Alexander Ratter | Leave It Alone / 2022

an improbable romance

by Douglas Messerli

 

Alexander Ratter (screenwriter and director) Leave It Alone / 2022 [6 minutes]

 

In German-born Alexander Ratter’s 2022 short film, a man, Leo (Michael A. Phoenix), who has been heavily drinking, sits alone on a bench in downtown New York City. He is soon joined by his friend, Matthew (Brad Hamler).

 

    These both seem to be working men, perhaps with families, marriages of their own, although we are given no background for either of them. We know only that Leo, a black man, and Matthew, a white, both in their 40s or even early 50s probably have been meeting up there, on that bench or some place nearby for a long time through the years.

     Both are understandably frustrated, Matthew in this case because, as he tells his friend, Leo is already clearly drunk. Leo sings a song, and reaches out to Matthew, who sits him down next to him on the bench, repeating “You’re drunk.”

     Finally, Leo stands goes to the fence and looks out over the river, Matthew soon joining him. Leo begins a clumsy dance and, at one point, attempts to kiss Matthew, which he dodges, perhaps because of his friend’s condition. 

    Yet soon after, he reaches out and strokes Leo’s face, this time Leo pulling away. He sits, Matthew joining him, putting his head upon his shoulder and Matthew gently strokes his face. But when Matthew finally moves toward a kiss, this time Leo pulls away, shouting “Leave it alone.”

     Matthew tries again, with the same response, “Leave it alone,” but finally responds, “I’m not sure I can.” The two friends and lovers sit for a short while before they both join in a kiss, breaking, and kissing again.

      It is clear that they cannot “leave it alone,” cannot cease their often or perhaps even nightly visits without being able to express their sexual feelings for one another. Whatever worlds they live in, these late night meet-ups are all they have, the only time they can fight through the walls in their lives to demonstrate their love.

       Everything seems to push them away from each other, their apparently closeted lives, their inability to join up with one another in real privacy, and their own racial differences; yet they cannot quit one another, pulled each to the other through a love that refuses to be quelled.

 

Los Angeles, December 3, 2023

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (December 2023).