Rent Lie with Me (2022)

Moving - Lie with Me review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Beautiful subtle French film has Tonquedec as Stephane a successful gay novelist who returns to the small provincial town where he grew up after a gap of 40 years. The main reason he left is that when he was 17 he had a very passionate affair with another boy Thomas (Saint-John) which ended abruptly when Thomas moved to his uncle’s farm in Spain - and never came back. Stephane never got over it and although he write numerous books the other figure is always an echo of Thomas. He has accepted an invite to a literary festival with him as star guest and he meets Lucas (Belmondo - the spitting image of his own grandfather ) who was Thomas’s son that Stephane never knew about. At first Lucas denies knowing Stephane’s work but it’s revealed he hat he has read them all and has worked out who the central character is in all of them . In flashback we see the affair where although Thomas is passionate enough about the physical side he remains distant and aloof on the emotional side and Stephane learns he was the same with his later wife and son. The film is the two men slowly using each others experiences to discover who the true Thomas was and using this to reconcile with the past. Tonquedec brings a quiet dignity to the character with Belmondo slowly opening up as to who he is and what he seeks. Beautifully shot it’s a really quiet moving film and got excellent reviews - 4/5