More gays, more moms. France made a TV movie that we think was looking to educate everybody about having a gay son, and when that gay son has a shack in the backyard to grow plants in.

Vive La France!

Upon request, Bil, Dan and Mike watch and review

JUST A QUESTION LOVE (JUSTE UNE QUESTION D’AMOUR)

by Christian Faure

(and starring this guy …)

Listen to it here (language warning):

This Week’s Recommendations

Mike loved The Seven Five by Tiller Russell, available on Netflix

Bil loves the podcast You Must Remember This by Karina Longworth

Daniel loved Larry Kramer In Love And Anger by Jean Carlomusto

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Promo photos by Michael Sheffer.

Musical theme by The Chronos Band.

2 Comments

Hi guys,
Thank you for this funny show. I recently discovered the podcast and I like it very much so far.
I thought that I would clarify a couple of things about this movie: I don’t know why you are so obsessed about the place where the action takes place, but let’s answer your questions:
The action is set in Lille and its surroundings. Lille is the largest town in the northernmost part of France, right next to the border with Belgium. It has a population of ~250000 and the metropolitan area (that goes beyond the border into Belgium) has around a million people. It was an industrial and mining area which, at the time of the film, was reconverting itself in a large European service hub (it’s where trains from London, Paris, Brussels and Germany now meet). I guess that the work of the protagonist and his friend cleaning offices may be a reference to that economical transition.
Lille is less than 1hour train ride to Paris (~250 km/150 miles), but that’s because French trains are really fast. So no, they are not in Paris, but it does not take long to cover the distance.
The school is Lille itself. Laurent’s parents live in a smaller town in the same area. Finally, most of the action takes place in the Professor’s house, which is also somewhere around Lille.

Regarding the research: they specifically mention the fact that they are working on a project to make plants more resistant to drought. What I can also tell is that in the past I have worked in one of these institutions in which the characters work (INRA) and there is no way that the INRA would allow anyone to build their own research lab at home with public money… 🙂
Yet, I guess that this is the kind of script-writing device that makes the story simpler and faster.

Finally, regarding the themes of the film: yes, it looks quite dated in the style (it’s a TV film, after all!). But, in its defense, I think that you may have missed some important contextual elements: AIDS was still a huge theme in France at the time (just to give you an idea of it, because of AIDS, sexually active gay men were only allowed to donate blood in France in 2015!).
French don’t generally justify their prejudices on religious or class-based criteria, but AIDS was still a large obstacle for the general population to normally accept homosexuality. I think that this film was very intelligent in that it took the subject of gay people away from AIDS and put the focus on relationships and acceptance. References to safe sex and to the fact that being gay does not mean being HIV-positive are all over the film, without explicitly being the subject at stake. That’s where all the subtlety of film resides. Otherwise, I agree that the romance story is not very realistic or anything. Contrary to most gay-themed films, I even wonder if the author of the script was gay, or just one of the very active AIDS-campaigners of the time.

Anyway, I hope that this gives you some of the context that could help you appreciate the movie more.

Cheers!