Don't Forget You're Going to Die

The film tells the journey of a young french man named Benoit after he learned that he had contracted the AIDS virus. Xavier Beauvois directs and plays the lead character. An interesting film in which Benoit embarks to an odyssey into the hell of sex and drugs in a desperate move to forget about his condition. The ending is truly surprising. Some scenes are a bit overlong (the drug taking). I was tempted to call this film "the french Trainspotting" but there is no humor to find in this one... score: 8/10.

Saw this on line (on MUBI, the only place I could find it, and a good, legitimate source for some more obscure foreign and indie films) and would love to see it again on a bigger screen.

Low key but intense, this follows a young man who tries to evade his army service with a false suicide, only to find out he has HIV at a time when it was more a death sentence. His life spins out of controls as he turns to drug use and drug dealing to hide his pain, and forget his impending demise.

Then he meets a woman who offers some hope and real love, but can he actually accept it, knowing how short his horizon is?

The acting is good, but not great, and some of the character turns are sudden to the point of feeling almost arbitrary. Some memorable scenes and images, but it all stays pretty distanced and unemotional. A second viewing would be instructional.

If you've ever weighed up your life and concluded that it's been something of a waste (and, let's face it, who hasn't?), you may be moved by this excellent film. When faced with the prospect of his imminent death, the bookish protagonist embarks on a short slide of narcotic and sexual pleasure that takes him to Amsterdam and Italy. I was with him all the way.

It's certainly pessimistic. If you don't feel like killing yourself before you see the film, you probably will afterwards.

Xavier Beauvois is a fine film-maker. Most critics, though, failed to see the quality of "Don't Forget You're Going to Die". Beauvoir's next film - "Selon Mathieu" - wasn't even released in the UK.

few admirable scenes. good acting. pieces of a story about a form of fight against life. an exercise by Xavier Beauvois not to convince but to give a sort of testimony about empty life. and the result is not bad. maybe,in some scenes, forced. a film about purpose, honest in its good intentions, cruel in a classic manner , cry from a long tradition, using the classical French cinema clichés but interesting for its beautiful moments. far to be great, it is body for delicate, precise images and that is its basic virtue. so, a good work, touching, cold, in same measure, not coherent at all but the kind of show who remains as few crumbs of memories.

From escaping from the military service in the very beginning to ultimately becoming a soldier and recklessly urging for death, like a moth to a flame, the whole movie is like a reverse of "Ikiru". It's a movie about waiting for death. It's not so hard for us to notice that the movie is comprised of many events that are not connected at all. We could say it's meaningless, but it might show the true reaction of people who know they're going to die. Despite some immorality, it would be difficult for me to judge Benoit harshly.