Watch Close to Leo For Free

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Blistering performances.

A beautifully judged and finely balanced look at the fall-out when a family is rocked by the news that the eldest brother has HIV, this film looks at the triangle of conflict that arises when 19 year-old Leo wants 12 year-old Marcel to be told the news, and his parents don't. Trying to hide things in such a tight-knit quartet of brothers is extremely difficult and immediately futile, as the family are not sufficiently discreet when discussing it. This film examines very effectively the damage done when families are over protective. Pierre Mignard and Yannis Lespert are electric as Leo and Marcel, and Marie Bunel is quietly devastating as the mother.

In the first few minutes the theme of the movie is set. Leo announces that he is HIV+ while the youngest brother, Marcel (12 yrs), has been sent upstairs to change. Marcel returns quickly enough to overhear the bad news, or at least quickly enough to know that he missed something important. Marcel approaches the table and gets two slow affectionate kisses from everyone at the table, and then goes upstairs and cries in the tub. So the family knew the news would be difficult, and are too cowardly to deal with the youngest boy's expected anguish. Marcel is too cowardly to reveal what he knows, and stays silent.In two scenes Marcel and mother have awkward conversations, with both too scared to speak the truth.Marcel's dirty joke reveals much about the contempt the family has for confidence.Leo cowardly approach to his lover, Marcel's friend's mother, one brother not wanting to reveal the sum of his paycheck to another, the same brother blaming Marcel for losing a sale instead of acknowledging his own timid salesmanship...Yet all the characters hug, kiss, and cuddle constantly, clothed, partially clothed, and nude. Their affection is just a mask for their extraordinary cowardice.

It is projected that between 2000 and 2020, 68 million people will die prematurely as a result of AIDS. The projected toll is greatest in sub-Saharan Africa where 55 million additional deaths can be expected. Beyond the grim statistics are personal stories that we rarely hear about. Christophe Honoré describes one of the most moving in Close to Leo, a film produced for French television as part of a series dealing with issues facing young people. Though fictional, it deals with a situation that is unfortunately too common -- the effect of a diagnosis of HIV on a loving close-knit family.When twenty one-year old Leo (Pierre Mignard) tells his parents and two teenage brothers, Tristan (Rodolphe Pauley) and Pierrot (Jeremie Lippmann) that he has AIDS, the family is devastated. Out of concern for his youth, they decide to withhold the information from his youngest brother, 12-year old Marcel (Yannis Lespert) but he overhears the conversation and begins to sulk and act erratically. When Leo goes to Paris for treatment, he takes Marcel with him but the young boy confronts Leo and demands to know the truth. Leo tells him that he is ill and Marcel is sad but accepting. When he brings Marcel along to meet some former gay friends, however, tension between them boils to the surface, setting the stage for a riveting conclusion. Although I was uncomfortable with scenes in bed involving physical contact between the brothers, I feel that the sincerity of Close to Leo and the brilliant performances by Lespert and Mignard more than tip the scales in its favor. Seeing events unfold from the young boy's perspective gives the film an authenticity that reminded me of the Quebecois film Leolo and Truffaut's The 400 Blows. Unlike some American films that dance around the anguish of AIDS, Close to Leo tells a harsh truth but does so in a way that is tender and wonderfully real.

It was very heart-warming. As an expatriated french, I particularly enjoyed this "TV" movie, which I think deserves a broader distribution. The acting was good, and the bonds between each member of this rural French family seemed sostrong and so natural. No doubt a great movie about the concept of family and inclusion in the face of homosexuality and AIDS. One of the strongest aspect of the movie is this privileged relationship between the eldest son (Leo), who has contracted HIV, and the youngest son (Marcel), to whom the rest of the family try to hide the situation. The two charactersprogressively explore each other as time runs out for Leo, who is not willing to spend the rest of his life surviving under drugs...