sunheadbowed
First daring and then lazy, 'Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo' is a very schizophrenic piece of filmmaking that could have been something extremely effective but ends up leaving the viewer feeling apathetic.The film's opening twenty minutes features a gay orgy in a real French sex club. Bathed in a pool of red light, all actors involved in the scene (and some are probably not even actors) are fully naked with erections, and the sex is real. Despite all this, the scene doesn't feel exploitative or cheap and pornographic, it comes off as fascinating and even sexy (which is incredibly rare for modern gay films), it feels nothing like lazy gay pornography.So far, so good. The problem is that the film's excitement comes to a screeching halt when Théo & Hugo leave the sanctity of the fantasy; their union was real inside the intoxicating red light, but the film's attempt to connect the two characters outside of the orgasm is incredibly boring and even unlikeable. Like a one night stand, it's hard to care after the sex. The film quickly slips into the overly-familiar and painfully dull terrain of LGBT romance/confliction storylines: 'have we made a connection?', 'do I like him?', 'does he make me angry or does he turn me on?' -- we just don't care. Théo & Hugo consumed their spontaneous energy at the beginning of the film. Maybe they should have left it there.I'm glad that this film was made, for its HIV educational element is important, and the idea of the film is very good and challenging, but 'Théo' and 'Hugo' are given plenty of time to speak and neither has anything interesting to say. If we don't care about the characters, it's hard to care about their fate.The film is shot in real time in an effort to encapsulate an intoxicating (and probably fleeting) connection between two human being as it happens, but it never convinces. The duo encounters other lonely creatures of the night, such as black night watchmen and Syrian asylum seekers, but it's all too contrived to ever feel real.
Oscar von Seth
The title characters in "Théo et Hugo dans le même bateau" meet in a dark room and connect instantly. Then they stroll the streets of early morning Paris together. From its raunchy, explicit beginning, this charming film evolves into a sweet and somber romance, echoing of Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise"-trilogy. Consequently, Théo's and Hugo's story comes across an unforgettable and ultimately very charming affair.
dcarsonhagy
"Paris 05:59" tells a very realistic story of love between two men, Theo and Hugo. They meet in a sex club in Paris. This is the opening scene of the movie, and it is not for any prudes. And it isn't just a "wham, bam, thank you ma'am" scene. It lasts for 20 minutes and nothing is left to the imagination.The story really begins when the two lovers depart the club and on their way to someone's apartment, they realize one of them has had unprotected sex with a partner who is HIV-positive. The mere fact one of them insists they immediately go to be tested demonstrated (to me, at least) this was probably more than just a one-time tryst in a sex club. The movie delves deeper into how these two men actually feel about, well, everything. I have not seen a movie (probably since "Brokeback Mountain") that demonstrates so deeply the passion and love that can actually exist between two men. This movie is either not rated or is NC-17. There is EXPLICIT sexual activity in the first 20 minutes, and there is graphic nudity. There is also a love between two men that few films have dared to attempt to show. I loved it.
wolfsg
The first 20 minutes is pure pornography. It is not done distastefully but it is still pure pornography. While that scene is essential to the entire story, it could have been shortened to a lesser 5 or 10 minutes of lesser explicit sex without jeopardizing the story line. But if you are turned on by gay orgies then you have nothing to complain.But it is after that marathon sex scene that the film took on a completely substantial value. The performance by the two young actors is good but what makes this a masterpiece is the overall story line and flow. It is a real-time film, meaning the time frame of the story being depicted is the real time frame of the length of the film. It really draws you in - if you allow it to. In typical French fashion, it's the undercurrent tension that grips you rather than anything in-your-face. On a deeper level it reminds me a little of Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky), not in the nature of the plot but in the subtle yet strong alternating waves of emotions: between morbid fear and banal carefreeness; between romance and anger; between naive innocence and bitter reality; between hope and despair, all happening with the dark, ordinary yet enigmatically charming Paris, as the stage (you won't see any glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, nor the Sacre Coeur nor the dirty ghettos - you see the real Paris ordinaire). It is a plot that lends itself perfectly to French cinematography and style; a story that screams to be given the very French treatment of film making.
AD
