Juste une question d'amour (2000) (TV)

Director:

Christian Faure

Writers:

Christian Faure (adaptation)
Annick Larboulette (head writer)

Release Date:

26 January 2000 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Est-ce qu'on aime vraiment nos enfants autant qu'on le prétend?

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Poetry | Gay Lead Character | Gay Kiss | Rejection | Student

Cast

Cyrille Thouvenin	...	Laurent
Stéphan Guérin-Tillié	...	Cédric
Eva Darlan	...	Emma
Danièle Denie	...	Jeanne
Idwig Stephane	...	Pierre
Caroline Veyt	...	Carole
Laurence César	...	Martine
Jean-Pierre Valère	...	Georges
Raphaëlle Lubansu	...	Noëlle (as Raphaëlle Bruneau)
Jean-Baptiste Lefèvre	...	Didier
Aurélie Godichal	...	Marine
Jonathan Fox	...	Alain
Marcel Dossogne	...	M. Bermand
Bruno Georis	...	Médecin Emma
Diego Vanhoute	...	Mathieu

Also Known As:

Just a Question of Love (International: English title)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

France | Belgium

Language:

French

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Netherlands:12

Company:

Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC)

Trivia:

Watched by 6.3 million viewers, a very high score (28.6% market share), when first shown in prime time (9 pm) on French public network France 2. In the following two weeks, the network only received three protest letters, while both male stars got more than two thousand letters of praise each. Reviews had also been widely enthusiastic.

Quotes:

Cédric: [after their first time] Scared I'd knock your lights out in the car?
Laurent: It was hardly likely!
Cédric: Really?
Laurent: Only a fag would be living with his mum at your age.
Cédric: You're a real prick.
[Laurent nods]

the French get it right in this film genre..........as usual

It's got to be said that these 2 French actors (Thouvenin and Guerin-Tillie) have Chemistry. That's spelled with a capital "C"...(and, well, you just gotta make the "H", the "E", the "M" and all the rest of 'em, capital letters, too). Plus, as actors, these guys are not afraid to express their feelings by making that extra gesture of a passing touch or hand-on-arm (how often we don't see this from our American actors). There's a very striking feeling projected by this film that really makes you have to wonder: if these guys weren't already in love prior to filming, then surely mustn't they have become so during the process.......at least that's what their performances so vividly project to the audience. It's what one is left with after watching this film: THAT WAS REALLY LOVE! What greater mark of success could be asked for, or achieved, in setting a gay romance on film?

One other important point on their performances: while the actors portraying Laurent and Cedric can be so explosive in their expressiveness toward each other, they also make themselves such fun to be with (as a viewer you feel as if you're right there, actually sharing their fun, excitement and joy in discovering sex and love with each other). Make note of these things as you watch, and see if the old pulse-rate doesn't go up on more than one occasion......and your "chuckle-bone" will get a good workout as well. What it all boils down to is simply that seeing and experiencing their strongly expressed feelings for each other is worth a 1000 times the price of admission.

As a little bit of a postscript, this reviewer just has to add--Rarely has a movie title been more fitting and meaningful than this one's, especially as it is explained and demonstrated in the heartrending denouement which takes place between father and son in the final moments of the film. "Really," it tells us, "after everything else has come, been considered, and gone, all that's left and important is......just a question of love!"

As a final postscript--To say that this French director's work is award worthy, is the grossest of understatements.

SCENES TO WATCH OUT FOR:

--Don't miss this couple's first one-on-one in the agricultural lab which is to be their joint workplace: It's a first-meeting-and-feeling-each-other-out scene in which sparks fly---the tension between them fairly crackles.

--And one should definitely note: This pair's first post-coital scene is so full of satisfaction and obvious feelings for one another that those emotions practically jump off the screen. It's only topped, moments later, during a scene in which "Mom" walks in on the pair, unannounced----it's beyond priceless.

--Even more telling is the "water-fight" scene: You've never seen such fun and joy over being together expressed by a gay couple in any previous movie. No wonder this scene leads to the one which it does.

****