Director: Robin Campillo
Talent: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Adèle Haenel, Arnaud Valois, Antoine Reinartz
Released: 6 April
Robin Campillo’s arresting drama revolves around Parisian activists – ACT UP – who are fighting against the AIDS pandemic of the 1990s and the sluggish machinations of the pharmaceutical companies (in this case Melton Pharm).
The on-screen struggle is dealt with both on a national scale as we see various attempts made by the group to force the publication of the test results of new medications, and then on a more personal level as two of the menagerie of central characters, HIV positive Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) and HIV negative Nathan (Arnaud Valois), start a tentative relationship with one another.
The film works on several levels managing to present the delicate setting and all the scientific talk while also staying clear of melodrama and hysterical manipulative tactics. A film that could have been very uneven and heavy on the explanatory side comes across as something full of thoughtful insight, where information is stitched seamlessly into the folds of the film and we learn about treatment and product testing along with the characters. It helps that the human factor is so prevalent and that the story is very much grounded in its strong characters who are ordinary everyday people frustrated by a circumstance out of their control.
The performances are resolutely superb, none more so than Biscayart’s Sean and his carer/boyfriend Nathan. 120 BPM is certainly a powerful film but it’s also a concise education on a particular historical moment most of us may know little about and it does so by placing a beautifully tangible romance at the heart of it, which the film gradually tightens its focus on after pulling away from the protestations and social combat of the first half of the film. No longer the loudest voice in the room, Sean becomes a shadow of his former self and the standard bearer for Campillo’s film and for it’s cast of characters literally fighting for survival day by day. A deeply affecting drama that will linger long after.
Words: Shane O’Reilly
