Reviews (47)

Lilies is a masterpiece...a brilliant piece of art.
I accidentally saw Lilies about five years ago when it was released on VHS in Canada. Me and my friends who had no idea what we were to watch, sat in silence for the two hours of this film with our jaws on the ground. Lilies remains one of my favorite movies, always causing catharsis.

This is a piece of theatre on film which, unlike many movie musicals or plays put on film, transfers beautifully and clearly. The conventions used in this film highten the truth and beauty captured in Bouchard's [stage] script. Though in the first few minutes of the play there may be a few unanswered questions, everything becomes clear--more than clear; poetic.

The acting is this film is beautiful. With a cast of mainly unknown actors, the subject matter is handled sensitively with a delicate touch. The central relationship of Simone and Valier is well defined and very well acted. Brent Carver proves his brilliance repeatedly in all his work, whether it's on stage or on screen.

I am a little tongue tied when I think of this movie becuase I get moved everytime I replay the story in my mind. It is powerful and beautiful. If this review has meant anything, let it mean that this movie could leave you speechless.

A great love story
An evocative, beautifully shot, and well acted love story. The movie opens in a prison, where a bishop has been invited to hear a convict's confession. Once on prison grounds, the bishop is confronted by that same convict, Simon, for whom he has lusted unrequittedly when they were childhood friends. What follows is the retelling of a tragic love triangle and the devastating events which led up to the imprisonment of Simon, the death of Vallier, his lover, and the bishop culpable role in them.

Unlike many other movies with a gay theme, this one is very well acted. Young Simon, played by Jason Cadieux, has dark hair, dark eyes, and is drop dead gorgeous. It is easy to see why he is the object of every man's lust. But the one who really caught my attention was Vallier, played by Danny Gilmore. Though pale and a little thin, he is ethereally beautiful. What's more, Gilmore and Cadieux has such an erotically charged chemistry that is not often seen in any cinema. Although not as sexually explicit as some others, the bathtub scene is as sensual as any I've seen.

This is a wonderful movie, one of my favorites. The only down side is that it has such a sad story line.

L'art pour l'art
Some films just can't be grasped on the first go-around. Lillies is one such film. After the first viewing, I was left more confused than moved, but the second time meant a significant improvement. Things came into perspective and I realized what a superb little film this is.

The story itself is quite ingenious. Quebec, 1952. A prison. The first scene opens with a priest arriving to hear confession. Nothing out of the ordinary......but as soon the confessional door closes, the mind-boggling roller-coaster begins. The penitent, Simon, has plans other than unburdening his soul. He and his fellow inmates put on a play within a play in order to help the unsuspecting Bishop Bilodeau refresh his clouded memory of events that happened some fifty years ago.....

Simon and Bilodeau study together at the local school where a third boy, Vallier, has fallen in love with Simon. Simon and Vallier tryst in the school's attic, while Bilodaeu secretly lusts after Simon himself. Bilodeau attempts to separate the lovers in the guise of 'saving' Simon's sin-tainted soul, when in actuality, he only wants Simon for himself. Simon's father soon learns of his son's secret affair and brutally beats him. In reaction, Simon runs from Vallier and prepares to marry a visiting baroness. The wounded Vallier retreats to his equally-forlorn mother and together they plan to crash the approaching wedding and put Simon's love to the test. Their plan reaps it harvest and Simon soon confesses his love for Vallier. A happy ending is in the works, when Bilodeau blunders back into frame hoping to elope with Simon. Rejected, he reacts rashly and seals Simon's fate for the next fifty years.

All the while, the film dances among the colorful past and dreary, incarcerated present as the inmates do their best to make Bishop Bilodeau confront his long-forgotten deed. The long-awaited 'confession' comes and the curtain draws, Simon avenged.

No doubt a sumptous feast of colors, striking images, great performances (the baroness steals the show with her smoldering, sexy aura), Lillies is also arch and contrived, in a word, theatrical. The dialogue is so poetic as to seem rhetorical and forced. The characters say everything so touchingly, yet they fail to touch us. Even the final confession falls limp. Everybody tries so hard to say dramatic things that the drama itself suffers. The characters don't make us feel their predicament. This unnaturalness--for lack of a better word--is further compounded by the complete absence of women in the film. Understandable, but the excess of male-ness unnerves and annoys after awhile.

Despite its artistic over-kill, Lillies is ultimely redeemed by its creativity and stunning beauty. Every scene is superbly crafted. Kudos to director Greyson, he truly understands his camera. No shot is wasted. Whether it's a close-up or a back-drop, the images in this movie often hit home harder than the dialogue. And the music. Lofty and atmospheric, it alone is worthy of four stars.

And true to its theatrical origins, Lillies does deliver the moral goods. We are instructed and edified through the suffering of Simon and Vallier. Bouchard's play starkly outlines the tragic cost of running from ourselves. To quote another 'playwright's' immortal words, 'To thine ownself be true.' For those looking for a luscious piece of tasty and filling eye candy, then look no further!

Outstanding, ground breaking and fresh
This was an exceptional film with a fresh and enjoyable concept. The story was wonderful and dramatic. It was strange but that's part of the charm of this film. The other reviews gave you the basic concept of the story line, so all I can add is that it is an excellant addition to my collection and will be one of my more unusual selections. I was unsure when I ordered it however I'm very happy I did. This is a very good investment. Buy it!

Buy this! Now!!
A beautiful film, with a beautiful cast....A tale of young (gay) love, treachery, and vengeance...One of my all-time favorite films....A must-see film, must-own esp. if you love gay cinema... ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Hedwig's Cultural Parent -- From Canada with Love
I had the good fortune to see this film not once, or twice, but three times at the theatre. I saw it first at the Atlanta GLBT Film Festival.

From the director of URINAL, style and visual magic to spare. Plus, the longest sustained note ever held by a human on a soundtrack -- move over Ms. Streisand!

The music is angry, saddening, funny, sexual, and WAY danceable. This is a classic movie musical with a wide variety of musical styles. Think RENT without the whiney artists. Instead you get the unlikely pair of Richard Burton (the man who discovered the source of the Nile, not Mr. Liz Taylor) and Patient Zero (the man purported to be the initial source of HIV in the US).

Beautiful arrangements. Sly lyrics. And there are the singing (...) puppets! How can you miss?

If you love movie musicals, and want to see something every bit as good as Hedwig -- buy the movie AND the CD of Zero Patience. You won't be sorry.

Double meaning in "Zero Patience"
For a film that was made in 1993, it is still is valid today. The double meanings in "Zero Patience" are the intolerance and discrimination that people living with HIV/AIDS must face and the zero patience that Gaëtan has as a ghost and scapegoat in being blamed for literally spreading the disease throughout North America. Greyson has camped it up in this film mocking the physique bodies from the 40s and 50s mail order mags, the musical, the documentary, and the interview. And they say Canadians can't make movies. Be sure to check out Lilies, Urinal, and Uncut. Also check out Greyson's 22 compliation Video Against AIDS, his contribution of the best videos produced from 1986-1988 available from most universities and community AIDS organizations.

For reviewers: when posting reviews please be accurate with your information. John Greyson is a Canadian director from Toronto, not the USA. Normand Fauteaux plays Zero/Gaëtan, not Michel Callen who plays the superb role of Miss HIV.

the politics of containment
I don't like the public much so I rarely go to the movies, and until recently the cinemas in my town were smelly and uncomfortable. Yet I went to this film and forgot where I was. It made me laugh like Peter Jackson's "Braindead". And it made me think about anthropology, and the complicity of us all in the reproduction of social exclusion.

As reviewers have noted, "Zero Patience" responds to Randy Shilt's "And the Band Played On" (there is also a film of the same title). While these works reveal the deafening silence of the Regan administration in responding to the growing epidemic, "Zero Patience" marks more explicitly the racialization of the global politics of HIV/AIDS.

Greyson plays together a range of genres, using the pleasure of spectacle to tell a story of the politics of misinformation. The story of the exclusions and silences around HIV?AIDS still require telling: this is a world where the myth of external agents of contagion can no longer be sustained. (I have a question here: what is the correlation between hiv rates of transmission and catholocism in colonial contexts? i am not trying to start trouble it is just a question). Where can people who are allergic to latex get condoms?

Zero Patience has particular resonance when we locate hiv/aids within a contemporary global politics which remains racialised; both within western nations, and across the so-called "developed" and "underdeveloped" worlds. At "home" in America the "right" can imagine a threat "out of Africa" (or as "Zero Patience" plays out, via the French Canadian "patient zero") but this isn't going to keep the kids safe. Talk about it.

"Zero Patience" combines the pleasures of "Can't Stop the Music" with the politics of Haraway, and the humour of the fatboy slim "Praise" video. Very cool.

Further reading: Sander Gilman, Douglas Crimp, Emily Martin, Donna Haraway, Kobena Mercer ....

A Frank and Touching Alternative View
This movie, though shot on a budget, provides the viewer with an alternative take on the history of the AIDS epidemic in North America, with a frank and revisionist view of the insane determination of science and the media to seek out and label a 'villain' upon whom to place the responsibility for the intrusion of AIDS into 'Western civilization'. The traditional scapegoating of Gaetan Dugas as 'PATIENT ZERO' is turned on its head as the ghost of Dugas and a manic museum exhibition curator and designer lock horns over how to structure an upcoming exhibit on the 'History of AIDS'.

Intertwined with their story is that of a Canadian schoolteacher and member of the Canadian equivalent of ACT UP caught in a dilemma of loyalty to the activist dogma of greedy pharmaceutical companies and uncaring government officials and a deeper fear that the entire charade of VILLAIN/HERO and VICTIM/VICTIMIZER may be standing in the way of any rational and helpful response to his condition. His story accentuates the Dugas Ghost/Curator story of gradual change and coming to terms with a radically new point of view.

The songs are, for the most part, excellent - with a touch of 30's musical and 50's flambouyance comingled with some biting social commentary. A particular standout is the medley that takes place in the museum as the exhibition animals transform into humans and belt out a ballad of anger and disdain for the projection of human frailities and failures on them.

This film will definitely make you re-think the entire history and historiography of AIDS - as well as challenge your perception of Gaetan Dugas. For as Gaetan himself said when he was alive, "If its sexually transmitted, then someone gave it to me."

Amazing -- a movie musical about AIDS
A very ambitious film telling a touching story with stunning cinematography and songs that are clever, catchy, and sometimes corny. The title sequence features a man dancing with a mirror ball, and a co-ed water ballet. Michael Callen appears to sing one of several reprises of the wonderful "Tell a Story (Scheherazade)". Not merely a divine singer, Callen literally wrote the book on safer sex.

The film is in part a response to Randy Shilts' AIDS journalism and his book "And the Band Played On". The protagonist is none other than Shilts' so-called "Patient Zero", the French-Canadian flight attendant who turned up at the center of the early "contact study" trying to trace the contagion of what was not yet known as AIDS. The story and the songs are about a yearning for love, PWAs' struggle for empowerment, philosophy of history, the need for us all to tell our own stories, the strengths and failings of science, and the politics of AIDS.

This film is not for children, nor for those offended by frank but not graphic depiction of love and sex between men. Some of it may seem a bit dated -- it's several years since I've seen it, and the world has changed a bit. The soundtrack still has some rollicking good songs. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

STALLED........
Pshaw! Mishima, Sergei Eisenstein, Dorian Gray [why not Wilde?], and so on and so on and so on meet after death in Canada to patrol the male myth of public restroom crusing. Hmmm - a touching experience? Naat reahly folks! There is not even one moment of verite - a few brave souls who have been arrested [evidence on videotape] do speak out about their misfortunes, but that's about it. With some cutting, it could be an informative half an hour movie on this subject. It is a good little conversation piece to have on one's shelf though. Other movies have gone where this one has not dared to go "Prick Up Your Ears", graphic, "Cruising" - somewhat with Pacino. I'm not sure about the director's "message" - seems that these venues are mostly populated by the stale married male, in search of stress relief. Not for a moment did we dwell on graffiti - a lost opportunity, an interesting art form in the public loos.

What next? "Cops" segments on this - that would be rather controversial - God knows who might turn up! [...]

Uninspired
This film has no redeming qualities. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

STALLED........
Pshaw! Mishima, Sergei Eisenstein, Dorian Gray [why not Wilde?], and so on and so on and so on meet after death in Canada to patrol the male myth of public restroom crusing. Hmmm - a touching experience? Naat reahly folks! There is not even one moment of verite - a few brave souls who have been arrested [evidence on videotape] do speak out about their misfortunes, but that's about it. With some cutting, it could be an informative half an hour movie on this subject. It is a good little conversation piece to have on one's shelf though. Other movies have gone where this one has not dared to go "Prick Up Your Ears", graphic, "Cruising" - somewhat with Pacino. I'm not sure about the director's "message" - seems that these venues are mostly populated by the stale married male, in search of stress relief. Not for a moment did we dwell on graffiti - a lost opportunity, an interesting art form in the public loos.

What next? "Cops" segments on this - that would be rather controversial - God knows who might turn up! [...]

Uninspired
This film has no redeming qualities. ... Read more