A Love to Hide (2005
Released: April 29, 2006 (Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival)
Director: Christian Faure
*****
A Love to Hide, otherwise known as Un amour a taire (it's French), tells a deceptively simple story about people protecting one another and forming a family in their hour of need. Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942 was not welcoming to Jews or gays. When Sara watches as her family is slaughtered in front of her, she runs to the only place she can remember: an old friend from vacations. Jean, the prodigal son of a launderer, is that friend and, to everyone in the world, he just hasn't found the right girl yet. However, he has his lover Philippe in a behind-closed-doors relationship. With Sara part of their family-and Jean's brother Jacques-the group try to navigate a turbulent time in their world. But when Jacques becomes jealous, throwing his brother to the Nazi's, the delicate balance this group has created is destroyed.
No film about the Holocaust can match the emotional punch of Schindler's List or the pure theatricality of Bent so it's a good thing director Faure's TV movie doesn't try. What it does, at just 102 minutes, is highlight homosexuals also persecuted by the Nazi's. As one prisoner tells Jean in a concentration camp, the gays are the lowest life form on the totem pole. And in one of the movie's most jaw droppingly horrific moments, this man gets turned to death by a flamethrower when he collapses from exhaustion. A Love to Hide doesn't necessarily concern itself with the politics or providing background to what we're seeing: each time a time jump occurs, we have to essentially guess what has happened. What it does worry about is creating individuals instead of caricatures. And, aside from Jacques, it succeeds.
What happens to Jacques, you may ask. Unfortunately, we know his story arc before it has any chance to get going. On top of that, how many times have we seen a jealous sibling do something we know they'll regret before the film is over? Apparently, it is preferable to have a brother lobotomized by the Nazi's (yes, Jean is the subject of experiments) than to keep a secret about him being gay. Jacques is so jealous, envious, of Jean because of Sara and the adulation of their father he can't see the forest for the trees. That's the caricature part I was talking about. A standard villain only somewhat redeemed by Nicholas Gob's acting ability. (I don't even want to mention the astoundingly dense ending in which everyone holds hands and sings Kumbiah.)
Would it have been better for the film to take more chances with the material, to show the brutality in the concentration camps using more than just one example? Sure. Do some of the main characters get taken out of the story entirely too quickly, making the audience wonder who the plot will focus on? Yup. Is there any sense of reasoning for Jacques' change of heart near the end of the picture, or even father Armand's? Nope. Despite those drawbacks-and others-this is still a powerful story from beginning to end guided by a "good enough" director perhaps hamstrung by the limits of the medium he's working in.
Director: Christian Faure
*****
A Love to Hide, otherwise known as Un amour a taire (it's French), tells a deceptively simple story about people protecting one another and forming a family in their hour of need. Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942 was not welcoming to Jews or gays. When Sara watches as her family is slaughtered in front of her, she runs to the only place she can remember: an old friend from vacations. Jean, the prodigal son of a launderer, is that friend and, to everyone in the world, he just hasn't found the right girl yet. However, he has his lover Philippe in a behind-closed-doors relationship. With Sara part of their family-and Jean's brother Jacques-the group try to navigate a turbulent time in their world. But when Jacques becomes jealous, throwing his brother to the Nazi's, the delicate balance this group has created is destroyed.
No film about the Holocaust can match the emotional punch of Schindler's List or the pure theatricality of Bent so it's a good thing director Faure's TV movie doesn't try. What it does, at just 102 minutes, is highlight homosexuals also persecuted by the Nazi's. As one prisoner tells Jean in a concentration camp, the gays are the lowest life form on the totem pole. And in one of the movie's most jaw droppingly horrific moments, this man gets turned to death by a flamethrower when he collapses from exhaustion. A Love to Hide doesn't necessarily concern itself with the politics or providing background to what we're seeing: each time a time jump occurs, we have to essentially guess what has happened. What it does worry about is creating individuals instead of caricatures. And, aside from Jacques, it succeeds.
What happens to Jacques, you may ask. Unfortunately, we know his story arc before it has any chance to get going. On top of that, how many times have we seen a jealous sibling do something we know they'll regret before the film is over? Apparently, it is preferable to have a brother lobotomized by the Nazi's (yes, Jean is the subject of experiments) than to keep a secret about him being gay. Jacques is so jealous, envious, of Jean because of Sara and the adulation of their father he can't see the forest for the trees. That's the caricature part I was talking about. A standard villain only somewhat redeemed by Nicholas Gob's acting ability. (I don't even want to mention the astoundingly dense ending in which everyone holds hands and sings Kumbiah.)
Would it have been better for the film to take more chances with the material, to show the brutality in the concentration camps using more than just one example? Sure. Do some of the main characters get taken out of the story entirely too quickly, making the audience wonder who the plot will focus on? Yup. Is there any sense of reasoning for Jacques' change of heart near the end of the picture, or even father Armand's? Nope. Despite those drawbacks-and others-this is still a powerful story from beginning to end guided by a "good enough" director perhaps hamstrung by the limits of the medium he's working in.
