Ok, I just need to get this off my chest now.

I have recently become obsessed with a film and the book that inspired it.
‘Holding the Man’

The story of a 15 year relationship.
Timothy Conigrave and John Caleo met during their years at high school in the 70’s.
Timothy was always acutely aware of his sexuality but John wasn’t.
John was a man’s man and it wasn’t until high school, when he met and fell in love with Timothy that he embraced his own sexuality.
The story follows their ups and downs. Their experimentation with other partners during their University years which ultimately led to their HIV status and ultimate deaths in 1992 and 1994 respectively.
How Timothy had to deal with watching John die knowing that he’d probably infected him in the first place.
It’s an absolutely stunning film with amazing performances from Ryan Corr as Timothy and Craig Stott as John.

The memoir is something else!
It is written in a very childlike and naive way. Almost as if Timothy was just writing to get things down before he died. Get his memories in place while he still could as he was battling dementia. This makes it both hilarious because of the verbal diarhoea and heartbreaking becaue of it’s complete honesty.

The book and the film both end with the same line.
Ci vedremo lassu, anjelo….
Which translates to….
I’ll see you up there, angel!!

OMG! even now, as I write those lines, it has me in tears.

It’s an absolutely wonderful film. It’s funny, it’s sad and it sends a message.

As I write this it also occurs to me that the film had an amazing soundtrack.
After all, it takes place predominantly in the 70’s and 80’s
So here is a list of some of the music and songs used in the soundtrack.
Forever and a year by Rufus Wainwright – KILLS ME EVERY TIME –  and if you’ve seen the film, you’ll know why.
Enjoy.