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Paul Monette: The Brink Of Summer's End: Review

PAUL MONETTE: THE BRINK OF SUMMER'S END
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This moving tribute to novelist, poet and memoirist Paul Monette could be unfairly dismissed as yet another tragic tale of a brilliant career cut short by AIDS. But what sets director's Monte Bramer's documentary apart is its determination to celebrate Monette's place as one of the leading gay writers of our time, and also to portray unflinchingly the ravages of AIDS. From home movies, interviews and a generous helping of readings from Monette's work, Bramer assembles an intimate portrait of the writer. It's an interesting life: boyhood spent trying to be the perfect child, even as he began to sense there was something "different" about him; years toiling in L.A., churning out sexually frank novels while penning the novelizations of such films as SCARFACE and PREDATOR; and most importantly, the overwhelming loss of Roger Horwitz, Monette's lover of 10 years, whose death as a result of AIDS in 1986 drove Monette to break his own vow never to write about the disease. The result was the groundbreaking Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir,and Monette emerged as an eloquent voice that spoke across battle lines of the AIDS movement. Despite his own HIV+ status, Monette continued to write numerous critically acclaimed works, including his National Book Award-winning autobiography, Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, until his own death in 1995. Bramer's inclusion of video footage of Monette, ravaged by illness and buried under a mountain of medication and still managing to write, shines a harsh, white light on the physical and emotional effects of the disease. Bramer's film is as much an important chronicle of death as it is a eulogy to one man who chose to not go quietly and, in his own words, insisted on joy. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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