Close: Splitting Childhood into Joy and Grief

---

Storyline via IMDB:

With summer drawing to a close, inseparable 13-year-old best friends Léo and Rémi idle away the rest of the holidays before school. It is as if the two bosom buddies share an unbreakable brotherly bond beyond their comprehension–in fact, nothing can ever come between them. However, when the boys’ cloudless friendship catches the attention of their schoolmates on the first day of school, mean remarks put Léo and Rémi’s close relationship to the test. After that, nothing will ever be the same again.

---

Review:

There are lot of things in Lukas Dhont’s Close that remind me of Francois Truffaut’s childhood films. Several of the tracking shots featuring the two boys Leo (Eden Dambrine) and Remi (Gustav De Waele) running through fields of flowers and bicycling together are cribs from 400 Blows and Small Change.

The natural, fully organic acting seems authentic. The friendship is fully formed and the closeness seems inevitable. Yes, it’s verges on a homosexual awakening piece, but it can also be two boys closely attached, trying to find their place sexually and socially in the world.

Truffaut was a social explorer. Dhont is an emotional explorer. The boys attachment is close, and the tragic cheat that occurs in the middle of the film and sends the film into an exploration of childhood grief, sets the viewer back some. It’s a lazy metaphor for the coming to adulthood. Nonetheless it’s still moving and heartbreaking.

Still Leo’s and Remi’s story deserved an expansion and not a contraction, It deserved a full examination of the social and emotional-sexual transition to adulthood. Still, both parts are equally moving and manage to avoid an awkward separation.

Close gets a 3.5 out of 5 or a B+. it’s streaming on Showtime.

---

Credits:

Directed by

Lukas Dhont

Screenplay by

• Lukas Dhont
• Angelo Tijssens

Produced by

• Dirk Impens
• Michiel Dhont

Starring

• Eden Dambrine
• Gustav de Waele
  • Émilie Dequenne
  • Léa Drucker

Cinematography

Frank van den Eeden

Edited by

Alain Dessauvage

Music by

Valentin Hadjadj

Production

companies

• Menuet
• Diaphana Films
• Topkapi Films
• Versus Production

Distributed by

• Lumière (Benelux)
• Diaphana Distribution (France)

Release dates

• 26 May 2022(Cannes)
• 1 November 2022(France)
• 2 November 2022(Belgium)
• 3 November 2022(Netherlands)

Running time

104 minutes[1]

Countries

• Belgium[2]
• France[2]
• Netherlands[2]

Languages

• French[3]
• Dutch[3]

---

---