Almost 3 hours long, Born in 68 is three films in one. This is a very long film, punctuated with some wonderful performances between seemingly eternal interludes. Each act or film is marked by bookends, very similar scenes, which mark the end or beginning of the next act. This was a difficult film to follow. Time did not move in a linear fashion. At one part of the film, a day lasted 10 or 15 minutes, and then time advanced with no warning several years in a minute or two. It was very difficult to figure out how much time had passed. It was also very difficult to keep track of the characters. Catherine, Yves and Herve are three students at the Sorbonne who participate in the events of '68. They are 20 years old and a loose erotic trio. Catherine gets pregnant and aborts putting her life to serious risk;in the meantime, the boys are involved in the Parisian riots. Somehow things get to a halt, and, with a group of revolutionary friends they go to Lot, to an abandoned farm, to form a community "outside the constraints of the capitalistic world". The sex happens, joints pass around, songs, running naked and giggling on the beautiful plain just below, and the thing starts getting stale, causing the gradual breakdown of the group. Things happen. Only Catherine stays firmly there, with her two children, Ludmilla and Boris, helped by her neighbor Marysa who has a son, Christophe, the same age to Ludmilla. Yves has returned to Paris, and Herve is in prison for an attributed murder. Then the next generation comes on the scene, and the agenda changes painfully. Boris and Christophe are dating each other. Family initially opposes the relationship but the young men that they are, they both soon get HIV positive. New political issues, unexpected and opened up by the events of May '68: the sexual revolution paved the way for the homosexual citizenship, but not for the AIDS epidemic Christophe and Boris suffer. Ludmilla on the other hand i dealing with her life after getting married to an Iranian Farivar. She questions her readiness for marriage since she was brought up in a very open environment. Christophe ultimately succumbs and does to Aids bit Boris miraculously has his health improving. Ludmilla is trying to improve her relations with Farivar and also her mother. The film ends with the election of Nicolas Sarkozy.
The story telling aside, this is a pretty movie. The scenery in Paris and the South of France is gorgeous. The actors are all very beautiful with their clothes on and off. The politics were nicely placed in the film. This is quite an ambitious film as it spans four decades of both political and erotic upheavals. Some of the incidents and chapters in the film dont make much sense but then like me, if you are not too aware of the political upheal in France at that time, it is very difficult. But just from a movie point of movie, I could see the efforts put in by the film making team.
Decent film. Be patient and ready for what you are getting ready to see. Of course, for me the second half when the boys grow up and the film focusses on homosexuality was of more interest to me. (6/10)
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