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Amid rallies, protests, fierce debates and ecstatic


dance parties, newcomer Nathan (played by Arnaud Valois) falls in love with Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), the group’s radical firebrand. Their passion sparks against the shadow of mortality as the activists fight for a medical breakthrough.BPM is movingly intimate but boasts an impressive sense of large scale on a small budget, especially during its Pride scenes. Any LGBT viewers alive at the time will recognize many of the issues and actions depicted in the film. These included sexually graphic ad cam- paigns and spraying politicians with fake blood, although the recipients didn’t initially realize the blood was artificial. Director/co-writer Campillo accomplishes the tricky task of showing ACT UP’s excesses without denigrating the organization. This is significant since he knows them first-hand, as he revealed during a recent phone interview withThe Rage Monthly shared with his two leading men. “I was involved with ACT UP in Paris for about


five years starting in 1992,” the Morocco-born Campillo revealed. “I came back toward the end of the 1990s so I was probably involved for ten years in all.” At the time, there were approximately 6,000 new HIV cases in France each year. Like its New York chapter, ACT UP Paris’s impact was ultimately blunted by infighting among its leaders. This is shown inBPM but Campillo directs throughout with a riveting, non-judgmental verve. Campillo is known to many viewers for his previous acclaimed films Eastern Boys, about a male Ukrainian prostitute, and The Class. He also wroteThe Returned, a eerily effective French TV series about dead villagers returning to life that he helped adapt for American television, though BPM is a decidedly more personal effort for him. “I came to ACT UP in 1992 but for many years I didn’t realize I could do a film about it,” he said. “I thought about doing a movie about the AIDS epidemic but only later realized it could be about my personal experience.” Campillo has considerable insight into the health crisis both then and now, as evidenced by his finished film. This contrasts sharply with his two less-informed


but nonetheless dedicated lead actors. “I was nine in 1992, so I did not remember ACT UP but I do remember the giant condom (they placed) over the obelisk in Paris,” Valois recalled with a laugh. “I discovered AIDS in the movies or TV but fortunately did not have any family members or friends with it.” His character in the film, Nathan,


is equally naive at first. Upon meeting Sean at an ACT UP meeting, Nathan asks “What’s your job?” Sean replies in no-nonsense fashion, “I’m poz, that’s all.” Valois’s co-star, Nahuel (pronounced “Noel”)


Pérez Biscayart, spoke of his similar upbringing. “I really dived into the story and script,” he said. “I was nine or ten years old at the time depicted, so I knew very little.” Biscayart, who was born in Argentina, also admitted to not having any personal knowledge of someone living with HIV/AIDS. You wouldn’t know his lack of first-hand experience from his intense performance, which necessitated considerable weight loss. Valois and Biscayart have several steamy


scenes together in the film, which I couldn’t resist asking about. “It was a challenge (to film them) because it’s not just about the sex,” Biscayart said. “It was about the characters really opening up to each other.” Another factor adding to the difficulty of such scenes, “There are many people


NOVEMBER 2017 |


NOVEMBER 2017 | RAGE monthlyRAGE monthly


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