Notre paradis

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.

Even in a relatively free country, approaching prostitution and hedonism within sexual minorities is a challenge, how to remain below porn and above hypocrisy. To a large extent, Notre paradis has managed it under depiction, but at the expense of smooth and well-grounded plot. The viewers get no explanations to several moments happened in the past, and the inclusion of Anna's family splits the script in two in an awkward manner, paving the way for trivial, yet expected ending. The performances, however, are memorable and vigorous, creating a kind of uneasiness and letting you ponder on and over "indecent" matters...

One thing is clear: one must be an open-minded person to watch this film. The visual can be pretty, but the background and apprehensions never are.

A simple recipe , easy to shock,being , in essence, a beautiful, delicate love story. A cold, precise, realistic, maybe, portrait of gay circle life. The only problem - the murders, except, off course, the last.. Dimitri Dourdaine has physical traits for be a sort of Antinous or Tadzio but, in same measure, it explores the role in fair manner. The suggestion of Hadrian Antinous couple sounds nice and works decent. At the end , maybe, the most significant scenes are the first, with admirable Jean Chrisophe Bouvet remembering his youth as beginning of circle. Surprising, more than seductive film, for suggestions, aspects of every day life explored in wise manner, the end and the gentle manner to define the characters. It is one of films who propose , at the final, more a ball of states than a story in proper sense. And that is its precious virtue. To discover loneliness, love, frustrations expressions, soft use of nudity and sex scenes, loyalty in high measure, lonely motherhood and murder as way of justice in sort of Raskolnikoff perspective. A good film for its messages first.

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.

A kind of soap or soap-and-splash opera, with well played moments (like at the beginning Jean-Christophe Bouvet flamboyantly enjoying his vinyl record). Maybe engaged by moments of soft porn, the movie doesn't step back to consider its characters, let alone have them think themselves about what they are doing. Since it involves murder, there's a problem. The title may want to suggest that the central characters are Rimbaud and Verlaine, but the artificial paradise here is a pill at bedtime. The younger, Angelo, is there to be dressed or undressed, and gives no indication he knows or doesn't care what his partner is up to. Stéphane Rideau (the elder Vassili), with a hint of gut, can't be an éphèbe anymore, but he seems to know his business as a prostitute and what roles he can now play, so it is very hard to know why he isn't able to deal with older clients. The child, young Vassili (a genetic conundrum the name), does have a better sense of the plights he is in than anyone else.