Wednesday, August 14, 2013
"Beauty" (or "Skoonheid"): a middle aged closeted gay man carries his desires to the limit
In “Beauty” (or “Skoonheid”, in Afrikaans) director-writer Oliver Hermanus takes some
welcome risks with “gay” cinema. He also
presents a modern South Africa that looks far from the prejudices we thought it
had overcome.
Francois van Heerden (Deon Lotz), married, moderately rich
and running a carpentry business in the countryside, has been losing interest
in his marriage (Michelle Scott). He
looks average enough for his age: hairy, but balding, perhaps gaining
weight. He meets his non-blood nephew,
Christian (Charlie Keegan), 23, at a wedding party, and in time starts
watching, even stalking him with various ruses.
In the meantime, we learn of his hideaway out on the ranchlands for
casual gay sex.
It gets creepy, as he stares at Christian from a distance on
the beach, Chris being with a girl friend.
Pretending to need Chris for legal work, he gets them to meet in a
motel.
It’s a little unexpected to see a man in his mid forties
overpower a young, healthy man physically.
What follows I have never seen in gay cinema that I can recall, although
there is something like is in Carter Smith’s classic short “Bugcrush” (Jan. 29,
2008).
The irony is that Christian is not so straight after all.
I thought there were some problems with the continuity in the gay disco scene. No, I don't see people throw up in alleys behind bars and go back in.
TLA’s site for the film is here.
The film has a lot of continuous long-takes, in Dogme style
(despite full widescreen, often with stunning ranch and landscapes and views of Capetown), often where one can see characters talking (from
Francois’s point of view) but can’t hear them.
The film (2012) is available on Netflix instant play.
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