A great collection of effective shorts on a common theme. Written and directed by either M Monaco or M Berger all are of just the right length and very nicely cinematic, in that they will often only rely on the visual and not dialogue (or even soundtrack in a number of cases) to tell the story. I particularly liked this last technique where on a number of occasions, the soundtrack faded into nothing as the character focused upon was clearly thinking about/obsessed even, by the object of his passion – a neat way of showing how utterly absorbing such feelings can be to the extent that the outside world no longer exists, at least for a spell. There were also, in a number of them, some nice colour symbolism in same-coloured clothes, particularly red (passion? Hello Almodovar…?) there were also a good number of the famous/notorious Berger ‘crotch shots’.
And because of the nature of the topic, the communication of emotions is invariably subtle and very effectively understated – a hand on an arm can mean an awful lot – even if it is only in the mind of the recipient. Comments briefly) on each:
Tattoo: Nicely slow and sweetly touching in the way the boy torments himself with his feelings for the tattooist – and is the hand on the knee at the end an indication of anything more? – as often the case, it is left open-ended
El Primo: Some beautiful, and often very erotic, framing. And it was in this film that the use of silence was particularly effective with the central character clearly not listening at all to what was being said to him.
El Otro: Very effective use of music here; it tells us what we need to now, along with the visuals.
Los Brazos Rotos: As with many, slightly amusing and with that super tension of ‘will anything actually happen’.
Amor: Nicely erotic but oh-so-casual – and the fading of sound when main character is joined in the sound is masterly. And a hint at the end that things may continue; beautifully judged ambiguity. Red (the towel) was particularly effectively used in this film too.
Entrenanimt: Again red used well (the shorts). This one was the most self-consciously homoerotic compared with the others I felt and perhaps for that reason, very slightly less effective.