Post by klep on Jun 25, 2018 7:12:23 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/25: BPM (Beats Per Minute)
FOUND FAMILIES WEEK!
Note: Today's essay provided by <redacted>
Queerness, by nature, disrupts the idea of the traditional nuclear family structure. Lack of societal acceptance means that many LGBTQIA people have been abandoned by their families of origin, and only in very recent history have we seen the legal recognition of same-sex marriages and adoption by same-sex parents. By the time we started witnessing the cultural shifts of greater understanding, acceptance, and legal progress, queer people and communities had already adapted to existing outside of the systems we couldn’t access, creating chosen families that didn’t necessarily involve legal relatives.
Robin Campillo’s BPM (Beats per Minute) is set in the early 1990s, an era in which queer chosen families were especially necessary. In response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic which disproportionately affected queer communities, family relationships formed for the purpose of caregiving, activism, and connection. BPM depicts such relationships in the context of the Paris chapter of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), the leading direct action organization of that era. We get to know a large and diverse group of characters who protest together, organize together, and dance together, even when, in true familial nature, they don’t personally get along.
At the core of the story is the relationship between Nathan (Arnaud Valois) and Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), who meet and fall in love after Nathan starts attending ACT UP meetings. Sean is positive and as his health deteriorates over the course of the film, Nathan takes responsibility for his medical care. And if this were a more traditional film about one partner taking care of another through sickness and health, that would be the whole story.
But BPM wants to show the full complexities of family, origin and chosen alike. In a particularly memorable sequence near the end of the film, Nathan is working with Sean’s mother (Saadia Ben Taieb) to care for him in his final hours. Though we seen a photograph of Sean’s mother earlier in the film, this is the first time she appears as a character, and though we don’t know whether she knew Nathan before this moment or not, she treats him just like her own son. After Sean passes, the rest of the chosen family arrives to the house one by one, greeted by Sean’s mother, who counts each person as a full and equal part of the family, even though she is meeting each of them for the first time. Among those who arrive is Hélène (Catherine Vinatier), the mother of one ACT UP’s youngest members and an activist herself; she and Sean’s mother are able to bond over their commitment to their sons while remaining part of the larger nontraditional family structure. And when it comes time for Sean’s final wishes to be respected, there’s no disagreement that both his chosen family and family of origin have a right to his remains.
It’s hard to write about BPM so briefly without feeling reductive; though death is a necessary part of the story, it is only one part of a story that is also necessarily filled with life, in all of its joy and rage and defiance. But it’s through Sean’s illness and loss that we see the ways in which families strengthen and support one another. Sean’s family includes biological relatives, romantic partners, and friends, and it is a family in which every member receives equal respect and love.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/2: Hunger
FOUND FAMILIES WEEK!
Note: Today's essay provided by <redacted>
Queerness, by nature, disrupts the idea of the traditional nuclear family structure. Lack of societal acceptance means that many LGBTQIA people have been abandoned by their families of origin, and only in very recent history have we seen the legal recognition of same-sex marriages and adoption by same-sex parents. By the time we started witnessing the cultural shifts of greater understanding, acceptance, and legal progress, queer people and communities had already adapted to existing outside of the systems we couldn’t access, creating chosen families that didn’t necessarily involve legal relatives.
Robin Campillo’s BPM (Beats per Minute) is set in the early 1990s, an era in which queer chosen families were especially necessary. In response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic which disproportionately affected queer communities, family relationships formed for the purpose of caregiving, activism, and connection. BPM depicts such relationships in the context of the Paris chapter of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), the leading direct action organization of that era. We get to know a large and diverse group of characters who protest together, organize together, and dance together, even when, in true familial nature, they don’t personally get along.
At the core of the story is the relationship between Nathan (Arnaud Valois) and Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), who meet and fall in love after Nathan starts attending ACT UP meetings. Sean is positive and as his health deteriorates over the course of the film, Nathan takes responsibility for his medical care. And if this were a more traditional film about one partner taking care of another through sickness and health, that would be the whole story.
But BPM wants to show the full complexities of family, origin and chosen alike. In a particularly memorable sequence near the end of the film, Nathan is working with Sean’s mother (Saadia Ben Taieb) to care for him in his final hours. Though we seen a photograph of Sean’s mother earlier in the film, this is the first time she appears as a character, and though we don’t know whether she knew Nathan before this moment or not, she treats him just like her own son. After Sean passes, the rest of the chosen family arrives to the house one by one, greeted by Sean’s mother, who counts each person as a full and equal part of the family, even though she is meeting each of them for the first time. Among those who arrive is Hélène (Catherine Vinatier), the mother of one ACT UP’s youngest members and an activist herself; she and Sean’s mother are able to bond over their commitment to their sons while remaining part of the larger nontraditional family structure. And when it comes time for Sean’s final wishes to be respected, there’s no disagreement that both his chosen family and family of origin have a right to his remains.
It’s hard to write about BPM so briefly without feeling reductive; though death is a necessary part of the story, it is only one part of a story that is also necessarily filled with life, in all of its joy and rage and defiance. But it’s through Sean’s illness and loss that we see the ways in which families strengthen and support one another. Sean’s family includes biological relatives, romantic partners, and friends, and it is a family in which every member receives equal respect and love.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/2: Hunger
In 2008 Steve McQueen burst on to the scene with this film starring Michael Fassbender as an imprisoned IRA member going on a hunger strike to regain political prisoner status for himself and his comrades. Join us next week for our discussion! Hunger is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/26: Goldfinger
This week's podcast pairs Brad Bird's long-awaited sequel to The Incredibles with the classic James Bond film Goldfinger. Join us Wednesday for a discussion of the film that defined a franchise. Goldfinger is available for purchase on Amazon Video.
This week's podcast pairs Brad Bird's long-awaited sequel to The Incredibles with the classic James Bond film Goldfinger. Join us Wednesday for a discussion of the film that defined a franchise. Goldfinger is available for purchase on Amazon Video.