120 Battements Par Minute/BPM

Movie Name: 120 Battements Par Minute/BPM
Year of Release: 2017
Director: Robin Campillo
Starring: Nahuel Perez Biscayart, Arnaud Valois, Adele Haenel, Antoine Reinartz, Felix Maritaud, Ariel Borenstein, Aloise Sauvage
Genre: Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8
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Synopsis and Review:

After the well received "Eastern Boys", writer/director Robin Campillo took this feature, "120 Battements par minute/BPM" to the Cannes Film Festival of 2017, where it won the Grand Prize of the Jury, which was one of the many awards and accolades the film went on to collect. The film follows the story of a group of young men and women, who are part of the association ACT UP in Paris, during the early 1990s. As the story initially unfolds, the group is involved in protests and marches against the government and pharmaceutical organizations, both of which they collectively feel have done very little to help all the patients suffering with HIV. The narrative then shifts its focus to the particular story of Sean, one of the more vocal members of the group, who is HIV positive and gets involved with Nathan, who recently joined the group and is negative. As their relationship cements itself, Sean's health deteriorates, something that the group has witnessed with other members. As they collectively try to bring awareness to the challenges of living with such a virus, Nathan tries to take care of Sean, and help him through what they both know to be his last days.

Robin Campillo who has also had a successful career as a screenwriter, usually working with director Laurent Cantet (they collaborated on "Entre Les Murs/The Class" and "L'Atelier/The Workshop"), has managed to create with "BPM" a film that simultaneously captures the harrowing times of a particular segment of society, while also providing a deeply humane and heartfelt look at a relationship between two people who know theirs has a very dramatic expiration date. Campillo is successful at capturing the energy of the group of people involved in the movement itself, providing just enough insight to the diversity of the group itself and what makes everyone so different, encapsulating in the process, a snapshot of French society in the early 90s. As the narrative progresses, and the ties between these characters become more apparent, particularly as relationships strengthen, the film also documents the fears, longings, and desires of the group members, particularly Sean and Nathan who become a couple. It's a film made of big statements and the observation of a struggle that is very real, and smaller moments, which includes two people getting to know each other, and living with health challenges which threaten to destroy all they're building. It's humane, candid, and possessed of a great deal of honesty, which makes it all the more impactful. The cast is uniformly great, with Nahuel Perez Biscayart, Arnaud Valois and Antoine Reinartz all creating indelible performances. Great film always worth watching.