Notre paradis

This is not an easy movie to watch, because of the extremely cynical and negative story. An aging (30 something) hustler hooks up with a mysterious angelic newbie, they develop a love-affair but also continue having payed sex with older men, in the process robbing and even murdering them. Gaël Morel (director and writer) hardly provides any backgrounds, so it's hard to understand their drives and motives (if any). Vassili seems mainly to act on uncontrollable impulses and Angelo, after some initial hesitating, just goes along with it. Sure, we see tenderness between the two, and they also have a warm relation with Vassili's best friend Anna and her little son, but for the rest we get to see two opportunistic, relentless and very unsympathetic persons, which makes it very hard to relate to them.

When in the end justice at last is served, this feels right, but the movie ends so abruptly right there and then, that you are still left unsatisfied: what will happen to them? Is there any remorse? Somehow I missed in this movie urgency, it didn't seem to go anywhere at all, in fact in the end we are left with the same questions as at the start, like: who are these two, why do they do these horrible things?!?

Vassili is played by Stephane Rideau. I saw him recently in "Wild Reeds" ("Les Roseau sauvages") by director Téchiné (in that movie a young Gaël Morel by the way played the leading role), Rideau was only 18 years old back then, and stunningly handsome like a young Alain Delon. But now, at age 35, he looked old, puffy and worn-out. It totally fitted his character, as well as this movie's premise of old versus young, but still I was a bit taken aback by this change. On the other hand: kudos for his courage to not hide anything, but on the contrary, making it instrumental to the movie! Young Dimitri Durdaine is not just cute, but holds himself pretty well and is convincing enough as the somewhat intangible and mysterious love-object. There's a fair amount of sex and nudity, not unusual in Morel's films, and fitting the subject.

Still, is rare to find a good gay theme film with crime and thriller taste, well I think "Our Paradise" nailed it. Interesting romance, stabbing scene, sex, and emotion mixed well. The only lack was the ending. A little bit to illogical. There are dream come true but other doesn't. This film none of that.

The part still bothering me that Vassili did every psychopathic symptoms for love or personal pleasure. Vassili (played by Stéphane Rideau) is an mature gay hustler with killing instinct, triggered if he get mad or insulted. But, look like everything change when found young hustler almost beaten to dead Angelo. He took care of him and eventually they felt in love. Another killed by Vassili intended to secure they're needed fulfill and paradise came true. The last killing was mostly intended the lust for money.

My focus still on Vassili psychopathic behavior. I don't really know it was personal issue or love. But, love really expensive and can't be bought by money, but is worth it when they end up in jail? If it is, I don't see any paradise.

Wow, Our Paradise! This movie blew me away from the first frame. One of the best gay movies I've ever seen, its strengths include its indisputable realism. The trolls, the johns, the older men are cast and played to perfection. You forget you're seeing actors who may or may not be gay. As a gay man you might be afraid you are seeing embarrassing bits and pieces of your own life exposed on that screen.

Prepare to be shocked. I've never seen such negative gay themes presented so convincingly. Sort of like a gay version of Natural Born Killers on steroids. Death, dismemberment and destruction as entertainment. Yet you can't take your eyes off the handsome but immoral and psychopathic main characters, the street-trash couple (Stephane Rideau as Vassili, and Dimitri Durdaine as Angelo) who wreak havoc on anyone in their destructive path. Their love is so real, so palpable, that you yearn to see them survive the bloody nightmare, le merde, that is their lives.

I only wish I spoke French, the language of this movie. There are English-language subtitles, but however good the captions are, there is just no way to capture every nuance spoken in such a sophisticated language as French. It's the language that gave us such elegant terms as soixante-neuf, menage-a-trois, frottage, mon choi, voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?, and so many more.

Our Paradise is magnificently filmed on location in Paris and elsewhere across France. You feel as if you were standing in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. I normally don't watch films in a foreign language, but the title fooled me into thinking it was in English (original title: Notre Paradis). One glimpse of the mesmerizing story and I was hooked regardless of language. Available on Netflix.

I had high hopes for this movie, especially when, surprisingly, early in the film we see Stéphane Rideau as a somewhat slovenly, out-of-shape hustler. His benign and enigmatic smile is perfect for this role.

This is more complicated than a love story, and much more complicated, emotionally and psychologically, than a mere thriller. It's an ambitious story that doesn't quite make the grade. It's impossible to go much further without spoilers, and I do believe this is a movie that doesn't deserve spoilers. Other reviewers' citations about who is nude when and where and how and which sex acts are performed aren't fair either. This movie is better than that, or at least it aspires to be.

The photography and editing is clinical and detached and very much at odds with a sentimental and somewhat hokey soundtrack. The music used in one violent scene was so overly-melodramatic I found myself wondering if it was a reference to some old movie. It might have been, but I really think it was just bad stock music, and it seemed like a misstep for such an accomplished director.

There are other missteps as well, but the movie is eminently watchable, especially for gay men. It is not Gael Morel's best work by far, but if you like this and haven't seen his other movies, you will want to.

It's such a great love story it brings together the pain of how homosexuals have to live but yet you can't feel sorry for they intentionally Go out of their way to hurt people just to survive but they take it to a little bit of an extreme it kind of shows you how during the whole movie it's almost as if you don't feel bad for what they're doing because they make you think it's what they have to do to survive but if we were to see this from a different point of view we would see that what they're doing is wrong and in a criminal act the fact that they're in love kind of makes you feel like what they're doing isn't so bad because they're doing it for love but that is wrong they are killing ceiling just to find happiness little did they know they could find happiness trust within each other and they have but they took what they had for granted and wanted more this is definitely a highly recommended movie I've loved it!