Before I Forget (2008)

an intense character study

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10/02/08

The visuals are stunning, as is the use of music...unforgettable.

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08/04/08

[Jacques] Nolot, in his actor's hat, creates a melancholy, often-sad character that I grew to have a great deal of empathy for.

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08/04/08

Before I Forget is a film one can admire, but it is not 'likable,' per se, nor does its director wish it to be.

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08/01/08

[A] strikingly different and oddly funny French drama about a 60-year-old former hustler-turned-writer whose later years aren't exactly golden.

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07/18/08

Before I Forget is, in the broad sense, 'gay-themed'. But it's also one of the loveliest, most direct and most devastating pictures about aging that I've ever seen.

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07/18/08

Not a lot of ground is covered, but that might just be the point. The end of days are near, and the film is the interim itself, watching a man wind down ever so slowly while trying for a few last gasps to stave it off.

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07/18/08

With verbose and eloquent characters (let alone the fog of cigarette smoke), Before I Forget won't easily shake off the label of a "French film," and all that that implies.

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07/18/08

It's a simple-looking film with a complicated center. But there's a kind of sadness in the film that remains untapped, perhaps because Pierre himself isn't ready for it.

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07/17/08

It's hardly a rosy picture of what it's like to be gay and 60 in Paris. But it's an engrossing picture.

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07/17/08

Nolot’s portrait of senescence isn’t about rainbow visions; his film, one of the most honest, courageous and witty of the year, instead looks at decay, insufferable loss and humiliation--all endured...with defiant, wilfull abjection.

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07/16/08

This isn’t gay self-hatred, but an authentic unnerving portrait; it dares to oppose cinema's false romanticism with ruthless honesty.

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07/16/08

What saves Before I Forget from unenlightening depression is not just Nolot's refusal to beg for audience pity, but also his dry sense of humor.

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07/15/08

There is not a single laugh or really emotionally involving moment one can cling to here.

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07/14/08

The film doesn’t feel like a tragedy, but instead a droll slice of life -- perhaps a bit too muted and overlong, but often compelling in its own way.

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07/14/08

[Jacques] Nolot writes, directs, and stars as Pierre Pruez, an HIV-positive bottom boy-no-longer who navigates his ruined life and beauty with aplomb.

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04/19/08