Just a Question of Love

Laurent is at an agricultural college and has told his family nothing. His cousin was gay and died young; it is not spoken of in the family. Laurent shares a flat with his friend Carole and presents her to his family as his girlfriend. Then he meets Cedric where he is doing his placement. Cedric told his family years ago and his mother accepted it. The two of them begin a relationship. Laurent is still hiding. Cedric carries that for a while and then cannot. Christian Faure directs. Cyrille Thouvenin, Stephan Guerin-Tillie, Caroline Veyt and Eva Darlan are in the cast. It is a French production, made for television. The matter it treats is the telling; the film presents coming out not as a moment but as a continuing weight. The narrative sets two families against each other; one has accepted it, the other has never opened the subject. The part played by Cedric's mother is the warmest place in the film. It was broadcast on French television and reached a wide audience; its subject was much discussed at the time. The narrative is open to melodrama and some scenes aim straight at feeling. The production is small in scale; the locations are plain and the camera simple. The narrative keeps rural France and the silence inside a family in the background. The ending closes on a scene of telling. Its limit is simplicity; the characters are thin, the conflict predictable, and the ending easy. Who it is for: viewers who like gay coming of age drama and French television films. Who it is not for: the production is plain, it is predictable, and the ending emotional.