Remember to Forget

In the last decade, film and stage actor Jacques Nolot, well-known in France, has turned himself into an autobiographical auteur by writing, directing and/or starring in fearlessly personal films. Each one finds him playing an ever-changing character named Pierre or sometimes just Jacques. In his latest, Avant que j’oublie (Before I Forget), see below for release details, Pierre is a 58-year-old gay hustler who’s HIV-positive and quite lonely. Downbeat but deeply moving, the movie offers more insight into the mind of an aging gay men than you’re likely to ever witness at a multiplex.
    
Notol conveys the emptiness and isolation in Pierre’s life through an opening sequence that lasts only a few minutes but feels like a lifetime. Stick with it and you’re in for some powerful stuff. Pierre’s meds are making him go bald, so he stops taking them, but still suffers through nasty side effects. He barters sex with young guns, pays for legal advice with a certain oral service and nurses some dark demons, all despite his impeccable appearance.
    
Fortunately, Nolot doesn’t skimp on humor, and in the end Pierre’s mundane daily routine is one heck of an eye-opener. There but for the grace of god…


Before I Forget opens July 18 in New York and August 1 in San Francisco. Also, it will screen July 13 at Outfest in Los Angeles, August 13 at the MFA in Boston, and September 6 at the Austin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.