Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I know that Patrice Chéreau (1944-) is not the go-to guy for Gallic charm and bright primary colors. I don’t remember much about “L’homme blessé” (1983) other than that I found it repellant. I was underwhelmed by "Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train" (1998—to Limoges where a painter played by Jean-Louis Trintignant specified he should be buried). I’m sure that many would label Chéreau’s film adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s Intimacy “repellant.” I’d choose :gritty” or “uncompromising” and definitely “dark.” But I consider Chéreau’s 1985 “La reine Margot” (Queen Margot) something of a masterpiece, though admittedly a very blood-drenched one, with a sizzling Isabelle Adjani and Vincent Perez (plus Virna Lisi as Catherine de Médicis). (And I admire his (decidedly unpretty!) stagings for Pierre Boulez of “The Ring of the Nibelung,” “Lulu,” and, more recently “From the House of the Dead,” that have been telecast here).

Knowing that “Son frère” (His Brother, based on a novel by Philippe Besson) portrayed a gay brother asked by his older, straight brother to help him, I decided to work the 2003 movie into my gay-whatever June writeoff. I could not say that I liked the movie. I’d recycle the word “gritty” to characterize it. I especially didn’t like the graphic insertion of hypodermic needles, though I managed to avert my eyes and still have never seen a needle go into me or anyone else (something of an accomplishment given that I was in a clinical trial in which blood was tested every few days once upon a time).

Hospitals give me the creeps, and much of “Son frère” is set in one. Thomas (Bruno Todeschini) has some mysterious ailment that destroys his platelets. He has been living with Claire (Nathalie Boutefeu) who saw him through a three-month hospitalization about which his younger, gay brother Luc (Eric Caravaca) knew nothing. The adult brothers have not been close and Luc is survived when Thomas phones, asking to come over, and then asks Luc to take him to the hospital for more tests.

I think that Thomas has good reason to be cranky, and I can see reasons for him to be as annoyed with their father (Fred Ulysse) as the father is with his son’s “bad attitude.” At one point visiting Thomas’s hospital room, the father says he wishes that Luc had been stricken instead. Not to sacrifice his gay son and spare his straight son, but because Luc would fight for his life and beat the disease.

Having been recalling “Angels in America” from watching a Tony Kushner documentary, I really was not in the mood to deal with debilitating disease, but shouldn’t blame the movie for being what it is. Bruno Todeschini probably deserved his César best actor nomination (and Lumiere Award) as the unsympathetic brother who must withstand medical treatment (I like his no-nonsense physician, played by Catehrine Ferran) and accept help, though exercising agency in choosing a primary care-giver (Luc, much to Luc’s surprise). There are recriminations as well as fond memoies about the past, and Thomas finds it easier to talk to  Luc’s (non-live-in) boyfriend Vincent (Sylvain Jacques) than to his resentful brother (or impatient parents and cohabitating girlfriend).

I’ve never seen Brittany look as uninviting as it does in this movie. There is recurrent male nudity that is casual, not at all erotic, needles, surgery scars, and Thomas being shaved before surgery from pubus to armpits (looking incongruous with hairy legs and the 3-day beard stubble both he and his brother maintain throughout the movie).

If you’re in the mood for pity overcoming resentment between brothers, this is the movie for you. I thought it was a downer short on catharsis and definitely devoid of sentimentality. I thought there were too many closeups, so that, like “Cyrus” (which is joyous in comparison),“Son frère” looked like a tv-movie (Lifetime channel… except uncompromising and less prettified).

Chéreau won a Golden Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival, where “Intimacy” had won one as best film. The he won a César Best Screenplay award for “L'Homme blessé” puzzles me, though, as I said, my memory of it is fuzzy.

There are no DVD bonus features and it takes several minutes to get to the movie. The soundtrack is  "Sleep" (twice), a mournful ballad sung by Marianne Faithfull, who had a featured role in "Intimacy."

For a dying-young movie, I'd recommend "Time to Leave" in preference to this.

©2012, Stephen O. Murray

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD