Simply Perfect

Best movie ever!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

"Paris 05:59" tells a very realistic story of love between two men, Theo and Hugo. They meet in a sex club in Paris. This is the opening scene of the movie, and it is not for any prudes. And it isn't just a "wham, bam, thank you ma'am" scene. It lasts for 20 minutes and nothing is left to the imagination.The story really begins when the two lovers depart the club and on their way to someone's apartment, they realize one of them has had unprotected sex with a partner who is HIV-positive. The mere fact one of them insists they immediately go to be tested demonstrated (to me, at least) this was probably more than just a one-time tryst in a sex club. The movie delves deeper into how these two men actually feel about, well, everything. I have not seen a movie (probably since "Brokeback Mountain") that demonstrates so deeply the passion and love that can actually exist between two men. This movie is either not rated or is NC-17. There is EXPLICIT sexual activity in the first 20 minutes, and there is graphic nudity. There is also a love between two men that few films have dared to attempt to show. I loved it.

CONTAINS SPOILERS!I really love this film and I dare to say is the best queer movie I've seen in 2016. The plot is simple but the execution is marvelous. The beginning introduce the two main characters in one of the best orgy scenes in the contemporary cinema -yes, with frontal male nudes and explicit sex, but in an artistic and not (so) pornographic way- and then, we assist a very long ride across Paris's streets (I just love movies that show you a city in a simple and non-touristy way, like Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight trilogy) with a huge revelation that create the best twist in the movie… and are barely 4:45 a.m. The next hour is full of tension, anxiety, humor and existentialist revelations with the word VIH+ in center of the conflict between Théo and Hugo. The both actors has a chemistry that really you can feel it in the entire movie, with the presence of a few amazing incidental characters that portrait in some ways the social features of Paris. The long conversation that keep Théo close to Hugo has a very theatrical tension that's ends in a lovely and uncertain way ("Then what?"). Definitely, directors and writers Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau knows how to make a romantic tale with the real and actual issues of the gay male community.

The best scene of the film is definitely the opening scene, an explicit orgy in a basement backroom in an urban gay sex club that renders the platform for the two main characters to meet, and for us to become acquainted to them, at the most profound level. That same depth is never reached again throughout the rest of film. What we get are boring conversations like "what do you do?" "where are you from?" "I study so and so," etc, as they walk through some of Paris' ugliest streets. There are also a few loose references to classical French authors to fill the intellectualism quota, as well as some nuggets of dubious political propaganda. The two characters do not connect on any level, other than sex. And one notices. The dialogue is uninteresting. I am alright with cinema verité, but one has to manage to keep the viewer engaged. It didn't succeed.

This is the most mature work to date from Ducastel and Martineau, whose "Ma Vie" and "Cockles and Muscles" had reasonably wide distribution. It won't be to everyone's taste because it begins with a long, explicit sequence shot in a Paris sex club. It soon becomes apparent that the (unsimulated) sex between the two leads (Geoffrey Couet and Francois Nambot) is crucial to the plot. The lovers hope that they may be able to have a relationship; but a dreadful realisation leads to a crisis. Couet and Nambot, who are that rarity, actors who can have sex and portray characters with equal conviction, spend much of the film walking and bicycling through Paris, deserted in the early hours of the morning. These scenes are memorably shot by Manuel Marmier. A lot of viewers are going to want to re-trace their route. Along the way they meet Parisians who may have something to teach them. The final scene is beautifully written and will stay with you. All the performances are exemplary. Although the film has links with classic French cinema, notably "Cleo From 5 to 7", it is also a film of our time. It could easily become a seminal gay drama that will take its place with "Victim", "Cruising" and "Taxi zum Klo". Many other films have tried and failed to achieve the results the directors have achieved seemingly without effort.