PARIS 05:91 THEO & HUGO – QFest St. Louis Review

Review by Stephen Tronicek

PARIS 05:91 THEO & HUGO screens  Friday, Mar. 31 at 9:00pm at the .ZACK (3224 Locust St., St. Louis, MO 63103) as part of this year’s QFest St. Louis. Ticket information can be found HERE

THEO AND HUGO lets the audience know very quickly that it’s a lot about how the characters are thinking rather than exactly how they are acting. It’s hard to ignore the fact that the film begins with a twenty minute, extremely explicit tour through a French gay sex club, but it’s also hard to ignore that the reason for this tour is to take the almost wordless reactions of our protagonists, Theo and Hugo, and getting us to attempt to interpret what they are thinking. It’s an orgy of sensory overload, charged with a potent EDM song and lit with the contrast of thick reds and blues. Yet, in this place of almost empty sexuality, THEO AND HUGO  meet, destined to continue their “date,” into the next day.

The film plays out like one of Richard Linklater’s Before films, but with a more artistic edge, trying to force the audience to interpret the actions of the characters, rather than having them reveal them through long bouts of dialogue that reveal character. There are plenty of moments where there is complete silence allowing us to watch the naturalistic performances slowly tell us what we need to know about these two people who have just met. There’s the nervous glances, lustful embraces, and genuinely thankful looks, all of which explain the relationship between the men in more ways than any conversation could. When they do talk, it’s scared at first, but soon it becomes charming. Geoffrey Couet and Francois Nambot play THEO AND HUGO  respectively with an alluring comfort. They also turn out to be emoters for the ages making the film strangely delectable as you piece together their relationship. This is a lovely film about the beginning of a relationship and certainly a film to see at Q-Fest.