Like a Brother (2005) User Reviews

Finding Self Through Flashbacks and Fragments

[gradyharp · 7/10 · 14 April 2007]

'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

It seems to me I've heard that song before

[marcelproust · 5/10 · 10 April 2006]

The directors and star of Comme un frere were in town for a screening at the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival yesterday. The screening I attended looked to be a sell-out, but I can only think that the audience was primarily attracted by the cunning use of a "boys on the beach" promotional photograph rather than any Fesitival buzz surrounding the film itself.

One of the directors spoke rather charmingly (in French) about how he was inspired by British cinema, particularly by the gritty realism of Mike Leigh and Stephen Frears. He found their films, however, too "noir" and hoped to make something more optimistic in Comme un frere. Well, all I can say is that the French idea of optimism is like the Luftwaffe's idea of town planning, so hopes were not particularly high.

Comme un frere (Like a Brother) is the tale of Zack (Benoit Deliere), a pretty blond lad who has come to Paris to explore his sexuality. He clubs, he hooks up on chat lines, he has a beauty routine that would put Elizabeth Arden to shame. But, as seems to be obligatory in all French cinema, he is pining for something.

That something is Romain (the extraordinarily beautiful Thibault Boucaux), his best friend, left behind in the Styx when Zack moved to the big city. Scenes of Zack and Romain on the beach, hanging about in cafés and even (platonically) sharing a bed have a tendresse that is deeply touching - but their scenes are filmed in a washed out grey that removes any sense of what made this time special for young Zack.

By contrast, the Paris scenes have a colourful vibrancy that makes one wonder why on earth Zack would be pining for his dreary seaside town, with or without the lovely Romain.

If you're thinking "It seems to me I've heard that song before" then you've nailed the problem with Comme un frere. Young men with unrequited crushes on their best friends have been a staple of gay cinema since the year dot, and Comme un frere has nothing new or fresh to add. The performances are generally good, with some real star potential from Boucaux, and the sex scenes are filmed with urgency and passion, but the inconclusive ending (which really does seem as if the producers just ran out of money and had to stop filming) and the absence of anything to make this stand out from the crowd make it a fairly lacklustre affair.

Yes, it's a slender story, but the French do this kind of thing better

[ekeby · 6/10 · 3 December 2008]

I agree, the storyline is slender. This is a portrait of a very young man in his first year of moving to the city, being out, juxtaposed with his recollections of the beautiful—and straight—best friend he left behind.

Maybe it's the locale, the language difference, the glimpses of French gay life, but I found this movie very watchable. I think I would be less forgiving (as an American) seeing the same story in an American film. The American version would be more of a straightforward story, I think, and almost certainly heavy-handed. This film is serious, but it's done with a light, gentle touch, and that makes it easier to take.

The movie flips between past and present without much concern for our keeping up with the story. In fact, the jumping around is a reflection of the boy's state of mind. I can't imagine an American film doing the same thing without a lot of dumbing down.

So, despite the familiar plot, if you can even call it that, I still think this is worthwhile. It's very filmic, and relatively uncompromising.

And, the main character's straight best friend is a f**king raving beauty.

Sexuality and self-discovery

[atlantis2006 · 23 March 2011]

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.

Thin effort with too much wish-fulfillment

[Chris Knipp · 6/10 · 6 August 2008]

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.

IT's hard to rate because it's very good. And it's very bad. And not much in between.

[zobva1 · 7/10 · 5 January 2023]

First of all, everything about the producer's promo material is like cinematic Clickbait:

• The promotional photo is very misleading. It's a photo of a main character with a minor character in a minor scene that has nothing to do with the title or premise of the film.

• The title of the film is misleading. I mean,no matter how much he had to drink, my brother never took my face in his hands and tenderly kissed me on the lips in a lingering romantic way as Bruno did with Sebastien at one point. Not at all "like a brother". Gay Bruno and straight Sebastien were weirdly all over each other throughout.

• The producer's brief storyline synopsis is misleading: "Sebastien is a small town boy who moves to Paris and begins to explore the gay night life there. When a friend from back home calls to announce he's coming to Paris, Sebastien confronts some unrequited feelings. (Actually Sebastien's friend came to Paris at the very end of the film,and that line makes it sound as if it's the whole basis of the movie. Not only that, his friend coming to Paris did not cause Sebastien to "confront unrequited feelings" -- unless that happened after the cameras stopped rolling at the end and it was left on the cutting room floor.

So having pointed out all that, I still rated the film a 7 out of 10. Because despite all the the "clickbait" promo most of it was pretty good. It seemed to be building up to a great satisfying, feel-good love story. I enjoyed it right up until the last 5 minutes or so. And then...BAM! Yet another film with gay protagonists leaves the viewers feeling let down and disappointed, if not downright bad.

I can't even say Like A Brother had a *bad* ending.. It had *NO* ending, as if the filmmakers ran out of money after they filmed a random scene and never went back to finish it. In fact, the very end of the film is what the Clickbait promo promised as.the whole premise of the movie: Friend of a small town boy comes to Paris and boy confronts unrequited feelings for friend, yada yada yada."

I was actually angry when the film ended because I felt cheated by a movie that finally got me hooked and interested after a steady buildup and then... just ended with no dénouement, no resolution, not even anything thought-provoking. The filmmaker should have made a sequel this movie to tie up so many loose ends, Similar to "Present Perfect", a great film that had a bad ending... but a sequel was made, "Present Still Perfect", that tied everything up with a satisfactory bow.

A good movie, but too much "time-swapping" without telling the audience

[esjara97 · 4/10 · 11 July 2014]

It was a good movie. I don't really like when a movie flips between past and present and this movie is no different. I would have like it more as a straightforward story, but nonetheless, it was fun and entertaining. I liked the actors and their relationships, especially Sebastian and Romain's. A lot of the time it seemed like Romain was gay, or at least bi, even though he never admitted so.

What I didn't quite understand, though, was the ending. It didn't imply anything so Romain and Sebastian could have gotten together, but I seriously doubt it. Besides, I liked Bruno a lot more. It could have been a longer movie, and I would have liked it if the movie had been longer, not necessarily continuing the story, but merely adding parts in the middle. I would have liked to know more about Bruno and Sebastian's relationship and I like to imagine that when the movie is over they will continue dating.

Film is boring then ends without an actual ending. Don't bother!

[LaoagMikey · 1/10 · 24 September 2014]

You know, one reviewer tells the entire story in his review without mentioning that he has just said everything that there is in this movie. It start slow, remains slow, does very little for me or anyone else. That review mention of their "meeting in the park" and then what happens? Well, NOTHING HAPPENS! Well, the credits roll, if you call that something happening. There is no resolution. No indication of substantial change. The two friends are friends again after being separated for 6 months, just like they were before. One of them might move to this town but might not. We are shown no change. Where is the "character arc"? No hint of anything changed or going to develop. It just ENDS! And I have wasted an hour watching this useless thing for no story. No ending. Just some naked butts. No nothing except that I can now tell you that there is NOTHING to this movie! Not even beautiful countryside shots. A nice subway shot out the window of the subway car. That's about as good as it gets.

Just don't bother! One star! Wish it could be 0.

a real gem of a film

[justmikal · 8/10 · 8 May 2010]

I saw the movie first and then read the reviews posted here. It's a charming movie and I felt really good after watching it. It's one I might buy. The flashbacks were a bit disorienting at first but not so difficult to keep track of things. I found the color differences to really set the atmosphere. Unlike one reviewer I didn't try to lighten the image in order to see more of the sex - I assumed the intimate scenes were filmed that way for a reason, and I think I was right.

The acting is really good, and the actors believable. I've seen some low budget films that were amateur by comparison. This one felt like a real movie. The leads are incredibly good looking. The actor playing Romain (the straight best friend) is almost too pretty - but once I realized that then he was less of a distraction. The lead, Seb/Zack did a fantastic job with the character. I will see if he's done other movies.

What also appealed to me is the use of good drama - no violence, no deaths, no gay bashing. It's an unrequited love story that happens to have a gay lead, and as such was really enjoyable. oh yeah, and the eye candy wasn't bad either. I've never seen so many hot ass shots (outside of Cadinot, which another reviewer references). If you enjoy a good story then check this one out.

French love....by the nombres (uh, I mean 'numbers')

[arizona-philm-phan · 19 January 2007]

-THE STORY---

#1. Tres Cute-Boy grows up in quaint seaside town.

#2. Cute-Boy, realizing which way his 'tide runs', falls for Cute-Chum.

#3. Cute-Chum, unwilling to admit feelings (bi?......nah, prolly not), constantly lolls all over Cute-Boy + utters "meaningful" things to him.

#4. Cute-Boy becomes more + more confused after Cute-Chum brings self to romantically kiss Cute-Boy.....then begins to suffer a case of 'comes-in-handy amnesia'.

#5. Cute-Boy, very unhappy + not 'getting any', heads for Big-City to try luck.

#6. Cute-Boy in Big-City (the one with tall, metal tower) hooks up with estranged, but-now-all-accepting Pere (uh, I mean Dad) + begins search for "love and a lasting relationship."

#7. Cute-Boy has much trouble finding something "meaningful".......but when at last he does + 'tide is running' smoothly, who should show up but.............Cute-Chum.

#8. After "catch up" time on park bench, Cute-Boy must head off for appointment.......but Cute-Chum wants to tag along.

#9. FIN (uh, I mean The End......really!)

-BEHIND THE STORY---

#1. Too Cute-Director/Writer (behaviorally, not physically) creates an, in-the-end, confusing series of flashbacks (presumably to give us a sense of more than the bare plot that's actually there).

#2. Photographically, Too Cute-D/W gives us confusing melange (uh, I mean mix) of a color palette (washed out in home town scenes / brightly colorful in Big-City ones). Actually, he probably meant to do that.......but which way DO we adjust our monitor's color scale?

#3. Too Cute-D/W's scene lighting for sex scenes is catastrophic, particularly to gay viewers (who else would there be?). One can tell (from soundtrack) there's lots of action going on, but it's so frustratingly dark that any enjoyment is lost (turning up bright-level only leads to a "washed out" picture). You can bet if this were "hetero-sex" the scenes would be as brightly lit as the Sahara Desert at noon.

#4. Too Cute-D/W's sense of what makes a fulfilling story and, especially, how to end it seems to this viewer (to again use the word) 'frustratingly' out-of-kilter. I've already told you about the final scene; what you've still not been told is the movie's running time. This film (uh, I mean "work of art"?) times out at just about a very brief 55 minutes. To make matters look even worse, the DVD Extras---with a "Making Of Featurette" wherein Too Cute-D/W and others explain this production to us---clocks in at a hefty 32(!) minutes. When a film explanation takes nearly two-thirds the length of the feature, we viewers out here have to wonder......don't we?

PS--Points given for a coupl'a or three 'hotties' and for hot sex (but only for the hearing-empowered).

****

between past and present

[Kirpianuscus · 8 July 2017]

far to be a bad film, its sin is the less courage to give a specific voice. the courage to be more than a sketch. because it propose suggestions. the relation between Sebastian and Romain. the relation between Sebastian and Bruno. the relation with Marine. or with his father. the result is a kind of "Pointilism". and the theme of young man looking for better life in Paris. nothing wrong and the tone is reasonable. but the film seems be a dance without music. and exercise to say the same well known story of the same selfish young man.