Le Placard (2001)

François Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is a divorced man who lives a very bland life with his 17 year-old son Franck (Stanislas Crevillén) who ignores him. When he learns he is going to be fired from his job as an accountant in a rubber factory, he contemplates suicide, but his neighbor Jean-Pierre Belone (Michel Aumont), a former psychologist prevents him from jumping from his balcony and suggests a way to keep his position. He proposes to start a rumor Pignon is homosexual by inserting his image in sexually provocative snapshots of a gay couple in a bar and anonymously mailing them to his boss. Because the factory's primary product is condoms, the gay community's support is essential, and his boss M. Kopel (Jean Rochefort) will be forced to keep Pignon on the payroll in order to be politically correct.

Pignon does not change his usual mild and self-effacing behavior and mannerisms in any way as part of his masquerade, but because his supervisors and co-workers begin to regard him in a new light, seeing him as exotic rather than dull, his life becomes unexpectedly and dramatically better. Félix Santini (Gérard Depardieu), a homophobic co-worker who used to harass him, is warned he could be fired for discrimination if he continues to belittle Pignon, so he becomes friendly.

The company enters a float in a local gay pride parade, and Pignon must ride on it. His divorced wife and son see him when the event is televised. The son is happy to learn his father, whom he always considered boring, has a wilder side, and expresses an interest in spending more time with him. His suspicious ex-wife Christine (Alexandra Vandernoot) invites Pignon to dinner and demands an explanation. He has by this point gained enough self-confidence to tell her exactly what he thinks of her.

Meanwhile, Santini's charade of friendship has developed into an obsessive attraction. His wife suspects him of having an affair when she finds a receipt for an expensive pink cashmere sweater, and leaves him when he buys Pignon chocolates. After this, Santini invites Pignon to move in with him. But when Pignon turns him down, Santini snaps, a fight ensues, and Santini is institutionalized to recover from his emotional breakdown. Eventually, Pignon's ruse is discovered when Kopel catches him making love in the office to co-worker Mme. Bertrand (Michèle Laroque). However, he has become so assertive he retains his position, relates to his son, patches up his relationship with Santini, and lives happily ever after.

This is an uplifting comedy about prejudice and how a Mr. Nobody becomes a somebody. It's light-hearted, not politically correct, old-fashioned, charming, delightful, and funny. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote: "The movie passes the time pleasantly and has a few good laughs ... But the screenplay relies too much on the first level of its premise and doesn't push into unexpected places. Once we get the setup, we can more or less anticipate the sitcom payoff, and there aren't the kinds of surprises, reversals and explosions of slapstick that made La Cage aux Folles so funny." Stephen Holden of the New York Times called it "giddy social comedy" and "a classic French farce" and added, "What's so liberating about The Closet is its refusal to walk on politically correct eggshells. The target of its blunt lusty humor is as much exaggerated political correctness and the panic it can engender as it is bigotry." Vladimir Cosma composed the music score. Francis Veber, who did La Cage aux Folles, wrote the screenplay and directed. In French with English subtitles. The English title is "The Closet".

And the Band Played On (1993)

This is the story of the discovery of the AIDS virus, from 1978 when numerous gays began dying from unknown causes, to the identification of the HIV virus. To reduce this to a reasonable-length feature, HBO pictures and writer Aaron Spelling devised a way of making it interesting for the small TV screen. They decided to follow the career of Dr. Don Francis, of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, and his team as they worked to uncover the mystery of the disease, and then had to fight to get public and official recognition of the problem.

In the prologue set in 1976, American epidemiologist Dr. Don Francis (Matthew Modine) arrives in a village on the banks of the Ebola River in the Congo and discovers many of the residents and the doctor working with them have died from a mysterious illness later identified as Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It is his first exposure to such an epidemic, and the images of the dead he helps cremate haunt him when he becomes involved with AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 1981, Francis becomes aware of a growing number of deaths from unexplained causes among gay men in Los Angeles, NYC, and San Francisco, and begins an investigation of the possible causes. Working with no money, limited space, and outdated equipment, he comes in contact with politicians and many members of the medical community--many of whom resent his involvement because of their personal agendas--and gay leaders, some of whom support him, while others resent what they see as interference in their lifestyles, especially his attempts to close the local bathhouses. While Francis pursues his theory that AIDS is caused by a sexually transmitted virus, he finds his efforts are stonewalled by the CDC, which is reluctant to prove the disease is transmitted through blood, and competing scientists who squabble about who should receive credit for discovering the virus. Meanwhile, the death toll climbs rapidly. The film ends with a montage of video clips and stills of prominent people who have died of AIDS.

This excellent and compelling made-for-TV film docudrama is notable for the number of big names that turned out for mostly small parts: Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin, Phil Collins, Richard Gere, Steve Martin, Anjelica Huston, and Ian McKellen. Many actors lent their support to this project as a public service, accepting only minimum union fees or no payment at all. The premiere was in Washington, D.C. before an audience which included members of Congress and government and industry leaders. Arnold Schulman adapted the teleplay from journalist Randy Shilts' best-selling 1987 book of the same title. Carter Burwell composed the music score, and Roger Spottiswoode directed.