Directed by Robin Campillo
Where & When: Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, CA. October 30, 2017 7:30 PM
"BPM (120 battements par minute)", a moving and compelling drama from Robin Campillo, looks back not so long ago on the fervent battle of French AIDS activists against the slow-moving pharmaceutical companies and the ineffective response by the government. It would appear to be an uneven fight yet desperate times call for extreme measures and ACT-UP was ready to do whatever it takes to be heard. Marching loudly in the streets, unannounced visits to high schools to hand out condoms and teach safer sex and splattering fake blood on property are just a few of the activities this group did to get people to pay attention to them. This drama, which won four awards at this year's Cannes Film Festival including Grand Prix (runner-up prize of Best Film) and was selected as France's entry for the Best Foreign-Language Award at this year's Academy Awards, serves as a powerful reminder of those people we tragically lost to this disease and those individuals who fought so that they would not be forgotten.
ACT-UP (which stands for AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was a militant advocacy group formed in the late 1980's in New York. Fed up with the delayed process of medical treatment and the almost complete inaction from the U.S. government on dealing with this health crisis, gay men and lesbians came together, using civil disobedience to protest and demand a national policy to fight the disease. With the French government's reaction to this crisis no better than the States, a Paris-based chapter of ACT-UP was formed.
"BPM" is set in the early 1990's when it was much clearer on how people contracted HIV but there were still very few meds available to help those infected with the most popular being AZT which could be highly toxic and create other health complications. There are rumors of new drugs being developed called protease inhibitors which would prevent viral replication. Yet at the time, many were skeptical of their long-term effectiveness.
ACT-UP was organized as leaderless with actions and proposals brought to the committee to be debated before coming to a vote. And because of this, there is plenty of intense discussions and bickering over tactics and an effective direction of the group with some better expressing their ideas than others. While the group is made up mostly of angry and frustrated gay men, there are also a few concerned lesbians and a mother and her young hemophiliac son there to voice their opinions and lend their support.
We meet several members of this divergent group but the focus is on Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), an understandably prickly, HIV positive young man who realizes his time is limited and doesn't want to waste a moment. He wants to get out and take radical action against all those standing in the way of saving lives. A new member, Nathan (Arnaud Valois) is attracted to Sean and they slowly develop a romance but Nathan is negative which creates some complications to their relationship. And soon, Sean becomes sick. With Nathan and Sean's mother (Saadia Ben Taieb) there to help care for him, we watch in harrowing detail as his body begins to whither and fail him as the lively spark in his eyes is slowly dimmed.
Mr. Campillo began his career as an editor before moving on to screenwriting, doing acclaimed work with director Laurent Cantet on "Time Out" (2001), "Heading South" (2005) and the 2008 Palme d'Or winner and Best Foreign-Language Film nominee, "The Class". Recently he has impressed with his writing and direction on the 2013 drama, "Eastern Boys".
The filmmaker along with his co-writer Philippe Mangeot were both involved with ACT-UP and used their experiences during that time to help fill their story with detailed and accurate depictions from within the group. With so many characters involved, most do not have the opportunity to be fully fleshed out yet there still manages to be a lot of dialogue, particularly during lengthy, passionate discussions at the meetings. While some of this can be informative, it tends to drag the pacing of the film down, losing momentum and feeling unnecessarily drawn-out.
"BPM" succeeds best when we see ACT-UP in action, enthusiastically and creatively causing disruption to make their point. And in between all of the rage, fear and distress, we are also treated to some tender intimacy as we witness the blossoming courtship between Sean and Nathan including their first sexual encounter which surprisingly manages to be quite graphic yet still discreet.
But it is music that is used to transcend and exhilarate. Mr. Campillo shows the ACT-UP members moving and grooving on the dance floor as interludes between the more daunting moments. With their sweaty bodies swaying sensually through colored lights and eyes blissfully closed, we see that this throbbing house music will help keep their spirits up and to offer escape, at least briefly, to all of their cares and worries. One particularly poignant scene involves the use of "Smalltown Boy", the haunting 1984 dance hit from the openly-gay group, Bronski Beat, with Jimmy Somerville's gloriously piercing falsetto still able to shake you to your core.
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