A novelist returns for the first time to the small town where he grew up. There he meets the son of his childhood sweetheart, which will awaken the wounds of the past.
Stop With Your Lies is the moving adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Philippe Besson, a book which had a huge success when it was published in 2017. Director Olivier Peyon signs a very touching film, where the two actors Guillaume de Tonquédec and Victor Belmondo are very accurate.
Stéphane Belcourt, a writer who has become famous, returns, years later, to the provincial town where he grew up to sponsor the bicentenary of a major brand of cognac, even if he does not drink alcohol. He will meet Lucas, the son of his childhood sweetheart, which will bring back sometimes painful memories, but also raise questions about lies, shame, and the life we decide to lead. Because the writer fled his small town of Charente for a long time without ever returning there, for more than 30 years.
Director Olivier Peyon stages, in a very classic way, two stories in parallel. That of the nascent and devouring love of the two teenagers in the 1980s, and that of the writer’s return to his childhood town, and his meeting with this young man to whom he will not tell everything, in any case. , not immediately.
Olivier Peyon films with great sincerity the love scenes between the two teenagers who discover, each in their own way, the feelings they have for each other, but also the difficulty that one can have to assume, in the 1980s, his homosexuality, in a provincial town. The two young actors Jérémy Gillet and Julien de Saint-Jean are both remarkable.
The question of lying is present throughout the film: why hide all your life because you are ashamed of being homosexual and lie to your loved ones? Why lie to yourself? The difficulty of assuming the person we are, the secrets, the regrets. The film touches on these universal themes in a very simple way, going straight to the point, with very direct, very true dialogue.
Victor Belmondo, grandson of Jean-Paul Belmondo, is a real revelation in this film where he is excellent, as is Guillaume de Tonquédec, in the role of the writer. The latter also looks a lot like Philippe Besson. We feel the complicity of these two actors in this sensitive and moving film.
