Plaire, aimer et courir vite

I have mixed feelings about this movie. It's not bad, but it's not awesome either. Some other gay films, such as « Call me by your name » and « Beats per minute », moved me more than this one. Moreover, this love affair sounds a bit unrealistic, given the circumstances (disease, distance and age gap). Fortunately, there are nice moments of tenderness (the reunion in Paris), emotion (the last scene) and humor (Denis Podalydès' choreography or Vincent Lacoste's striptease). The soundtrack features some good music, such as the delicate song « Les gens qui doutent ».

The person who saw Sorry Angel with me initially mislabeled it as another gay-AIDS-relationship movie, missing the point: It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it. Christophe Honore never lacks ideas, and--to his good fortune--he does what he pleases. He takes risks and successfully avoids cliches; Honore is one of the world's brightest, funniest, savvy auteurs...His movies are earmarked by nostalgic romanticism, but they never wallow in the past because he is able to pay tribute without imitation, a technique that evades so many of his contemporaries.

Sorry Angel is about relationships. You do not need to be gay to watch it, but you need to understand humanity and compassion. Honore gets to the meat without chewing on the fat while his poignant dialogue is relatable to everyone eventually. The context of the movie (the 90's AIDS epidemic) is a setting for the text (based on the director's university years and his gay idols, writers and directors who died from the disease) but it is the subtext, Honore's observations about relationships--discerning, unsentimental, realistic portrayals of humans both gay and straight--which elevates the movie to the forefront of cinematic reflections. Where Robin Campillo's recent BPM (another stunner) focuses on activism, Honore shows us sympathy and love during an era of uncertainty and chaos.

Jonathan Romney notes that Sorry Angel is a "novelistic film" because it presents itself like great literature. The plot might be purposefully transparent, but the devil is in the details.

The world has changed a lot since the French New Wave. Audiences have shorter attention spans and don't seem to enjoy literary films as much. I gage if a film is too long by whether I look at my watch in a cinema or pause a streaming one at home to see how mich is left. I did neither on this film.

I was pulled into this film's world. It's yet another film that reminds me that I love the French cinema. This witty, complex, sexy, dramatic, funny, intelligent, literary, romantic, completely honest portrait of gay life in 1993, captured nuances of gay life not seen in American film. The acting is terrific.

Two men fall in love with the idea of the other during the AIDS crisis and all hell breaks loose. Of course this is a storyline we've seen so many times in cinemas, but the truth is the approach in this one is very romantic and unique. The end result is sadly something I was expecting and of course not as powerful as it should have been. The main theme is not the AIDS pandemic but rather the way two people can fall in love so unexpectedly even if their lives are set in different directions. The movie drags a lot, is really slow-paced at times and the main protagonists are not always in focus thus never showcasing their chemistry. This could have been a different movie but sadly it almost feels unfinished or not fully realised.

Christophe Honore is a director who has never interested me much; Dans Paris was a bore, and most of his features haven't played in North America. He has talent, but not a narrative sense. His actors carry the movie along, but even they can't do anything about the last 30 minutes, which are a total waste of time.

Setting the story in 1993, with ACT-UP just starting in France, we are fed disjointed scenes with characters who drift in and out of the action. Pierre Deladonchamps is convincing as Jacques, and Denys Podalydes has some cynical and funny scenes. I'd really like to try Chouchen, the Breton liqueur.