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Presque rien (2000)
Director: Sébastien Lifshitz
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A queer, elusive slip of a film, this before and after tale of a failed first gay love affair effaces drama, motivation, and ultimately itself, rather. More Proust-lite than Soderbergh, it slips to and fro in time - between breezy summer and bluesy winter, coming out and fall-out - not for fun or show, but simply perhaps to compound and contextualise emotions. Still, it's something of a puzzle. Director Lifshitz's aesthetic control is so tantalising, he leaves the impression there are secrets he's not quite relinquishing. Playful summer days on the Brittany coast are recalled by Mathieu (Elkaïm), returning alone a year and a half later in decidedly sobered mood. He's hardly the extrovert type anyway, but whereas the silent allure of a vacationing local man, Cédric (Rideau), initially elicits a sense of adventure, some subsequent untold derailment has taken him to the brink of suicide. Quietly composed of discreet disclosures, the film is mainly about moment-to-moment impressions which Lifshitz lets unfold from a respectful distance. It's beautifully inscribed, so far as it goes, but the understatement is overwrought. Even the title ('Almost Nothing') seems evasive.Author: NB
Cast & crew
Director: Sébastien Lifshitz
Producer: Christian Tison
Cast: Jérémie Elkaïm, Stéphane Rideau, Marie Matheron, Dominique Reymond, Laetitia Legrix, Nils Öhlund, Réjane Kerdaffrec full cast
Duration: 98 mins
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