The Big Gay Movie Festival (Part 2)

I just finished my last 5 movies and the better two happen to be foreign films.

Le Ciel Sur La Tete (Things Have Been Better) is about a successful son coming out to his parents and the consequences in towed. Jeremy has just been promoted to be the next bank manager of a prominent bank in Paris and he has paid a visit to his parents in the country to tell them the good news, plus the fact that he's gay and moving in with his boyfriend. His mother, Rosine is a reporter for a local news paper while his charming and cheerful left-wing father, Guy, is the CEO of a technology company. Shocked, the mom tries to consult his bitchy middle-aged bitter queen of a colleague and decided to love his son as usual, but the father is having a helluva hard time accepting that fact. He can't figure out what went wrong of his son's upbringing and his idiotic colleagues made it a whole lot worse. Soon arguments ensued, and his family is falling apart. The movie is very charming and studded with a lot of well written characters and a lot of laughs. It focuses more on the receivers of the news than the gay couple themselves, which is a nice change of pace. We forget the world around us sometimes. B

Cover Boy - The Last Evolution: I had a very hard time getting my head around this one. Ioan grew up in Romania and witnessed the death of his father when he was a child during the revolution of his country. His friend urge him to go to Rome together to look for better opportunities. After his friend get arreated, he stumbled in Rome looking for work and a place to sleep. Michele, a janitor of the train station took him in his apartment in exchange for part of the rent and companionship. Both Ioan and Michele had a hard time making ends meet, with Ioan on the edge of being arrested for not having a work permit and Michele getting fired first all the time because of the bad economy and he doesn't have a family to feed. They developed a strong bond as friends, and vow that one day they will open their own restaurant called 'Ioan and Michele'. One day on the street, Ioan got discovered by a female photographer and becomes a model but he has to move to Milan for the job. Michle is left alone still trying to make his ends meet. When Ioan has made enough money and going back to find Michele, all has changed. Cover boy is a sad story about loss and poverty as well as what people will do to survive. The only thing is, I don't really know if this qualifies as a gay film. It is too subtle and hidden that it could have been a film about two friends. I'm however always drawn to a good sad story though. B-

Turn around and I'm 32, aye...