Before I Forget
Director: Jacques Nolot
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 3.5
Following the death of his lover, a writer (Nolot) tries to come to terms with his life and manage his depression - he's also combating AIDS, aligning this movie with Téchiné's The Witnesses as another important meditation on the epidemic from France in 2007. Though inherently narcissistic - and not shy about it, either, as Nolot is comfortable showing his aging, pudgy frame in the beginning like a celluloid Lucian Freud - it's also surprisingly affecting and deeply sad, revealing that random sexual encounters with the younger crowd don't necessarily lead to happiness and humiliation awaits the aging (the skin, once smooth, turns ghastly, the bowels become uncontrollable, medication affects mood and sexual performance). If Porn Theatre shows Nolot's sensational side, this reveals his spiritual one … and his appearance in drag shows him to be a dead ringer for Anjelica Huston.
