De l'amour et des restes humains

The gay waiter and former TV actor David (Thomas Gibson) shares an apartment with his former girlfriend, the book reviewer Candy (Ruth Marshall), and both are looking for true love. David's friends are the womanizer public servant Bernie (Cameron Bancroft) and the dominatrix Benita (Mia Kirshner) that satisfies the fantasies of her masochist clients. David is worshiped by the busboy Kane (Matthew Ferguson) and sometimes he hangs around with the gay Sal (Aidan Devin) in the nightclub. Candy is dating the bartender Robert (Rick Roberts) and the lesbian schoolteacher Jerri (Joanne Vannicola) that has unrequited love for her. Meanwhile, a serial-killer is killing lonely women and keeping their earrings as souvenir. "Love & Human Remains" is a film of the 90's about outcast people looking for love. The plot is timeless and has not aged after almost thirty years. The characters are well developed and show segments of the outcast minorities and their loves and dramas. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Amor e Restos Humanos" ("Love and Human Remains")

I first watched this movie in Istanbul Film Festival back in 1994. It was so good I took couple of friends with me and went to see it again the same week. The characters are very well played and the humor here and there is amazing. It sure is a very powerful gay movie. Some scenes make you feel you're watching an episode of Friends with much more sophisticated lines. I guess I'll put it in my VCR and watch it again tonight...

There is, as many reviews have observed, a strong dark streak to this movie. The director it most recalls to me is John Landis (yeah, go ahead and howl about what a peasant I am). Arcand has the gift of exploring frivolous things in a bleak, gray kind of way, then turning round and exploring the horrors of life with a lighthearted touch. The cast is, without exception, above average. Thomas Gibson, as David, is outstanding as the moody and self-deceptive center around whom the rest of the characters revolve. He talks a good nihilist, but his actions reflect more love in his character than he is willing to acknowledge. Gibson was already a strong and subtle actor in 1993. It was difficult to look at him and see Greg Montgomery, let alone Agent Hotchner of Criminal Minds. Perhaps not the best scene, but the one I enjoy most, my "rewind scene," is the section where Candy is expecting a visitor, and one uninvited person after another shows up at the door. As Candy's interpersonal environment swings further and further out of control, David just grows bouncier, perkier, and more enthusiastic, like a gaunt Gen-X "Tigger."

I bought this film from my local blockbuster for 99p an it's been sitting in my video bookcase for at least a year now. Then tonight I decided to see it, the film was quite different to what I had expected and I didn't find any humour in it all I saw was that it was a bleak look at people dealing with love relationships and sexual orientation and I didn't really see the psycho killer plot really having a point except to add tension to the end of the film. I felt that the person playing the lesbian woman did a great job. I was following her emotions and what happened around her. Some people would probably have seen some of the stuff that she does as funny but I could really put myself in her place, loving someone but them rejecting you at every turn no matter how hard you try. I thought it was a very moving film and dealt with all the different sexualities well. I was expecting something like Bound & Gagged : A love story, but this is a very different film. Not for bigots.

This was the film that started that the cinematic love affair between the Jaundiced Eye crew and Matthew Ferguson. His ability to portray RELATIVELY normal characters like Birkoff in "La Femme Nikita" is counter-balanced by his equally deft handling of weirdos like "Kane." One wishes that he would only be given more roles, bigger roles, and other, even more complex roles to assay to push the limits of his abilities. There were four or five memorable scenes in this film, and Matthew Ferguson stole two of them from far more experienced actors. This film itself is good, and it is worth watching on its own merits, but Ferguson makes it a little extra special. His *ouevre* may eventually show what the career of Anthony Perkins MIGHT have been like if he hadn't been typecast as "Norman Bates" so long ago. "Kane" isn't quite as whacked-out as Norman, and far fewer people saw "Love and Human Remains than saw "Psycho," so we can hope that Ferguson will show us some hint of what Perkins MIGHT have been able to accomplish, had he been allowed to do so. . . .

This movie had two great, compelling characters in Candy and David, but it fell flat on its face looking for a plot. The serial killer thing has been explored for ages, and I would have liked to see this movie take another route. Oh well, it's still better than Scream.

Love and human remains directed by Denys Arcand is an abysmally pathetic film as it is completely different from the kind of films he has been making all through his career.Making a different film is not an objectionable matter,what is troublesome is the fact that if a film from a master is complete out of tune then it is a really bad event. The film begins on a good note as there is some suspense created. However as the film progresses what is shown is just a futile attempt at creating something meaningful as Arcand shows us half a dozen oddball,whimsical characters whose lives are intertwined with each other.Homosexuality and Lesbianism are not of any consequences here. What is even more bothersome is the feeling of guilt related to the characters who are rather in a fix regarding their feelings towards each other and sexuality.Such a film would be of interest to some who wants to see a different Denys Arcand film.All in all,there would surely not be many takers for this film.

Quirky, brilliant, twisted, dark, inventive, unnerving. This is a wonderful film, extremely well acted and smoothly directed. Moody and atmospheric, death stalks this mixed assortment of oddball lovers, both inside and out. Yet it is not a bleak tale of destruction, but a story of redemption, survival, and finally love. A great job by everybody involved. Top marks!