"Homme que j'aime, L' (The Man I Love)" (1997) is a sweet and passionate film that details the relationship between Martin, a gay man who works as an attendant at a swim club, and Lucas, the club's lifeguard.

Their first meeting is a bit antagonistical, but Martin is soon infatuated with the hunky Lucas and essentially "stalks" him and his girlfriend to a local restaurant that evening.

Martin makes it no secret that he is in love with Lucas, which makes Lucas uncomfortable in a way that scares him a bit, since he apparently never considered being with another man.

As it turns out, Lucas' father sees them together, and informs him that Martin has AIDS. When confronted about it, Martin initially plays that revelation to get Lucas to spend more time with him, but his genuine love for Lucas makes him later push him away, wanting to spare him the end stages of his disease. Very realistic characterizations.

This is primarily a gay love story in its purest form, with a "coming of age" bent and positive message that one should never give up on life or love.

Photographed and acted very well, it was originally produced for French TV, and released theatrically initially at gay and lesbian film festivals in the US and other countries.

In French with English subtitles, newly available on DVD or VHS. Rate it 4 out of 5 stars.

Written by: BigBearPhx on the GayMoviesandVideos website.

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