Sebastien (the sensitive Benoît Delière), gay boy from the provinces, goes to Paris to find his fortune and a boyfriend but misses his "straight" friend, Romain (finely-profiled Thibault Boucaux), back home.
A good thing in 'Like a Brother' is that the directors avoid stereotype in the coming-out scene, providing an understanding father (Michel Derville) who says "I suspected as much" and then "I love you for what you are, no matter what." And the dad, who conveniently is a Paris butcher--an actor cast against type on that too--provides a place to live.
The film fails to convince that the straight friend is even straight. He seems only perhaps repressed. And he is ridiculously good looking.
Unlike a movie like Techine's 'I Don't Kiss,' Sebastian/Zach's trip to the capitol doesn't lead to a series of adventures. He just gets laid a few times and keeps having flashbacks to his idyllic times with his friends at home and his "friend," Quite ridiculously, they are constantly nestling up against each other and even sleep in the same bed--hardly something a friend who was, or was trying to pretend to be, straight would do. In their adoring intertwined poses they look like drawings by Jean Cocteau. It's just totally unbelievable. This is wishful thinking. There is virtually no conflict. No wonder the filmmakers couldn't produce a full hour of material on this.
Thre have been some good coming-of-age films in English and French. The French made-for-TV film 'Just a Question of Love' (2000) with Cyrille Thouvenin and Stéphan Guérin-Tillié really goes deep and touchingly into the conflicts for a young man whose parents are not cool like Sebastian's dad. The year 1998 brought Simon Shore's excellent British coming out film 'Get Real.' 1998 was a good year because it also brought the American classic, David Moreto's 1998 'Edge of Seventeen.' The kid in that one has a specific life in a specific part of America, a set of specific friends, and real developing coming out issues at work, at home, and in his sex life. It actually dares to confront the issue of anal sex and how that might not be easy or fun for a beginner, no matter how much he might desire male-to-male sex. In 'Like a Brother,' there's just sex, with no indication that it might be different if it's the first time, and though the filmmakers congratulate themselves on the fact that the actors really were being sexual with each other during the shooting, it's all in almost total darkness, so the viewers are left out of the picture.
For Sebastian, who now calls himself Zack, coming out seems to consist of getting tattoos and a new name. Then at the end of 'Like a Brother' the cute Romain, whom Zack has been pining for, magically turns up in Paris taking a 'stage' and quite likely to come to live in Paris soon, and more bisexual or gay seeming than ever.
I enjoyed hearing authentic-sounding contemporary French dialog among young people--though most of it is brief and rather perfunctory. Overall this seems quite a self-indulgent piece of work. If I understood correctly this is the older director's first film. It seems very much like vanity project.The actors did their best, and the tech package is acceptable. Whether the flashbacks work integrally--or contrast in an interesting way--with the present day sequences is up to the the viewer to decide. The back-and-forth seemed to me a somewhat easy and unconvincing conceit. Though in other hands it might have been powerful, the flashbacks just undercut the Paris segments, which are little more than finding sex at a gay techno music bar, a Métro ride and a reunion with dad. The scene where Sebastian-Zack swishes around to music in his room while trying on clothes is fun, but goes on too long.
Cadinot could have done it all better and with lots more sex.In fact Bernard Alapetite was a producer of gay porno movies, and in fact made this more "artistic" one after doing jail time (or a suspended sentence?) in the Nineties for heading a "child porno ring" that sold copies of foreign films showing young boys getting raped, BBC News and others (differing) sources report. Be that as it may, Alapetite no doubt knows his Cadinot and may have been unconsciously influenced. He needed more solid sources for a serious drama.
A good thing in 'Like a Brother' is that the directors avoid stereotype in the coming-out scene, providing an understanding father (Michel Derville) who says "I suspected as much" and then "I love you for what you are, no matter what." And the dad, who conveniently is a Paris butcher--an actor cast against type on that too--provides a place to live.
The film fails to convince that the straight friend is even straight. He seems only perhaps repressed. And he is ridiculously good looking.
Unlike a movie like Techine's 'I Don't Kiss,' Sebastian/Zach's trip to the capitol doesn't lead to a series of adventures. He just gets laid a few times and keeps having flashbacks to his idyllic times with his friends at home and his "friend," Quite ridiculously, they are constantly nestling up against each other and even sleep in the same bed--hardly something a friend who was, or was trying to pretend to be, straight would do. In their adoring intertwined poses they look like drawings by Jean Cocteau. It's just totally unbelievable. This is wishful thinking. There is virtually no conflict. No wonder the filmmakers couldn't produce a full hour of material on this.
Thre have been some good coming-of-age films in English and French. The French made-for-TV film 'Just a Question of Love' (2000) with Cyrille Thouvenin and Stéphan Guérin-Tillié really goes deep and touchingly into the conflicts for a young man whose parents are not cool like Sebastian's dad. The year 1998 brought Simon Shore's excellent British coming out film 'Get Real.' 1998 was a good year because it also brought the American classic, David Moreto's 1998 'Edge of Seventeen.' The kid in that one has a specific life in a specific part of America, a set of specific friends, and real developing coming out issues at work, at home, and in his sex life. It actually dares to confront the issue of anal sex and how that might not be easy or fun for a beginner, no matter how much he might desire male-to-male sex. In 'Like a Brother,' there's just sex, with no indication that it might be different if it's the first time, and though the filmmakers congratulate themselves on the fact that the actors really were being sexual with each other during the shooting, it's all in almost total darkness, so the viewers are left out of the picture.
For Sebastian, who now calls himself Zack, coming out seems to consist of getting tattoos and a new name. Then at the end of 'Like a Brother' the cute Romain, whom Zack has been pining for, magically turns up in Paris taking a 'stage' and quite likely to come to live in Paris soon, and more bisexual or gay seeming than ever.
I enjoyed hearing authentic-sounding contemporary French dialog among young people--though most of it is brief and rather perfunctory. Overall this seems quite a self-indulgent piece of work. If I understood correctly this is the older director's first film. It seems very much like vanity project.The actors did their best, and the tech package is acceptable. Whether the flashbacks work integrally--or contrast in an interesting way--with the present day sequences is up to the the viewer to decide. The back-and-forth seemed to me a somewhat easy and unconvincing conceit. Though in other hands it might have been powerful, the flashbacks just undercut the Paris segments, which are little more than finding sex at a gay techno music bar, a Métro ride and a reunion with dad. The scene where Sebastian-Zack swishes around to music in his room while trying on clothes is fun, but goes on too long.
Cadinot could have done it all better and with lots more sex.In fact Bernard Alapetite was a producer of gay porno movies, and in fact made this more "artistic" one after doing jail time (or a suspended sentence?) in the Nineties for heading a "child porno ring" that sold copies of foreign films showing young boys getting raped, BBC News and others (differing) sources report. Be that as it may, Alapetite no doubt knows his Cadinot and may have been unconsciously influenced. He needed more solid sources for a serious drama.