Rent Lie with Me (2022)

Moving - Lie with Me review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Beautiful subtle French film has Tonquedec as Stephane a successful gay novelist who returns to the small provincial town where he grew up after a gap of 40 years. The main reason he left is that when he was 17 he had a very passionate affair with another boy Thomas (Saint-John) which ended abruptly when Thomas moved to his uncle’s farm in Spain - and never came back. Stephane never got over it and although he write numerous books the other figure is always an echo of Thomas. He has accepted an invite to a literary festival with him as star guest and he meets Lucas (Belmondo - the spitting image of his own grandfather ) who was Thomas’s son that Stephane never knew about. At first Lucas denies knowing Stephane’s work but it’s revealed he hat he has read them all and has worked out who the central character is in all of them . In flashback we see the affair where although Thomas is passionate enough about the physical side he remains distant and aloof on the emotional side and Stephane learns he was the same with his later wife and son. The film is the two men slowly using each others experiences to discover who the true Thomas was and using this to reconcile with the past. Tonquedec brings a quiet dignity to the character with Belmondo slowly opening up as to who he is and what he seeks. Beautifully shot it’s a really quiet moving film and got excellent reviews - 4/5

Good-looking and very VERY French romance in flashback seen from today 35 years later by an author - Lie with Me review by PV

Very good-looking and very VERY French drama. A romance in flashback merged with the present-day 35 years on when the author Stephane visits his home town/region after 35 years. People forget just how very conservative the French provinces are. That issue is raised here a lot.

The actor who plays Stephane as a 50-something looks the spitting image of author Phillipe Besson on whose novel Arrête avec tes mensonges (literally STOP WITH YOUR LIES was translated by Hollywood actress Molly Ringwald and published in English with the title Lie with Me - she was sent to a private bilingual school in LA as a child so...)

The novel (which won lots of awards) and film are a real roman à clef (so about real-life events overlaid with a façade of fiction). The south-west French region is where the author Besson was born and brought up, and the main character is his age, and he did have an affair with a boy there when young...

Apparently, at school, Besson was often mocked by his classmates for his appearance, his clothes and his manners, just like Stephane here. And also, during his final school year, he fell in love with a peasant's son in his village in Charente, but they were forced to hide their relationship - just like the romance here then. BUT I suppose all fiction comes from real life in a way.

This is a high-quality romantic drama anyway, with stunning scenery, well-acted, not that explicit for those concerned (one full frontal shot only) and all rather sweet, if tragic. Some may roll eyes at the latter point as so many gay novels and films show tragic love stories and...well, no spoilers, but what happens to one character is common.

Anyway, I enjoyed it and it deserves a wide audience too, not just a gay-interest one.

4 stars

Some beautiful visuals & delicate performances cannot conceal the script's lack of depth - Lie with Me review by Timmy B

Stéphane Belcourt and Thomas Andrieu are 2 young men who live in the French countryside in the mid 80's. Stéphane is shy, reserved & bookish, but also knows exactly who he is and is comfortable with his sexuality. Thomas on the other hand is popular, outgoing & tough, but deeply conflicted with inner turmoil about his attraction to boys, openly dating the most attractive girls to disguise this. After Stéphane checks him out, Thomas initiates a passionate encounter between them which turns into a clandestine love affair between the 2, which then abruptly ends. 35 years later, the older Stéphane returns to his hometown, now a successful writer, for a festival but also to deal with the ghosts of his past.

In many ways, if you swapped the French countryside for a Thamesmead estate and didn't include the back & forth between past and present, this effectively is the same plot as Beautiful Thing, a extremely successful and moving coming-of-age story released in the 90's. But despite the sensitive approach to the subject matter and 2 committed performances from the excellent young actors, there is an emptiness to the narrative which this film never successfully breaks out of.

Whilst many films like this are predictable, and it was based on a true story, the clichés in many ways bog down the narrative, which is frustrating, especially as the 2 young actors & their chemistry are the beating heart of the film. One big difference between this and Beautiful Thing (which is to its credit,) is the many scenes of delicately shot intimacy between Thomas and Stéphane. From their first passionate & rushed encounter in the disused school gym, through to the many special moments in Stéphane's bedroom or an isolated lagoon in the countryside, you really believe in the bond between them, which makes the later heartbreak have immense emotional heft.

Jérémy Gillet & Julien De Saint Jean have brilliant chemistry, which was no doubt helped by the fact that they were cast before the film entered a period of development limbo, allowing them to get to know each other and form a friendship which is so beautifully displayed on screen. The older Stéphane, played by Guillaume de Tonquedec, is also a good study of repressed grief & lost love. Other positives include the locations, which are lensed with warmth.

But I cannot lie, I wanted this film to be more. But unfortunately, a weak script lets down excellent work.