A few days ago, the Cannes Film Festival opened, a film feast that lasted for 70 years, once again lit up with starlight.
It is worth mentioning that the famous Spanish gay director Pedro Almodóvar sat on the chairman of the jury. In the main competition section, there is French director Robin Campillo's "120 Blows per Minute", a film that premiered in Cannes, which was praised by the media on social networks, and some people even claimed:
This will be another LGBT film that can enter the history of Cannes film, and it is bound to be a strong contender for this year's Queer Palm Awards.
In contrast to the Palme d'Or, the Queer Palm Awards, established in 2010, recognize art films that are "artistic and pay considerable attention to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender themes".
A total of seven feature films and six short films will compete for the 2017 Queer Palm Awards this year, and the current acclaimed "120 Hits Per Minute" is in the lead in this competition section.
Unlike the American film "Ordinary Heart", which also tells about the AIDS struggle, "120 Blows Per Minute" does not express political demands in a flat and straightforward way, but clearly shows the real situation of AIDS and sexual minorities in France in the 90s through group portraits.
"120 Strikes Per Minute" tells the story of the AIDS storm that swept across the capitalist world in the 1990s. Unhappy with pharmaceutical companies' monopoly of scientific research, young people formed the radical group Act Up and took to the streets to fight social indifference. Two young comrades threw themselves into the cause of anti-AIDS together, but eventually parted ways because of the conflict of ideas.
In this film, the male protagonist Sean is an HIV carrier, even if he is suffering from an incurable disease, But Sean does not show any fear of death, he is busy in the community to advise, actively rush to the front line of the protest activities, in the face of homophobic crowds he dares to kiss his companions in response to each other's provocations, and thus gained a love.
However, love cannot stop the invasion of AIDS, and death is like a ghost waiting to come at any time. But while Sean the Fighter is gone, the goal he pursues is still there, and his soul is still pursuing.
Robin Campillo
Directed by the famous French screenwriter Robin Campillo, his screenwriting work "Classroom Storm" won the Palme d'Or at the 61st Cannes Film Festival, and his debut film "Eastern Boys" won the Grand Prix in the Horizon section of the Venice Film Festival.
At a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, director Robin Campillo expressed his thoughts on his motivations, his understanding of the Paris-based radical group Act Up, and the portrayal of the real suffering of AIDS reflected in the film.
What does Act Up Paris mean to you?
Campillo: I joined the organization in April 1992, more than 10 years after the AIDS outbreak. As a gay man, I spent the entire 80's in fear.
In the early '90s, I saw on television an interview with Didier Lestrade, one of the founders of the organization, who talked about an already established "AIDS community" inhabited by people suffering from AIDS, close relationships between patients, and health care workers fighting AIDS. In the absence of attention from society at the time, these health care workers received the least amount of support. His interview broke the silence that had lasted for more than a decade, and that's when I decided to join Act Up paris.
The first time I attended the organization, I was struck by the dynamism it exuded, and given that we were at the height of the epidemic, it was quite rare for people to talk about AIDS freely. Gay men who contracted AIDS in the 1980s and fell into despair openly became the main fighters in the fight against AIDS.
They actively influence those around them, spreading AIDS-related knowledge to the public, teaching them the technical characteristics of AIDS medical expression and political elaboration in the struggle for collective rights.
But, at the end of the day, Act Up is made up of individuals with strong personalities, and in other contexts, there seems to be no reason for them to come together. The strength of the campaign against AIDS is likely to come from the huge spark that has collided between this group of people who are trying to seek common ground while reserving differences and reaching common demands.
Although I am just an ordinary member of the organization, I am quite active. I joined the medical board and participated in many operations, some of which inspired the film. At that time, it was important to understand that talking about condoms in high school and asking drug users to exchange needles was not standard. At that time, homophobia was the standard. Indeed, we forget how society has evolved from then to now. Regarding what things used to be, people seem to tend to choose collective amnesia.
A meeting scene that appears several times in the film
How did you define the film, refactored or autobiographical?
Campillo: Of course, the film is fictional, and even when I tried to reconstruct in the film the many great discussions and actions that took place at that time, I was quite comfortable embedding them in the narrative, rather than bluntly and abruptly reflecting them as they were.
I really wanted young people to face the story, and working with young actors allowed me to avoid the urge to imitate real people, although I thought it was important to bring the intensity of the discussion and the musicality of the characters' voices into the film. Once I found that balance, the personality of the character broke through the limitations of imitation and naturally emanated without restraint.
So, the presentation of public meetings allows you to translate the political narrative into the theme of a movie?
Campillo: The presentation of the public meeting is one of the main aspects of the film, but also goes beyond the conference itself. Act Up's central strategy is to concretely visualize aids as a disease in the fight, the devastated body that aids has devastated.
In the campaign against the pharmaceutical company Melton-Pharm, Sean told the director of the pharmaceutical company, "This is what aids people look like, and if you have never seen the body dragging the disease, you are in front of you." "AIDS people are always ignored and people seem to be invisible, but through the embodiment of flesh and blood itself is a very important political theme. In this film, embodiment is both a political attitude and a film choice.
The film's creators appeared at this year's Cannes Film Festival
Euthanasia is performed at the end of the film, do you think Sean died of AIDS?
Campillo: The film leaves an open-ended question about Sean's stage of AIDS development. In general, Sean's situation should deteriorate as the film progresses. But I think it's important to show everything he's in the tunnel: everything never goes back, and when connected to the outside world, it reaches the point of vulnerability.
For Sean, the problem is to bear it all and wait for life to end. There were many secret euthanasias during the AIDS outbreak, and perhaps it is only now that people are talking about it.
"Beat every minute" means the beat of the music or the beating of the heart, and from the name of the movie, you seem to emphasize the role of music more?
Campillo: Honestly, not everyone likes house music, and not everyone goes to the night show after every action. But this musical attraction allows me to touch a specific moment in time.
I can't help but think that this music, whether cheerful or ominous, can serve as a background music for this period. So, in my opinion, this music is more reminiscent of the early days of the AIDS outbreak.
Is there any urgency to make such a film today?
Campillo: At this particular moment, choosing to make this film over other films, in my opinion, is obviously for a reason, because I need to do that. I wanted to tell the story because I felt like no one had told it yet, and it needed to be spread more widely than nostalgia.
I don't think movies have a direct impact on politics, nor do I resort to some antidote that doesn't work now. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with nostalgia, because it is impossible to imagine that we will forget the violence of those years.
In this film, a faint sadness can be clearly felt: we have lost those we respect, those we love, and those who share laughter together. But, I think, the film is more about those of us who survived and who have struggled with AIDS to this day.
(Excerpt from the director's question at the cannes film festival "120 blows per minute" press conference)
Cover News - West China Metropolis Daily reporter Ning Ning