– Gaël Morel shocks with “Live, die, be reborn”
Very inspired, the French filmmaker offers a luminous, romantic and dramatic film about love against AIDS. It is carried by three excellent actors, including Victor Belmondo.
Edmée Cuttat
Published today at 8:10 p.m.
French director Gaël Morel (in the middle) with, on the left, the actors Sophie Guillemin, Noah Deric, Victor Belmondo and on the right, Lou Lampros, Théo Christine and Stéphane Rideau for the photocall of “Vivre, Mourir, Renaissance” during the 77th Cannes Film Festival, May 23, 2024.
KEYSTONE/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
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Thirty years after the presentation of Les Roseaux sauvage by André Téchiné, where he began as an actor, Gaël Morel returns as a director to the Croisette with “Live, die, rebirth”, a film presented at Cannes Première. Luminous, romantic and dramatic, evoking homo and heterosexual desire, love, friendship, joy of living, sharing.
Early 1990s, in Paris. Emma (Lou Lampros) and Sammy (Théo Christine) love each other. Sammy doesn’t hide from his darling that he’s had affairs with men, but for Emma, it’s not a problem. She even finds it rather exciting. While warning her lover that from now on, she wants him all to herself. Sammy is not against it and they give birth to little Nathan.
One day, Sammy meets their neighbor Cyril (Victor Belmondo), a very gifted photographer, who imagines a series of father-child portraits. Pretext or not, the fact remains that the two men fall in love. Emma discovers it, accepts, but wants nothing to do with their affair. Gaël Morel then carefully digs into these two relationships, without there ever being any question of a menage a trois.
Things are balanced until the day AIDS comes to dynamite everything. Cyril, who has been HIV positive for a long time, remains in good health. On the other hand, Sammy, who never got tested, developed the dreaded disease before meeting Cyril, and infected Emma. On the other hand, Nathan escaped.
A thousand questions facing the fear of death
Unfolding his story over ten years, Gaël Morel offers a particularly moving film, asking a thousand questions in the face of the fear of death that sets in. How to live, survive, love with AIDS, how to project yourself into the future with this terrible uncertainty hanging over you. In this question about the time that remains, the director evokes hope, even the reality of healing and the victory of love.
This intelligent, very inspired work is carried by three excellent actors. Lou Lampros is perfect in the role of Emma, by turns understanding, generous, angry, exasperated. As Sammy carried away by illness, Théo Christine breaks our hearts, while Victor Belmondo seduces as Cyril with his skin-deep sensitivity. A real favorite.
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