''The Man I Love'' (french: L'Homme que j'aime) is a 1997 French gay romance television film directed by Stéphane Giusti. It was originally made for French television, a co-production between

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...

and

La Sept La Sept was a French free-to-air television network and production company created on 23 February 1986 to develop cultural and educational programming for transmission via the TDF 1 satellite. In French, the word "sept" means the number seven; ...

.Nick Rees-Roberts It was broadcast in 1997. It was then released internationally as a film on 27 April 2001.

Plot

It follows a love story between two men at a swimming pool. Martin (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo), a brash pool monitor and resident lifeguard Lucas (Jean-Michel Portal). Martin becomes interested in the younger and attractive Lucas but Lucas has a live-in girlfriend, Lise (Mathilde Seigner), so he is initially resisted. Later, Lise starts to integrate Martin into Lucas and Lisa's social life. Lucas then begins to doubt his heterosexuality and starts falling for Martin. But Martin is declared

HIV-positive The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the ...

, which forces Lucas to choose between the terminally ill man he starts to love and his first love Lise. The motto "Live each day of your life as if it were your last" is the main theme of the film.

Cast

Jean-Michel Portal Jean-Michel Portal (born 29 May 1970 in Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an ...

as Lucas *

Marcial Di Fonzo Bo Marcial Di Fonzo Bo (born 19 December 1968) is an Argentine actor and theatre director. He appeared in more than twenty films since 1997. Di Fonzo Bo directed several plays in France and was nominated for the Molière Award for Best Director in 2 ...

as Martin *

Mathilde Seigner Mathilde Seigner (born 17 January 1968) is a French actress. Early life Seigner was born in Paris. She is the granddaughter of actor Louis Seigner (1903–1991). She is the sister of Emmanuelle Seigner and a niece of Françoise Seigner. Ca ...

as Lise * Vittoria Scognamiglio as Rose Other cast members; Jacques Hansen, Stephane Leveque, Karim Lounis, Bernard Nissile, Bruno Bonomo, Benjamin Sanchiarelli, Serguei Tourountsev, Nedjib Djebarri, Louis Philippe Lopez and Elizabeth Giusti

DVD release

''The Man I Love'' was released on Region 1 (U.S. and Canada)

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

on 11 November 2003.

References

External links

* 1990s French-language films 1997 romantic drama films 1997 television films 1997 films French drama television films French romantic drama films French LGBT-related films HIV/AIDS in French films LGBT-related romantic drama films 1997 LGBT-related films 1990s French films LGBT-related television films {{LGBT-drama-film-stub