:
Yannis Lespert,
Yannis Lespert,
Pierre Mignard,
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:
Christophe Honoré,
Christophe Honoré
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: Picture This
: Drama, Foreign, France
: 90 min.
: French
: English
see additional details...
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French filmmaker and playwright Christophe Honoré adapts his own novel for the family drama Close to Léo. In the coastal town of Brittany, twentysomething Léo (Pierre Mignard) lives with his supporting family: mom (Marie Bunel), dad (Dominic Gould), and his three younger brothers. Everyone is shocked to learn the truth when Léo reveals that he's HIV positive. Brothers Tristan (Rodolphe Pauly) and Pierrot (Jérémie Lippmann) are old enough to understand, but everyone agrees little Marcel (Yannis Lespert) shouldn't hear about it. However, Marcel overhears the family's discussion and ends up feeling left out. Léo eventually takes him on a trip to Paris in order to explain his situation. Close to Léo was shown at the 2003 San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
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| A French Family Copes With AIDS
by talltale
December 28, 2004 - 10:36 AM PST
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3 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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| Can't help wondering if the folk who made CLOSE TO LEO ran out of money toward the end. Up to that point, this is a rich, beautifully realized story of a French family with four sons, one of whom announces at the beginning that he has contracted AIDS. From then on, it 's all about how he and his loved ones deal with this. "Close to Leo" is among the best of the AIDS-related films I've seen--splendidly written, acted, directed and even photographed (the budget here had to be pretty small). But then, about 5/6 of the way in, it breaks off, jumps ahead and simply stops in its tracks-- rather than giving us the more complicated, undoubtedly sadder but infinitely richer movie we deserve. Each family member is brought beautifully to life; we want to follow these people even more closely and for as long as it takes to finish their journey. How sad that, for whatever reason, the filmmakers didn't give us the opportunity. My ranking of this mostly fine movie is based on its first 80 minutes, rather than on the full 90--unfair as that may be. But I hope this will encourage other viewers to take a look. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.50)
44 Votes
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