Plaire, aimer et courir vite (2018)

Directed by: Christophe Honoré | 132 minutes | drama, romance | Actors: Vincent Lacoste, Pierre Deladonchamps, Denis Podalydès, Adèle Wismes, Thomas Gonzalez, Clément Métayer, Quintin Thébault, Tristan Farge, Sophie Letourneur, Marlene Saldana, Luca Malinowski, Rio Vega

In the late eighties and early nineties, AIDS spread like a veritable epidemic, especially in the big cities with their bustling gay communities. At the time, French writer and filmmaker Christophe Honoré had just left rural Brittany to try his luck in Paris. What he found there made a deep impression on him. He incorporated these experiences in his most personal film to date, ‘Plaire, aimer et courir vite’ (2018). “I wanted to explore my memories of the 1990s, my twenties. AIDS was part of my life, so many people died around me. At that time, AIDS and the fear of death hung like a threatening cloud over love and sexual relationships.” Unlike in Robin Campillo’s 2017 film, ‘120 BPM’, for example, AIDS does not play the main role but a supporting role in ‘Plaire, aimer et courir vite’. Sickness and death are lurking, but they play second fiddle to the love and tenderness that the protagonists in this film feel for each other.

‘Plaire, aimer et courir vite’ is set in 1993. Parisian Jacques Tondelli (Pierre Deladonchamps) is a playwright in his forties, who suffers from a kind of writer’s block and therefore only goes to a performance of one of his plays Rennes. As befits a typical Parisian, the hotel in the Breton city is too small for him and he complains stone and bone. He also really doesn’t feel like going to see the performance of his work and decides to go to the cinema. There his eye immediately falls on Arthur (Vincent Lacoste), a much younger Breton student who is only too happy to accept Jacques’ advances. Arthur (who personifies writer/director Honoré) is still struggling with his love life; although he has a girlfriend (Adèle Wismes), he slips out into the street late at night to cruise. He has never had a real relationship with a man. Jacques allows himself to be seduced, but when Arthur asks if he can go with him to his hotel, he holds off the boat. Now that he knows he is HIV positive and will probably die in the not too distant future, Jacques cannot afford a new love affair. The men part ways, but Arthur is persistent; he continues to visit Jacques. He just likes to be with him.

Honoré drew on personal experiences for this film, which is especially noticeable in a handful of particularly tender and warm moments. The movie flirtation scene jumps off the screen; not only do Deladonchamps and Lacoste have an irresistible chemistry with each other, Honoré films it in such a way that you are part of their ‘little secret’. The intimate bath scene, in which Jacques lovingly washes and holds his terminally ill ex-lover Marco (Thomas Gonzalez), is breathtakingly beautiful. Jacques and Arthur are characters you will love, despite their quirks. Jacques may seem like a typical chain smoker (even at a doctor’s consultation he has a lit cigarette in his hand, that was still possible in those days), snobbish intellectual, once he has taken you into his heart he will never let you down. He always retains his dignity, even if he gets sicker and sicker. Honoré doesn’t answer all the questions – what about his seven-year-old son, for example, whom he had with a good friend? – but that doesn’t stop the viewer from embracing him as a friend. While Jacques appears increasingly worn out due to his illness, Arthur sparkles more and more with love, zest for life and self-confidence.

The love between two men, one of whom knows he is dying; it sounds heavy. The clever thing is that ‘Plaire, aimer et courir vite’ is not that at all. Honoré creates a wonderful balance and gives plenty of room for humor and light-heartedness. ‘Master’ Jacques who explains to Arthur what types of ‘blondes’ there are and the student who neatly takes notes. The dance across the room with Jacques’ somewhat grumpy, also gay neighbor Mathieu (Denis Podalydès). In any case, Mathieu is the one who manages to provide a comical note and on several occasions pulls the sting out of the underlying tragedy. Besides strong in narrative sense, ‘Plaire, aimer et courir vite’ is also beautifully filmed; especially the scenes in the dark (Arthur’s sneaky cruising, flirting in the cinema) stand out. Honoré also filmed in Amsterdam. With the extremely personal and loving ‘Plaire, aimer et courir vite’ he lets his audience look over his own shoulder; that’s what it was like to immerse yourself as a young Breton in the Parisian gay community in the 1990s: exciting and even dangerous, but also warm, loving and tender.