Saturday, October 18, 9:00 PM
Cinema 21

Leo, at 21, is the oldest of four brothers in a very tight-knit, open family. Everyone in the family knows he’s gay and are accepting of him. In fact, in one scene, the older brothers stay up late and discuss Marcel’s sex life openly and frankly. But when Leo informs the family that he has AIDS, it devastates the family and tests their bonds. Worries that he is too young to deal with the news, they decide to keep this information from the youngest brother, the 11-year-old, Marcel. But as the family gropes to come to terms with the situation, Marcel begins to understand something is wrong and resents being left out. CLOSE TO LEO is a very contemporary AIDS story in that it deals more specifically with the affect it has on loved ones, rather than the disease itself. As the family and Leo come terms with the situation, we see a lot of the events unfold through Marcel’s perspective which imbues the film with a innocence and curiosity that is reminiscent of Truffaut’s 400 BLOWS.

Dir. Christophe Honoré
2001 France 90 min French with English subtitles