Spoilers cannot be avoided.
After an idyllic summer together in the Belgian countryside, two thirteen-year-old boys, Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele), are about to start high school. The boys exhibit a deeply intimate affection for one another. They sleep next to each other in the same bed in Rémi’s bedroom. Their love appears innocent and asexual since neither has started puberty – although this cannot be far away. Rémi’s parents accept the boys’ relationship and treat Léo like a second child.
In their new school, however, everything changes. A bunch of mean girls openly ask if the two are a couple. Léo vehemently denies it, while Rémi doesn’t comment on it. One night, while sleeping over at Rémi’s, Léo sleeps on a separate mattress. Upon waking up, he finds Rémi sleeping next to him.
Then one-day Rémi is absent………
In the opening 45 minutes of “Close,” Belgian director Lukas Dhont captures an intimacy that is extraordinary in its delicacy. After Remi’s suicide, the film gradually transforms into a more conventional grieving scenario as Léo and Rémi’s mom, Sophie (Emilie Dequenne, superb, as always), grows closer even if she cannot completely forgive him for his part in her son’s death.
A near-masterpiece. This is a film that must be seen.
https://thebrownees.net/essay-one-1-2-65-queer-films-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967/
65 Queer Films Made Under the Hays Code (1934-1967) Part One. – TheBrownees
65 Queer Films Made Under the Hays Code (1934-1967). Part Two. – TheBrownees
65 Queer Films Made Under the Hays Code (Table) – TheBrownees
45 Queer Films from 1967-1976: Queer Cinema Comes Out – TheBrownees
