Lie with Me at Luna

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Category: Arts & Culture; Published: 12 October 2023

My partner and I headed towards Luna Leederville looking forward to watching the French movie Lie with Me (Arrête avec tes mensonges).

Lie with Me toggles seamlessly between the present and past. A famous writer Stéphane Belcourt (Guillaume de Tonquédec) returns back to his home town in Cognac to participate in a literary PR event for Baussony Cognac, who are celebrating their bicentennial.

It has been 35 years since he last went home to the little town that he came from, only to find that some things have changed and some things haven’t.

By an unexpected coincidence, he meets young Lucas Andrieu (Victor Belmondo), who is helping to organise the bicentennial, unbeknowst to him that Lucas is actually the son of his former gay lover (Thomas) from school days when he was age 17.

Lie with Me is an exceptionally beautiful movie about love and love lost, the unreconciled twists and turns in relationships, and the complexities of whether to come out or stay in the closet.

In classic French style with its meaningful conversation, the storyline grabbed me right from the beginning, and towards the end my eyes got a little teary with emotion, as words were articulated with much eloquence about deep love, grief, and death.

Adapted from Philippe Besson’s book Arrête avec tes mensonges, Director Olivier Peyon has crafted an outstandingly beautiful movie – with a deft hand he has masterfully adapted Besson’s book, painted the strokes of what love is and captured its true essence – creating a vivid canvas on the big screen, recounting the story beautifully via the medium of film.

It is the coming of understanding and discovery about the past (and finding meaning of what has happened) for each of the main characters Stéphane Belcourt and Lucas Andrieu (from where each stands) which is the stronghold of this movie – keeping the audience gripped watching as the pendulum of love and happiness, tragedy and sadness swings back and forth.

We left the movie theatre very satisfied film goers as my partner and I exchanged our thoughts on what a beautiful movie it is.

Lie with Me opens at Luna Palace Cinemas on 12 October.

If you enjoyed this article, please share it!