Two viewer responses, about two different films that explore two different issues – ageing among lesbians, gay men and queers in Les Invisibles (Sébastien Lifshitz, 2012), and the treatment of (homo-)sexuality in Notre paradis (Gaël Morel, 2011) – expressed in two different locations, in two different languages and in response to two different genres of film, one documentary, the other fiction. Two different stances, also; yet they both suggest that the film's modality, its interviewees or characters, their actual or portrayed lifestyles and experiences, serve as comparative resources for understanding sexuality. These are ‘our’ experiences, alleges Sarah, and French cinema is in some ways a better way of representing a core aspect of them, according to José María. The ways in which viewers claim such representations from abroad as having particular resonances with their own sense of selves and experiences, or apprehend them as distinct from themselves and their encounter with the world, and what this means in terms of cross-cultural reception and affiliations, will be the focus of this chapter.

Three dominant themes emerge in the films discussed: ageing among lesbians, gay men and bisexuals; gay male, and, to a much lesser extent, lesbian and bisexual desires and identities; and a sense of shared experience, which manifests variously as a stake in community history or as a more personalised mark of identity.