First daring and then lazy, 'Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo' is a very schizophrenic piece of filmmaking that could have been something extremely effective but ends up leaving the viewer feeling apathetic.
The film's opening twenty minutes features a gay orgy in a real French sex club. Bathed in a pool of red light, all actors involved in the scene (and some are probably not even actors) are fully naked with erections, and the sex is real. Despite all this, the scene doesn't feel exploitative or cheap and pornographic, it comes off as fascinating and even sexy (which is incredibly rare for modern gay films), it feels nothing like lazy gay pornography.
So far, so good. The problem is that the film's excitement comes to a screeching halt when Théo & Hugo leave the sanctity of the fantasy; their union was real inside the intoxicating red light, but the film's attempt to connect the two characters outside of the orgasm is incredibly boring and even unlikeable. Like a one night stand, it's hard to care after the sex. The film quickly slips into the overly-familiar and painfully dull terrain of LGBT romance/confliction storylines: 'have we made a connection?', 'do I like him?', 'does he make me angry or does he turn me on?' -- we just don't care. Théo & Hugo consumed their spontaneous energy at the beginning of the film. Maybe they should have left it there.
I'm glad that this film was made, for its HIV educational element is important, and the idea of the film is very good and challenging, but 'Théo' and 'Hugo' are given plenty of time to speak and neither has anything interesting to say. If we don't care about the characters, it's hard to care about their fate.
The film is shot in real time in an effort to encapsulate an intoxicating (and probably fleeting) connection between two human being as it happens, but it never convinces. The duo encounters other lonely creatures of the night, such as black night watchmen and Syrian asylum seekers, but it's all too contrived to ever feel real.
The film's opening twenty minutes features a gay orgy in a real French sex club. Bathed in a pool of red light, all actors involved in the scene (and some are probably not even actors) are fully naked with erections, and the sex is real. Despite all this, the scene doesn't feel exploitative or cheap and pornographic, it comes off as fascinating and even sexy (which is incredibly rare for modern gay films), it feels nothing like lazy gay pornography.
So far, so good. The problem is that the film's excitement comes to a screeching halt when Théo & Hugo leave the sanctity of the fantasy; their union was real inside the intoxicating red light, but the film's attempt to connect the two characters outside of the orgasm is incredibly boring and even unlikeable. Like a one night stand, it's hard to care after the sex. The film quickly slips into the overly-familiar and painfully dull terrain of LGBT romance/confliction storylines: 'have we made a connection?', 'do I like him?', 'does he make me angry or does he turn me on?' -- we just don't care. Théo & Hugo consumed their spontaneous energy at the beginning of the film. Maybe they should have left it there.
I'm glad that this film was made, for its HIV educational element is important, and the idea of the film is very good and challenging, but 'Théo' and 'Hugo' are given plenty of time to speak and neither has anything interesting to say. If we don't care about the characters, it's hard to care about their fate.
The film is shot in real time in an effort to encapsulate an intoxicating (and probably fleeting) connection between two human being as it happens, but it never convinces. The duo encounters other lonely creatures of the night, such as black night watchmen and Syrian asylum seekers, but it's all too contrived to ever feel real.