BPM (Beats Per Minute)

BPM (Beats Per Minute) is an earnest and affecting portrayal of the AIDS crisis in Paris during the early '90s. It centers around the Paris chapter of ACT UP, an activist group started in New York. The members are dedicated to guerrilla tactics, vandalizing places like the headquarters of a pharma that won't release data on new drug.

In the midst of this, a relationship forms. Sean (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) and Nathan (Arnaud Valois) fall in love. Sean has AIDS, Nathan is HIV-negative. This brings the personal, as well as the political, into focus.

Quite a bit of the film is shot documentary-style, with many scenes of meetings. Being leftists as well, of course they argue among themselves. Some, like Sean, want people put in jail for their sluggish response to the crisis, while others see that as counterproductive. Early in the film they stage a protest at a presentation by the government organization dealing with AIDS, and end up throwing fake blood at the speaker and handcuffing him to a pole. They argue about the effectiveness of this. Anyone who has been to a meeting of progressives can relate to this.

The other scenes are with Sean and Nathan. They have safe sex, thankfully (although Nathan decides to kiss Sean on the mouth even though the latter has thrush) and I don't think it's a spoiler to reveal that Sean dies, and despite all the disagreements, they all show up at his apartment, helping his mother. They are a real community.

BPM kind of got to me because I had a very good friend who died of AIDS at just about this time. He used to go to rallies, and I wondered if they were doing any good since AIDS was a disease. I was naive at that time, because the U.S., like France, was slow to deal aggressively with the problem. My friend Nick went through a lot of pain and suffering before he died, age 31.