Friday, June 16, 6:00 pm, Roxie + streaming encore (individual streaming tickets sold out, but the film is available if you have the Streaming Encore Pass — but only within California)
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| Lie With Me |
Stéphane (Guillaume de Tonquédec), an openly queer writer, returns to the small town in southwestern France where he grew up, on the occasion of the bicentennial celebration for the local cognac distillery. He finds himself face to face with echoes from his past, including his host and tour guide Lucas (Victor Belmondo), who seems quite familiar. We get long flashback sequences of young Stéphane (Jérémy Gillet, pictured left) and his first love, Thomas (Julien de Saint Jean, right, also appearing in Le paradis (The Lost Boys) in this year’s festival). Over the decades since, the two had fallen out of touch, but had not forgotten one another.
Based on the best-selling novel by Philippe Besson, it’s a poignant story of loss and coming to terms with the past, deftly weaving together the present-day story with the wistful flashbacks. We watch the two boys as their life paths first begin to diverge, feeling the present-day character’s pangs of wondering what really happened and what might have been. It’s beautifully done, definitely a MUST SEE. Canal+ and Ciné+ were involved in production, so there’s a good chance it will come around on some stream or another, and maybe even a limited “art house” theatrical release. (It was released in cinemas in France in February 2023.)
Footnote about the title: the original French title, Arrête avec tes mensonges, literally means “stop with your lies,” so the English translation added a little double-entendre.
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