Lie with Me
A novelist returns to his birthplace for the first time in thirty-five years in Olivier Peyon’s admirable French drama.
Julien De Saint Jean and Jeremy Gillet
The lasting impact of a love affair between two seventeen-year-olds is the subject of this French drama based on an award-winning novel by Philippe Besson. If I add that the lovers are young men it may be thought that this is very much a film for gay audiences but, despite the fact that no big names are attached, Lie with Me is a quality work with wider appeal than the storyline might suggest. Given the depth that is achieved in both the writing and the acting, the story that unfolds should engage with all viewers regardless of their sexuality.
In adapting Besson’s work, the writer/director Olivier Peyon and his co-writers have opted to let the present-day story play out during a single weekend in a small town noted for its cognac and celebrating the bicentennial of the brand. The film’s central character is Stéphane Belcourt (Guillaume de Tonquédec) a successful novelist who had been born in this town and had grown-up there. He has agreed to pay a return visit having been invited to go there and to become the new cognac ambassador. However, his acceptance is linked with his own need to reflect on his past including the relationship that he had found there as a high school student with a fellow pupil, Thomas Andrieu. He had made use of that experience in his adult work as an openly gay novelist but seems to have reached a crisis point in his writing. He hopes that this return to his roots will assist in overcoming it but had not anticipated an encounter to which this leads. He had not known what had become of Thomas but he now meets a young man involved in the bicentennial event and this proves to be Lucas Andrieu (Victor Belmondo), the son of Thomas.
We soon realise that through Stéphane Belcourt Lucas wants to find out more about the father who had walked out on his family. As for Stéphane, he is naturally keen to discover what happened to Thomas after the breakdown of their relationship. In asking questions of Lucas, Stéphane speaks as a school friend of Thomas without giving any hint of just what Thomas had meant to him. In contrast to that, the film has an intertwined narrative which enables the viewer to see not only the events of the present but to follow in detail the course of the love affair from start to finish. In these scenes the young Stéphane is played by Jérémy Gillet and Thomas by Julien De Saint Jean.
My only previous acquaintance with the work of Olivier Peyon was when I saw his first feature 2006’s Les petites vacances which I found inept but here he does a very good job indeed. The writing is well judged on all levels. Thus, the timing of it when various details about Thomas and his fate are revealed could not be more apt and the characterisations are totally persuasive and fully rounded. What could seem like inconsistencies are in fact fully convincing, one example being the way in which at first Thomas seems to lead the way in the relationship with Stéphane but proves to be the one determined at all costs to keep it secret. Then, as adults, it will be Stéphane who has overcome his timidity to be open about his sexuality while Thomas will long seek to hide his. Similarly, a subsidiary figure such as the administrator Gaëlle Flamand (Guilaine Londez) is presented in more depth than one expects.
The players in this well cast film were all virtually unknown to me but every one of them gives a very good performance and it is interesting to note that Victor Belmondo is the grandson of Jean-Paul Belmondo. Most impressive of all is Guillaume de Tonquédec as the older Stéphane. Although he was seen in a supporting role in Kieslowski’s The Double Life of Véronique in 1991, that may well be the only one of his films to have been shown in the UK. Nevertheless, his subtle lived-in portrayal in Lie with Me is superb putting him in line with such great French actors of the past as Philippe Noiret and Michel Piccoli.
Lie with Me is an admirable work, one which thematically lives up to its French title which translates loosely as "Enough with Your Lies" (the English title carries a sexual connotation which if not irrelevant is less meaningful since the story here is one regretting that many gay lives are centred on concealment). If I hesitate to call the film a masterpiece it is because there is something closer to standard fiction in its conclusion including as it does a big speech by Stéphane which provides its climax. This is, in fact, well-handled and will appeal to many audiences, but it carries a popular touch which one recognises as such. However, it doesn't in any way prevent my recommending this film strongly and to the widest possible audience.
Original title: Arrête avec tes mensonges.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Guillaume de Tonquédec, Victor Belmondo, Guilaine Londez, Jérémy Gillet, Julien De Saint Jean, Pierre-Alain Chapuis, Cyril Couton, Marilou Gallais, Laurence Pierre, Dominique Courait.
Dir Olivier Peyon, Pro Anthony Doncque, Miléna Poylo and Gilles Sacuto, Screenplay Olivier Peyon with Arthur Cahn, Vincent Poymiro and Cécilia Rouaud, from the novel by Philippe Besson, Ph Martin Rit, Pro Des Clémence Ney, Ed Damien Maestraggi, Music Thylacine & Bravinsan, Costumes Oriol Nogues.
TS Productions/Canal+Ciné+/TV5MONDE/KMBO/UniversCiné-Peccadillo Pictures.
98 mins. France. 2022. UK Rel: 18 August 2023. Cert. 15.
