Akrobaten

This is a very difficult title to review. On one hand, so much of this film does it right - the cinematography, the acting, the very real sex scenes. But on the other hand, there's also a lot that this film gets wrong (pacing, character motives, etc) and it in turn results in a rather confusing story that is never truly solved by the end. The film is beautiful to look at, and I've never quite seen unsimulated sex presented in such a way on screen, except for maybe the film Love, so that was somewhat of a treat to see play out since I was not expecting that. However, the cons of the film outweigh the pros, and the film never really gets to the point and leaves the viewer to analyze these characters on their own. Sometimes that's a good thing, but in this case, it's just frustrating. Especially after a majority of this film centers on a very frustrating premise as well as long (and I mean excruciatingly long) scenes of construction work and lingering exterior shots; the film should by no means be as long as it is. Overall, this is definitely not one of the worst gay films I've seen but it's also nothing to gush over.

One of the best queer movie I've ever seen. With mainstream actors in unsimulated scenes & the overall background..that's what it is needed. keep bringing more of these and you would have your fair share of success & audience.

I feel it as a personal experience. Because it is wise crafted, honest in profound manner, shocking for direct manner to explore a relation and for fair use of bitterness and close cinematography, for acting and for the feeling after. An appartment, two men - a French man and a Russian artist -, a mix of sado - masochism and addiction, frustrations of one , ended with a terrible revenge, the deep loneliness of the other , losing his mother, accepting cruelties of the other,large slices of love - affection-loneliness- experiences and little more and something very emotional, escaping to words, descriptions, verdicts. Short, just a special film or, more simple, an experience. Inspired music,the building site as frame and metaphor for story, clashes and the cold end. And a lot of fantasies, experiences, desires maybe, in some measure, to familiar.

Streamers Beware: Amazon Prime, Dekkoo, and Google/YouTube heavily censor the explicit scenes in this movie. These are the only platforms I've checked, but it's likely other streaming platforms censor this title as well.

Even if and/or when robbed of a proper virgin viewing of this film, the rating still stands. L'Acrobate is deeply hollow, bleak, cold, and realistic, yet maintains complexity and emotion. It manages to abandon nearly every cliché leaving you with harsh reality, but not without exploring the strange, beautiful, and fleeting moments of humanity and animalistic sexuality. The characters of this film are portrayed so vapidly and deeply at the same time.

Mesmerizing cinematographic shots accompanied by an increasingly anxious score pull you deeper into this film. The queer culture desire for anonymity intertwined with connection are well defined. Self-desires and self-criticisms make us our best and our worst. It's a temporary solution to moving forward in the continuing cold and bleakness that loom around us.

I first watched this film last year and didn't totally get it. Now I'm able to embrace it more.

The use of explicit sex is really on point, which is quite a rare case among the films with the same approach.

Brave filmmaking. And shout-out to the two leads, they did a tremendous job.