Tracing HIV/AIDS representation through science in 120 BPM

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay analyses the French film 120 BPM (Campillo 2017) in relation to its aesthetics and critical reception in the context of scientific advances in human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) therapy, as well as revised socio-cultural attitudes towards, and political strategies for dealing with, the disease. It argues that the treatment trajectory of the virus has been paralleled by a transition in the way that the disease is both represented and received in media, film, and television. This is because advances in therapy and understanding of the disease now render it much less threatening, and, although AIDS remains a serious public health concern in certain regions, public attitudes towards the virus have correspondingly shifted. Such a refocusing reverberates in the visual style of 120 BPM, particularly its cinematography and framing, which consistently positions the spectator amidst the HIV/AIDS community. Although the film focuses on a period in the 1990s when survival rates were still low and death rates rising, it was paradoxically released at a time of relative optimism regarding the prognosis for HIV/AIDS, and thus presents a more upbeat narrative that achieved widespread critical acclaim.