Before I Forget, which had its premiere in the Directors Fortnight in 2007 at Cannes, is the final installment in a trilogy of autobiographical films, all starring the respected contemporary French writer/director Jacques Nolot. Specializing in slow-burn languor, Nolot quietly builds up offhand observations and incisive characterizations into surprisingly emotional dénouements. In L’arrière pays (1998) his alter ego returns to his home town to see his dying mother. In Porn Theater (2002) he turned his attention to the behavior—sexual and otherwise—of audience members at a movie theater. Nolot is also known to French audiences for having appeared in numerous films of André Téchiné, including The Witnesses, and for having written the screenplay for Téchiné’s I Don’t Kiss (SFIFF 1992). A sobering yet slyly humorous rumination on the cruel realities of growing old, Before I Forget is his finest work yet. Pierre is an aging café philosopher and dapper ex-gigolo in mourning for both his recently deceased patron and for his vanished past. No longer the carefree cocotte of his youth, Pierre now must contend with HIV-related illness, writer’s block and an aging body that can’t keep up with his still thriving libido. Staving off depression through visits with finicky friends, his unflappable shrink and young hustlers, chain-smoking Pierre is a uniquely French embodiment of world-weary sophistication and autumn-years dread.

Written by Jacques Nolot. Photographed by Josée Deshaies. Wtih Jacques Nolot, Jean-Pol Dubois, Marc Rioufol, Bastien d’Asnières. (108 min, Strand Releasing)