It could be only the story of Arthur, a young gay (bisexual?) student who, in the early 90s, arrives in Paris to find the one he loves. It could be almost a cliché, which actually find its place in Christophe Honoré's film, but it arrives only later in the film, at a time when everything is already almost lost. Because Jacques, the writer Arthur met in Rennes (a provincial town about 400 km in the west of Paris), is fatally ill. He knows his death is near and he tries to hide it from his lover, above all to avoid subjecting him to his decay. He hides in his neighbor's apartment, but when he sees his lover wandering sadly in the streets of Paris, he cannot resist. He finds him, hugs him, and abandons himself.
One could compare this film to Robin Campillo's "BPM (Beats Per Minute)", which was also set in Paris in the 90s, but it hasn't much to do with it. Even if we feel the same distress in Christophe Honoré's film, this one is more of a romantic chronicle of 'Love in the days of AIDS'. We find some remains of 'Love Song' - the film/musical that made Honoré famous -, but without the affectation of that film. What he films today has much more gravity, and melancholy.
Actor Pierre Deladonchamps (Jacques), who was also in Alain Guiraudie's fantastic 'Stranger by the Lake' and in André Téchiné's 'Golden Years', is amazing. He manages to express so much, with his face, the way he walks, speaks... He makes this character more human, asking questions as: how do you survive when you have almost no time left to live?
This 'darker' film also has some 'light' moments, and some quite funny: when he comes out of a theater in Rennes, late at night, Jacques would like to meet Arthur, who follows them secretly, but he first has to listen to the horrible chatter of an actress with an inflated ego.
The film is sometimes a bit lengthy, but Christophe Honoré has grasped here very well the hesitations of love, the certainty of the ephemeral and the intriguing osmosis between the sweetness of sex and its crudity.
Review of Sorry Angel
