Close
Underneath the Belgian summertime sun , Léo ( Eden Dambrine ) and Rémi ( Gustav De Waele ) partake a friendship as intimate as it is innocent . This sinlessness is disrupted andCloseis the story of that disruption . When outside force-out make their way of life into a relationship they have no place in , alter it forever , how do two young boys hear to navigate the humankind deal with that loss ? The answer is both shattering and hopeful as author - director Lukas Dhont ’s sophomore feature let out a arresting portrait of before and after , of the intimacy of friendship and the devastation of lose it , all with Dambrine ’s astonishing performance at the nub .
Léo and Rémi , two 13 - twelvemonth - old , spend the summertime as boys are wo nt to do — obscure from make - believe soldier and whisking through the fields of blossom where Léo ’s fellowship works . sempiternal sleepovers and hushed conversation reveal the parsimoniousness shared between the two in the bucolic bubble they ’ve produce . Soon , though , schooltime commencement , and Léo and Rémi ’s family relationship is put under the scrutiny of their peers ' alert eyes . Affection give way to fear and , when Léo begins to distance himself from Rémi , the transition from youthful artlessness to adolescent cognizance becomes too much to bear for Rémi .
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Closedebuted at the Cannes Film Festival last year , four long time after Dhont won the Camera d’Or and the Queer Palm for his controversial filmGirl . Closewon the Grand Prix , sharing it with Claire Denis’Stars at Noon . The moving picture was alsonominated for Best International Film at the 2023 Academy Awards , and it ’s not hard to see why . With an acute eye , Dhont narrate his story through closely observed moments rather than dialogue - laborious scene , a choice that lends the picture a heightened common sense of closeness complemental to Léo and Rémi ’s human relationship , which continue equivocal throughout the film .
After the release ofGirl , Dhont initially say that his next celluloid would have a rum persona at its center . In the end , Close ’s equivocalness in regard to the intimate identity of its two young booster cable is a option that makes the film a much more touching interrogatory of male friendship and how the mankind does n’t let boys — queer or not — love each other . Whether Léo and Rémi ’s affection for each other extends beyond something platonic is a question that never gets serve , and it ’s all the more tragical that they were n’t given the time to muse because of the outside force that make their way of life into the boy ' idyll .
The effect that this human relationship has on Léo and Rémi is what matters and De Waele and Dambrine present an worked up complexity that is stunning to behold . Dambrine has much more to do , especially in the latter half of the moving picture , but he carries the burden with a resolve that make it all the more heartbreaking when the cracks do begin to show . Grief creeps into the corners of the picture and watching Léo slowly realize what he has lost is a catgut - wrenching process , especially when it ’s juxtapose against the tender nerve that is Émilie Dequenne , who plays Rémi ’s mother Sophie . Léa Drucker , who asterisk as Léo ’s mother Nathalie , is an anchorman for the celluloid , even as she see helplessly while her youngest son is squeeze to deal with immeasurable loss .
Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele in Close.
Ultimately , what makesCloseso vanquish is the journeying Léo is left with beyond the unerasable last image . Dhont dispense with an obvious close for a more understated windup , one that underscores the idea that , in the aspect of irreparable release , Léo is one of the lucky 1 . In some manner , he will be able to move on and heal . Rémi wo n’t get that fortune . Dhont chooses forgiveness , not malice or rancor , even though it would , in some ways , be rationalise .
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Closeis now playing in prize theaters . The film is 105 minutes long and rated PG-13 for thematic material involving suicide and abbreviated strong language .
Eden Dambrine, Émilie Dequenne, and Gustav De Waele in Close.
Gustav De Waele and Eden Dambrine in Close.
