Before I Forget

The third in a trilogy of semi-autobiographical films by writer-director Jacques Nolot (PORN THEATER), BEFORE I FORGET is a harsh and darkly deadpan character study at the intersection of aging, homosexuality and prostitution. Pierre (played by Nolot himself) is an HIV-positive male escort on the precarious precipice of 60, set adrift by the death of his longtime sugar daddy. When his ex-lover's family cuts Pierre out of the will, the hustler's prospects for a comfortable twilight are thrown into jeopardy. Too old to get a new patron and too long steeped in the life of selling sex to find a new career, Pierre is increasingly resigned to awaiting his own death. In his inability to move forward, he instead begins to look back: he visits fellow hustlers (hiring the younger ones as sexual companions), reminisces with a therapist about his recently ended "arrangement," and finally begins to write his memoirs. Seething with Nolot's trademark lack of romance, BEFORE I FORGET nonetheless achieves profound serenity despite its warnings of the perils of age. While Pierre's situation is desperate, Nolot's performance and direction create an overall atmosphere of acceptance; what the elderly escort loses in optimism, he makes up for in awareness. Nolot self-deprecatingly reveals his own naked body not only to make clear Pierre's withering assets (highly damning in his chosen line of work), but also to hint at a sense of brazen self-assuredness--a gift, if the only one, of the character's advancing years. The filmmaker's stark, minimalist visuals and Pierre's wry, ruminating dialogue depict a life that may have lost purpose, but will never lack meaning.

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"BEFORE I FORGET is an unblinking portrait of a complicated, solitary gay man who has outlived his working years." -- Stephen Holden , (New York Times)

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