grady Harp, April 07

wanting this one to be a bit longer. i wanted to see how things went between the main character and his best friend. but then again that is the goal of any director to leave the audience wanting more. you know to see if this or that happened. it was great getting to watch a movie like this seeing the dynamics between a guy and his best friend although he has a girl friend. it seemed to me that he was interested as well but due to people's perception and close minded ideals. he continued to be who he was because of that. i must say if there are more movies like this that offer this kind of experience and look into the lives of people (gay, straight or whatever). then movie watching for me just got a bit more interesting. my only wish was for the movie to be a bit longer. i however enjoyed the special features seeing how the movie came together and discussions with the various actors in the film.

a solid movie in all respects!!

Nup, sorry, not what they said it would be. I had high hopes for this release which arrived today, but 55min later (a short film I might add) I walked away having eaten a steak well done when I ordered rare. The concept of this coming-of-age drama is fine but the acting - so,so - the script - unsatisfying - and the ending - weak. I know how it was 'meant' to end but it didn't deliver the impact I would have expected. So, as mentioned, great story but poorly delivered. I was looking forward to this one sooo much, oh well. By the way, the transfer is 5/10 for quality, shame, as this also detracted from my viewing pleasure...

The acting is okay, but ending leaves you wondering what the point of the movie was. I wouldn't waste my money of this film.

Bernard Alapetite & Cyril Legann's film is allocated in two distinct moments: the present in which we catch a glimpse on young Sébastien's life, and the past, which sets the basis for everything he is experiencing now.

Why is it the past so important for most of us? Surely it's not only because we tend to have a glorified memory of years gone by. The past, after all, can sometimes fully define us if we manage to comprehend it. In the present, Sébastien is going to gay bars and hooking up with guys, but in the past only one boy occupied his every thought: his best friend Romain.

When Sébastien is alone, he draws Romain's body in a piece of paper. Here, the image is clearly the ideal and thus the unobtainable object. One moment exemplifies this assertion perfectly: when the two boys are lying in bed together, watching TV, the muffled sound of pornography coming from the background arouses Romain enough for him to fondle himself knowing that his friend is right there; as he proceeds to go to the bathroom Sébastien follows him and watches carefully how his friend masturbates frenetically. Except that he doesn't see his friend's facial expressions of joy, but rather his image reflected in the bathroom's mirror.

Why is the mirror important? For Jacques Lacan a relationship between the specular and the non-specular exists. The individual does not have direct access to the real of his body, it's only through the virtual image in the mirror plane that one gains such access. Although this indicates the necessary interposition of the Other, the Other of language. When Sébastien is looking at himself during the first minutes of the movie, his only concern is his physical appearance, and it should rightly be so as he intends to expose himself to the gaze of the other. This paradigmatic scheme is the foundation of narcissism, in which one's psychic energies are invested in one's own image thus making it lovable (for others).

But is the protagonist narcissistic? Every time Sébastien practices sex with other men he let his himself being penetrated; thus complying with what most people would label a "passive" position. There is, however, one instance in which he plays a most active role, and that is when he spends the night at Romain's place, and starts touching him and caressing him.

If Sébastien is truly narcissistic then the recognition placed upon himself by others would be undermined by a certain 'deceptiveness', because narcissism tends to mask the fact that I perceive myself from the Other's point of view. When Sebastian spies on his friend, draws him or thinks of him, he is indeed circumscribing himself into the sphere of the other's desire; and should he come to the conclusion that the other is no longer there to support him, then the first steps towards narcissism will be taken.

I'm glad I watched the "making of" featurette first. Understanding the directors' approach helps to enjoy this movie to it's fullest. Our "random pop-up memories" do not follow a nice orderly chronological linear pattern; This film takes the same approach. We follow Sebastian (who takes on the name Zack because the character in "Saved By the Bell" was his first crush) through a series of memories of moments in his life. These, taken together as a whole, do an excellent (if cinematically non-traditional) job of moving us to the final scene. It all focuses on building our interest in, even our desire for, a particular outcome.

Sebastian is a beautiful character. Young but maturing, he knows part of what he wants, who he is. We see his growth through his memories and the attentive viewer will see subtle themes running through several of them. When we reach the final scene we have become so interested in him that we are hoping and praying for a particular outcome.

This is not a loud movie, nor is it blatant. Watch it when you have time to just let yourself sink into it and let it surround you. I do advise watching the "making of" featurette first. The featurette runs a bit long for items of its ilk, but it sets the foundation of artistic intent necessary to fully appreciate this fine film.

"Like a Brother" is now on my shelf of DVDs I will watch most frequently.

I certainly don't mind challenging movies that make you think, or that progress in a nonlinear fashion, or that have ambiguous endings requiring you to use your imagination to decide for yourself what is going to happen. In fact, they can be quite enjoyable. But when a very short film rambles on for fifty-five minutes with a paper-thin plot featuring shallow characters spouting inane dialogue and then suddenly, in the middle of a conversation, boom! the end credits start rolling, then you wonder, "What the heck was that all about?" Such is the case with "Like a Brother" ("Comme un Frère").

In the making-of documentary, which oddly enough lasts more than half as long as the movie itself (a bad sign), the directors talk about how memories don't occur in linear fashion but rather in jumbled bits and pieces, and that there are no neat resolutions to life's problems, and that crises in real life are not always dramatic (what is life-changing for one may be insignificant for another). All of which are true. But they don't really say much about the movie itself. Or maybe I missed something because of the inadequate subtitles. (The folks being interviewed talk for fifteen or twenty seconds and one brief line of subtitles appears.)

The nonlinear nature of the movie is quite confusing. (Wait a sec, wasn't our protagonist alone in Paris a minute ago? Now he's romping on the beach with the best friend he left behind. I didn't know Paris was on the ocean. It isn't? Then we must be back in the past. But when and why?) Nonlinear films often require a second viewing to better understand what's happening, but I can't imagine ever being interested enough to watch this one again, even though it would take less than an hour to do so.

Yeah, there are cute actors and a couple of steamy scenes, and for some people that's enough. But not for me. If that is all a movie has to offer (as opposed to things like plot and interesting characters), then it isn't worth watching.

While I respect the rights of others to offer you a different opinion, I found this film to be lacking a great deal.

The acting was passable, but it would appear from the "making of featurette" (which is 32 minutes compared to the movie itself being a grand total of only 55 minutes) that this is more a love story between the writer and the lead actor than it is between two boys who are "like a brother" to one another. The one exception to this is a scene where Roman (or Romain, as the sub-titler spelled it) pleads with Zack/Sebastien to not leave him... there's a sense of genuine longing between the young men.

This is a story that could have been told so much better. Confusing flashbacks and undeveloped relationships afforded the writers and directors much more opportunity to tell a much deeper and more meaningful story than they did. I'll leave it the other reviewers who've given you a plot synopsis to tell the story, but suffice it to say that it was a disappointment on many levels.

First, whoever did the subtitles is largely unable to construct meaningful sentences in English. The purpose for subtitles is to hear the dialogue and then, using the vernacular in the target language, tell the story of what's going on in the dialogue. Whoever did these subtitles merely took the French words and translated them to English, which if you've ever spoken French, you'll know that the grammar is not the same as English, so the subtitles fail to tell the entire story of what's going on between the characters.

Secondly, someone should actually instruct the filmmakers in the use of lighting. The interior scenes were in desparate need of a spot or floodlight here and there. I'm all for lighting a scene to create a mood, but barely characters who are barely visible within the darkness is unacceptable.

Thirdly, I'm disappointed that a coming out movie from France would have no nudity. A few bare bottoms is more of what I would expect from Hollywood or even worse, London... the French don't usually have such inhibitions, and the pans to the wall, or the floor, or just to darkness rather than showing the sex scenes really detracts from the film.

All in all, a disappointment. This story's been told better in many films. Nothing new or exciting in this telling and therefore you might be better to spend your money on something else.

This is a very low-budget film that must be approached on its own terms. Sebastian, a 19-year old gay man from a small town in Normandy on the French coast and moves in with his father, a butcher in Paris, to try life as an out and proud gay man. In the process, he certainly finds sex -- and, it appears, some affection -- but realizes how much he misses his best friend from home, with whom he had a deep emotional relationship and a tantalizing hint of reciprocated physical attraction. There are some serious plot holes (if his Dad lives in Paris, why was he living in Normandy?) and the cinematography is low-quality, but it does pay off at the end. If you've enjoyed the other French gay films (Simply a Matter of Love, Grande Ecole, Confusion of Genders, etc.) you may want to take a look at this. BTW, the men are not hard to look at and there are some nicely-done erotic bits. And take the time to watch the "making of" video, which is enlightening about the goals of the filmmakers and the actors.