Presented in the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival, Plaire, aimer et courir vite follows the story and the race of Jacques, a homosexual writer with AIDS, who meets Arthur and can't help but dream of another life. Touching comedy and beautiful tragedy, the film borders on our feelings, without ever falling into pathos. A very successful personal film.
The three characters of Plaire, aimer and run fast resonate like the three verbs that make up this title. To please, for Mathieu (Denis Podalydès), Jacques' neighbor and friend who does not dare to sketch a relationship out of fear and lack of self-confidence. Mathieu is content to please, and to be charmed by the men he meets, without risking going further. To love, for Arthur (Vincent Lacoste), who in the carefree youth, falls in love with a man for the first time. He then dreams of his life with him, denying even his illness, not accepting this murderous reality. And finally run fast, for Jacques (Pierre Deladonchamps), who prevents himself from living happily and flees from any prospect of being loved, while running irretrievably after.
This character, deliberately unsympathetic and involuntarily endearing, is all the strength of Plaire, love and run fast. Perhaps thanks to this very well worked character and which seems so personal to its author; surely thanks to the poignant performance of Pierre Deladonchamps who manages to find this right balance and to make feel all the doubt with which Jacques is filled, and at the same time all his determination. James makes turns and U-turns, and establishes a distance with the vow that he sensually abrogates. The unique shots of characters are thus transformed into magnificent scenes of impossible connections, and we will think particularly of the very beautiful moments in Jacques' bath, or in Arthur's room, phone in hand.
Like its hyperactive credits, the film takes us on this race against disease; Gently, certainly, but with these tragic moments that are like so many reminders that the outcome of this story will not be the one dreamed and hoped for. Here, time is not in combat as it could be in 120 beats per minute.Here, we take the time we need, even if we do not have it. We dwell on lightness, even as reality waits at the bottom of the building. We try to hide from the disease as long as we can, as long as others are not there to remind us. Here, the time is even for hope, for the life that Arthur has in front of him, like a Parisian construction site photographed in the 80s. The time is for literature; We dwell on the words chosen, we pay attention to them. Time is sacred, like a waltz that must one day stop.
This story is carried by a bluish beauty that can be found everywhere, both in hospital rooms and in love rooms (the two mixing well), both in the blue skies filled with hope and in the boxes of medicine. This blue filter that follows Jacques everywhere from the meeting with Arthur in the cinema until his last appearance behind these mechanical doors, is synonymous with both happiness and melancholy; He transforms according to the moods of his character. However, photography could be criticized for lacking audacity sometimes, often oscillating between sobriety, lightness and gravity, without taking risks as the hero can take. But we will forgive him willingly, as we forgive the script some lengths, synonymous with Jacques' hesitations.
To please, love and run fast, by his arch-personal treatment of the disease and his remarkable interpretation, manages to make us go beyond the commonplaces of such a subject, and to focus on the human and all his contradictions. Christophe Honoré signs a poignant film, to see without further delay.
Trailer Please, love and run fast :
