division and multiplication
by
Douglas Messerli
Sébastien
Perroy (screenplay), Rodolphe Marconi (director) Basket et Maths (Basketball
& Maths) / 2009 [TV movie] [7 minutes]
This
quite sweet short film is about two French basketball players on the same high school
team, Jérôme (Jean-Denis Marcoccio) and Cédric (Aurélien Baty).
Already in the first frames of this 7-minute film, Jérôme fantasizes
that he comes out to his immediately accepting parents, explaining that he is
in love with Cédric. But this is just fantasy, neither we nor he know how his
mother (Katherine Erhardy) or father (Gilles Barande) might really respond to
such an open admission. His mother is mostly interested in her son finishing
his cereal.
Soon after, we learn that Jérôme has been
helping tutor his friend with his math studies. After he helps Cédric with a
math solution, the boy not even able to comprehend what a denominator is,
Cédric
suddenly leans forward and quickly kisses his friendly tutor on the mouth,
immediately explaining that what happened “never happened.”
But now, more than ever, Jérôme is smitten
with Cédric, and can hardly keep his eyes of his naked derriere in the gym
locker room, where he is angrily confronted by his friend. Jérôme even admits
his obsession to his fellow friend Romain (Ugo Venel), who suggests that he is
simply in love with Cédric, and notes how wonderful that is.
Yet
the boy has no peace, knowing that it now appears he has no place in his
supposed straight friend’s life. Jérôme sits home alone on his bed, sadly
pondering his situation.
But then suddenly, in this delightful
little fantasy, Cédric shows up at his door, asking it they might play a few
hoops. How could Jérôme resist?
And he soon discovers that Cédric has
broken up with his girlfriend Chloé, his friend assuring him that math lessons
can begin again. The two walk off seemingly knowing that they have now opened
to the door to their full relationship.
Apparently, this short film was presented
on French TV in 2009, another example of how retrograde US television still is.
Los
Angeles, August 17, 2026
Reprinted
from My Queer Cinema blog (August 2026).
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