| | |  | Comedy | Home » » » Zero Patience | | | | | | | Description: | | John Greyson, the director of LILIES and PROTEUS, has woven a tale of love and loss, sex and science, history and hysteria, in the age of AIDS. Greyson revives renowned Victorian Sir Richard Burton who constructs a sensationalist multimedia museum display focusing on Patient Zero, the gay French-Canadian flight attendant accused of bringing AIDS to North America. Fast-paced, hilarious and provocative, ZERO PATIENCE is essential viewing. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| John Robinson, Normand Fauteux, Dianne Heatherington, Richardo Keens-Douglas, Bernard Behrens | | Director:
| John Greyson | | Format:
| Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC | | Language:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Strand Releasing | | Run Time:
| 100 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| May 17, 2005 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 8 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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 Still TouchingSep 08, 2009
Another dated classic. I love the raw innocence of this film. I find myself crying, laughing, being sexually aroused and singing this music days after viewing it.
Sometimes I think "Broadway Musical" or high-tech modern film - but because the AIDS epidemic is something different today it probably wouldn't work. I love the actors!
I love this film! I remember the person I saw it with, close friend, died in 2004 of AIDS. He had the viris almost 20 years.
Let's all be Empiricists, victors of the brain!Jul 22, 2008
Film Critic DELIVERED with stinging irony, that lyric is meant as a blanket indictment of empiricism, and of our abiding need to "classify and label," to "banish every doubt." Why? Because a label is a tool that can double as a weapon - what identifies and separates can also isolate and stigmatize. How, then, to describe Zero Patience without falling into the empiricist's, and the critic's, taxonomical traps? A "movie musical about AIDS" is a popular answer - one that's odd enough to be enticing, vague enough to be innocuous. But it doesn't begin to sound the depths of a work that is intriguing, provoking, amusing, offending, demanding, inordinately intelligent, and defiantly resistant of the very thing I'm paid to do.
So let's approach the picture from another angle, from the perspective of writer/director John Greyson. Now Greyson, unlike some artists who happen to be gay, would probably agree that there is indeed a definable "gay culture," an esthetic that goes heavy on irony and camp and outrageous humour and unapologetic theatricality. Clearly, all these ingredients are abundantly evident here. Just as clearly, Greyson (whose background lies in - get ready for a label - experimental video) has positioned his film at a 180-degree remove from a piece like Philadelphia. That movie, a drama about AIDS with a gay protagonist, was the product of mainstream Hollywood culture (unironic, non-outrageous, linear in plot and design), and took enormous pains not to offend a mainstream audience. This one is the product of a gay culture and doesn't give a damn who it offends. This one is smarter and more subtle, but lacks the emotional punch of the other (linear directness has its rewards), and the attendant complexities are hard to grasp at a single sitting.
Perhaps this will help a little: Greyson has reincarnated the Victorian explorer Richard Burton (John Robinson), using him to symbolize the dangers inherent in the empirical approach still taken by the scientific community toward all issues, including the AIDS plague. Burton, who toils in a Natural History Museum, is intent on mounting an exhibit called The Hall of Contagion, with AIDS as the sexy centrepiece. Just as his explorer colleagues once tracked the source of the Nile, he hopes to trace the "cause" of this disease. Causation, of course, is a first principle among empiricists. Rationally, if you find the cause, you may find the solution. Ethically, alas, it's a different matter; there, if you find the cause, you can point the finger - you can affix blame, you can isolate and stigmatize.
Enter another reincarnated soul, a gay ghost known as Patient Zero (Normand Fauteux) - the flight attendant who, in books like Randy Shilts' And The Band Played On, is "blamed" for first bringing AIDS to North America. Much of the film unfolds as an ongoing dialectic between the attitudes embodied in Burton and Zero, between serving a false cause and serving as a false villain. However, the dialectic takes the form of a literal song and dance - zippy production numbers where Glenn Schellenberg's toe-tapping melodies are laid over Greyson's thought- provoking lyrics. Consequently, the decorative fun on the surface (watch, if you dare, for an eye-popping ditty entitled The Butthole Duet) simultaneously competes with and complements the seriousness beneath - it's like tossing a colourful AIDS quilt over a dying AIDS patient. Greyson has refined and desentimentalized that most difficult of genres, the musical tragedy, and with every succeeding tune, he exponentially advances his thesis - other potentially false causes, like the "African Green Monkey" theory, like the HIV virus itself, come under his fire, as does everything from greedy drug companies to grousing AIDS activists. The film spares no one because, well, the disease spares no one.
Philadelphia is American in origin, Zero Patience is Canadian. Each is splendid in its own way, and each reflects the best of the culture (and the industry) that gave rise to it. The former is conventional, straightforward, and all about certainty, including the certainty of death. The latter is quirky, complicated, and all about uncertainty, especially the uncertainty of life. Greyson, and the film he's made, are brave enough to question incessantly, and smart enough to know that "HIV- positive" is a lot more than a medical label - it's a cruel oxymoron. He has zero patience for the blustering apostles of science and even art, and (the ironies abound) has more in common with another eminent Victorian than he might care to admit. Mister Greyson, meet Mister Tennyson: "There lives more faith in honest doubt,/ Believe me, than in half the creeds." Conrad Alton, Filmbay Editor.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A very influential movie at the start of the epidemicOct 27, 2007
This movie had an incredible influence on people's prejudices and misconceptions about AIDS at the very start of the epidemic. Although it was done in a somewhat campy format, its message about the goverment and pharmaceutical companies was loud and clear - "Blinded by Greed." For those who are interested in the history of AIDS or wasn't there at the start and want to know more, this movie is a required viewing. The only warning is this movie isn't for the young or homophobic.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Points For Sheer Audacity and LunacySep 28, 2006
Well, I am drawn to fantastical and different-sounding entertainment. So when I heard about "Zero Patience" I was intrigued. Let's face it--a story about AIDS typically wouldn't be produced as a musical comedy. Add to the mix a purgatory with synchronized swimming and the one of the main characters being Richard Burton, author of "Arabian Night", alive and young due to the fountain of youth and working as a Canadian taxidermist--well, you've thrown in absurd fantasy as well. So you know I'm going to be kind. This is high concept entertainment. And for anyone that says I'm just being nice to support this "gay" film, I'd counter that I would have had exactly the same reaction if the main storyline was about abortion--or any other topic at odds with the bizarre setup.
I am not giving the film my unconditional love--proceed at your own risk. This is adventurous ground and I believe a somewhat "love it or hate it" phenomenon. The budget was low and the film feels inexpensive, but I think this acts in the movie's favor. Not all the performers are as accomplished as you might like. Some songs work quite well, others are borderline. Most of the comedy comes from preposterous situations, and off the wall irreverence. I happen to like this sort of humor. Hell, I'd pay to go to a museum exhibit called "The Hall of Contagion", so that's just one of the elements that had me chuckling and rolling my eyes. And a duet sung be an unusual part of your anatomy is as inspired a lunacy as your likely to see in a long time.
The narrative drive is sometimes lacking--but the film isn't really about telling a conventional story. The "message" really isn't all that challenging or innovative, but was probably riskier when the film was made in 1993.
But I admire the film for taking chances at every turn. By being completely original in concept and execution, it stands alone in its genre. And I have a special place in my heart for someone who breaks the rules, throws away political correctness, defies logic. It's "balls to the walls" filmmaking where most films play it safe. So I'm giving this film much respect, though it's far from perfect. It's not for everyone--it is audacious and daring--but if it sounds like you'll hate it, you probably will! KGHarris, 9/06.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Great musical and lots of serious fun.Jul 25, 2006
Don't miss Zero Patience. It't just one of those movies a person must see. Great music, great acting, great bodies too.
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