Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

zap-77497 I found this movie by chance from a movie magazine. I must say that I was expecting an average movie on gay issues. It was also in Paris and it might be interesting. The movie started with very real scenes from a sex bar in Paris (probably L'Impact). After sex bar scene, movie too all my heart, all my thoughts. As a gay guy who lived in Paris and experienced the similar scenes, I can say that none of movies can depict a love, a romance and a gay life like "Theo and Hugo" depicted. Hesitations between men for a possibility to start an affair, the desire between men, the atmosphere of sex bar, the feelings, walking lonely Paris streets as two guys, stopping in a kebab restaurant (Tarkan's song was in the background), dialogues... unbelievable... It was not like a movie.. it was like a real scenes... If you skip all gay stuff, it is a very beautiful story of a romance... very naive, very innocent...Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau must be congratulated also the players Geoffrey Couët, François Nambot. They all have done a great work. What I lived (incl. HIV+ stuff) when I was in Paris some time ago was exactly was in the movie. No exaggeration, no decoration... the movie streams like La Seine... peacefully, perfectly and glamorously. Thank you guys!

jromanbaker Being of a certain age this may well be the last true ground-breaking masterpiece that I may see in my lifetime. It is a bookend as it were to another masterpiece, Louis Malle's 'Les Amants'. I saw this when it first came out in 1958. And there are similarities. Both films for their respective times have pushed the boundaries of eroticism in cinema and both have lovers who have met the same day and ended that day with the dawn of their future together. There has been comparison with Agnes Varda's 'Cléo de 5 à 7' but this is only partially relevant, because sexuality does not seal the whole basis of that film. Jeanne Moreau and Jean-Marc Bory fall in love in an 'instant' and that same 'instant' happens to the men in 'Theo et Hugo dans le meme bateau'. Brahms does not overlay this passion, but pounding modern pop music does. It is the music of our time. In both films there are challenges ahead, and both passions may be destroyed by them. What makes this film great along with the Malle is the element of risk that is taken in choosing to follow the path of desire, and truths are said in 'Theo et Hugo' which censorship would not have permitted the lovers in 'Les Amants'. I was amazed at the words and actions in the last extraordinary scene that reveal how love can be born out of the realisation that the sexual organ of the beloved can be loved for itself and is an important component of that love. That in this film it is the male penis that is kissed and adored by the lover will be a sight of revulsion for some, a wonder and a revelation for others. This film like the Malle is deeply Romantic in the highest sense of the word. Instead of the beauty of the night world of the surrounding country side, compared to 'Caspar David Friedrich' and his paintings, in the beautifully filmed 'Les Amants' we have in 'Theo et Hugo' the magically lit streets of Paris, deserted in the early hours of the morning. This is not the Paris of Hollywood, but the ordinary streets around such areas as Stalingrad and Anvers. Places of urban peace where the two characters can explore the dilemma they are in, fight off love and then accept it quite simply because it has happened. I do not want to elaborate on the HIV aspect, because to me it seemed the rock of fate that has to be somehow overcome, just as the adultery and the leaving of a child has to be overcome in 'Les Amants'.As I have said this is a great film and it saddens me that perhaps so many will not see it, as I believe its audacity, its beauty, its infinite gentleness between two men, will put it there in the Pantheon of films to stand the test of time. Maybe in future years it will be seen as the mountain peak in French cinema that it is.Unlike some reviewers I think the actors are equal to each other, and in the final scene with its extraordinary intimacy there is a look of bewildered but enchanted delight of Geoffrey Couët's face that surpassed acting. He embodied the giving of love, and that is rare in any film. What he accepted with a look of beauty few actors in the world would accept to do, and I hope he has a great future ahead of him. Theo in all his moods captured my heart, and François Nambot captured my mind that he could dare so much, and push for so much to happen between them. This film is a poem of love.

dcarsonhagy "Paris 05:59" tells a very realistic story of love between two men, Theo and Hugo. They meet in a sex club in Paris. This is the opening scene of the movie, and it is not for any prudes. And it isn't just a "wham, bam, thank you ma'am" scene. It lasts for 20 minutes and nothing is left to the imagination.The story really begins when the two lovers depart the club and on their way to someone's apartment, they realize one of them has had unprotected sex with a partner who is HIV-positive. The mere fact one of them insists they immediately go to be tested demonstrated (to me, at least) this was probably more than just a one-time tryst in a sex club. The movie delves deeper into how these two men actually feel about, well, everything. I have not seen a movie (probably since "Brokeback Mountain") that demonstrates so deeply the passion and love that can actually exist between two men. This movie is either not rated or is NC-17. There is EXPLICIT sexual activity in the first 20 minutes, and there is graphic nudity. There is also a love between two men that few films have dared to attempt to show. I loved it.

sugarfreepeppermint The best scene of the film is definitely the opening scene, an explicit orgy in a basement backroom in an urban gay sex club that renders the platform for the two main characters to meet, and for us to become acquainted to them, at the most profound level. That same depth is never reached again throughout the rest of film. What we get are boring conversations like "what do you do?" "where are you from?" "I study so and so," etc, as they walk through some of Paris' ugliest streets. There are also a few loose references to classical French authors to fill the intellectualism quota, as well as some nuggets of dubious political propaganda. The two characters do not connect on any level, other than sex. And one notices. The dialogue is uninteresting. I am alright with cinema verité, but one has to manage to keep the viewer engaged. It didn't succeed.