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PARIS 05:59 THÉO AND HUGO
October 22, 2016 @ 9:00 PM - 11:00 PM
“This powerful film could unfold in almost any city and anyone who has sex in the modern gay world will identify with the issues it raises.”*
PARIS 05:59 THÉO AND HUGO
directed by Jacques Martineau and Olivier Ducastel
(In French with English subtitles, 97 min., 2016)
In a populated sex club Théo and Hugo’s bodies meet, click together and merge in a passionate embrace. After the headiness of desire and the ecstasy of their first encounter, the two young men, in the empty streets of Paris by night, make their way toward dawn, unexpected if mundane news inciting fears and emotional negoitations and tenderness as the two consider and stumble towards some possible future together? How will the next day be?
Dubbed a cross between Shortbus and Weekend, PARIS 05:59 THÉO AND HUGO does partner passion explicitly unfurled — the opening was filmed in Paris’s legendary L’Impacte — with a meditative appreciation of the delights and drama of the everyday. Théo and Hugo do meet in a moment of great intensity, but take greater risks as they wander the city at night, an unexpected crisis stirring questions about what they owe and want from each other.
Unfolding in an approximation of real time, and peopled with an encounter with a refugee, who runs a kabob stand, a conversation with an elderly woman on her early morning way to work, and an experience in an emergency room, the film is textured resonantly with inflections of contemporary urban life.
Filmmakers Jacques Martineau and Olivier Ducastel master an absorbing balance between gravity and lightness, their ultimately ebullient film a charmed and measured portrait of the discoveries of romance. No real surprise here: the Festival has enjoyed the generosity of the way they are serious about their lightness and deftly light with seriousness in their earlier films — The Adventures of Felix (2000), My Life on Ice (2002); and Côte d’Azur (2008).
Starring: Georges Daaboul & François Nambo
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*”An audacious opening sets the tone for the latest film by two of the Festival’s favourite filmmakers. Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau allow us ample opportunity to explore the interior of the legendary Parisian naked sex club L’Impacte, which is packed to the rafters. Our attention is drawn towards two young men who only have eyes for each other. They soon leave and it seems we’re settling into a romantic night of wandering the streets of Paris. However, something happens that forces both men to question their ideas about love, personal responsibility and desire. François Nambot and Geoffrey Couet are excellent as the two men; their physical performances matched by the emotional intensity of their post-sexual journey. This powerful film could unfold in almost any city and anyone who has sex in the modern gay world will identify with the issues it raises.” — Brian Robinson, BFI Flare, British Film Institute
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Winner:
+ TEDDY Audience Award, Berlin Film Festival
+ Audience Award, Best Narrative Feature, Wicked Queer Film Festival
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SPONSOR:
BESTD CLINIC
COMMUNITY PARTNER:
THE TOOL SHED
CAMPUS PARTNER:
UWM FESTIVAL OF FILMS IN FRENCH
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Tickets:
$10 General
$8 Seniors and Union Cinema passholders
Students: free!
See everything with an All-Festival pass!
Or see film(s) at the Union Cinema with a friend of two:
secure a Sixer Pass!*
(* good for admissions at Union Cinema only)
Or via the Union Cinema Box Office (30 minutes before showtime) and Peck School of the Arts Box Office. Passes are available in advanced at the Peck School of the Arts Box Office and at the Festival table during the Festival.
Peck School of the Arts Box Office is located on the ground floor of the Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts at 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd. Fall semester hours (beginning September 6): Monday–Friday, 11AM–5PM.
(414) 229-4308 // psoatix@uwm.edu
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The 31st Annual Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival opens on Wednesday, October 12th and continues October 14-23.
The Festival is presented by the Department of Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres in the UWM Peck School of the Arts.
The Festival is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Cream City Foundation, Wisconsin Gazette, 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, Milwaukee Pride, Jack H. Smith of Shorewest Realtors, Bronze Optical, and Joseph R. Pabst.