The bulk of this is a ‘live’ review – i.e. comments made as I watched the film with some indications at some time as to how far I was into the film. That is why I have used a bulleted format although the remarks at the end were written the day after to try to give some sort of oversight of the film.
· Very quiet, overlapping dialogue casually caught – a stylistic device of this director I think. And the cinematographic style is (apparently) casual.
· We are plunged straight into the world of the film and characters. Who/where/why/relationships are not immediately made apparent
· Is there significance to the tattoos?
· Many of the shots have a photographic quality – which is emphasized by the length of some of the takes and the way the camera remains static to allow us to observe and get involved.
· Ferando is clearly a charismatic master figure…
· 17 minutes in – the first use of music with the soccer match
· It’s very much, it seems, an exploration of masculinity - or perhaps aspects of masculinity – but often unspoken aspects of this.
· Liked the brief little scene where German is reading ‘Catcher’ (significance?) and Fer just sits and watches – should/could be creepy but somehow not – why?
· Another marvelous little scene was where they were talking in the bedroom. Have a note of comics by the bed but cannot recall what this was (!). Sexuality was very strongly implied – and yet it also wasn’t; fine example of the magical ambiguity that the film-maker manages to infuse in so many scenes. It was also tense.
· And the scene where Ferando wants to go to bed (in the room he,significantly, shares with German) but cannot as Leo there (why does he do that – hinting/implying something – but then he was the one who much later on assured German that Ferando straight/has girlfriend. Sexual jealousy on his part? Does he see German as a possible threat as the two spend so much time together. Perhaps him sleeping in Ferando’s bed is a way of him staking a claim to it; Ferando does say ‘he’s always doing this’. Again, terrific sexual tension in the scene.
· Significant amount of casual touching - between all the group and looking, particularly Ferando. A few occasions when he is caught looking (at Lucho) and then turns away and pretends he was not
· About half-way through: Sexual appeal/link between German and Ferando very emphatic when doing handstand on the lawn – yet another marvelous of a strongly erotic scene where the actions could lead to something but do not. I noticed a cut on a neck in this scene – symbol of penetration perhaps; or am I reading too much into it?
· At 1.10: A very subtle seduction scene (‘no clean underwear’) so need to sleep nude…
· Had femarks that is a film ‘where nothing happens’ but that TOTALLY wrong – it’s just subtle/hinted/understated. The process is shown as being infinitely more interesting than the outcome in terms of what will, or will not, happen in this burgeoning relationship.
· Lovely weighted dialogue about the Hesse books- (Is Demaoin a well-known work like Catcher?) and at the end, for the first time (?) German looks directly back at Ferando as/after he has been looking at him.
· 1.36: the powerful scene referenced above where Leo tells German about how Ferando is straight/has a beloved girlfriend etc. It’s a superb scene that coveys SO much SO subtly – and yet also remains marvelously ambiguous.
· And very good dramatic structuring in the way that very shortly after this we see Ferando at the disco party, watching German talking animatedly, with physical contact, to someone else – not him. Very powerfully painful.
· The ending was absolutely perfect – all cinematic aspects came together – minimal sound of one single tone setting (the run-down pool which was a central locational focus for all), the darkness of the night and the fact that the final image with the wonderfully passionate long kiss was done in silhouette. And while in one way it’s a very ambiguous ending in terms of what will happen, its absolutely right; the two have, finally, made the connection that they have both wanted and what happens afterwards is, in this story, not at all important. That is another film.
A superb piece of work which is almost a textbook example of how to be maturely erotic and deal with truly powerful emotions with no lurid sensationalism.