Lie With Me is a stunning exploration of love found, lost and found again through blood memory, prose and a need for shared healing and individual closure. Lie with Me (Arrête avec tes mensonges) arrives in cinemas nationwide on August 18th.
Lie With Me – in conversation with writer and director Olivier Peyon
What is fiction but a collection of memories, experiences, and ideas rehashed, shaped and embellished? Many writers will tell you that while their work is framed by their imagination, nuggets of reality creep into every story they write, including unspoken thoughts, past pain and lost loves. Adapted from Philippe Besson’s autobiographical novel Arrête avec tes mensonges, Oliver Peyton’s exquisite adaptation adds new layers to Besson’s story as we follow the successful French author Stéphane Belcourt (Guillaume de Tonquédec and Jérémy Gillet) on a long-overdue trip back to his hometown.
Like many fiction writers, Stéphane’s work conceals many truths, and his words and characters are much closer to reality than he would ever admit in public. As he arrives back in town, one person from the past holds court in his mind – his first love at the age of seventeen, Thomas (Julien De Saint Jean).
Their love was a secret, and their paths were always destined to diverge, but Thomas has consumed Stéphane’s thoughts and words ever since he left thirty-five years ago. As he attempts to settle in, Stéphane isn’t sure whether his return home is a good idea until he meets Lucas Andrieu (Victor Belmondo). As Lucas introduces himself during a book signing, Stéphane can’t help but wonder who this bright, engaging young man with a familiar smile really is.
The story could be easily described as a standard healing journey, as the past converges with the present for Stéphan and Lucas. Equally, one could argue that the film’s themes of a secret gay 80s love affair are tried and tested tropes of LGBTQIA+ storytelling. Yet, while it’s true that Lie With Me could be labelled as a relatively standard LGBTQIA+ drama, its beauty, performances, dramatic undercurrents, and themes create an exceptional cinematic journey.
Lie With Me transcends labels as it explores how a person’s past influences their present and how our secrets can erode us and those who join us on our life journey. It’s a story of the social barriers that divide us by wealth, economic power, and early educational opportunities, and of the relationships we lose because of these insurmountable walls.
Oliver Peyton’s stunning screenplay, alongside Poymiro, Rounaud, and Cahn, dovetails moments of exquisitely timed comedy with deep emotional undercurrents in a movie that takes you from laughter to tears at the click of a finger. Here, the performances of Guillaume de Tonquédec, Victor Belmondo, Julien de Saint-Jean, Jérémy Gillet, and the brilliant Guilaine Londez are simply sublime. Add Peyton’s character-focused direction and editing that perfectly weaves the past with the present, and you have one of the year’s best films. Lie With Me is a stunning exploration of love found, lost and found again through blood memory, prose and a need for shared healing and individual closure.
Follow Us