Marianna Papageorgiou | History of Other Touches / 2016

a gay tease

by Douglas Messerli

 

Marianna Papageorgiou (screenwriter and director) History of Other Touches / 2016 [3 minutes]

 

The film begins with a series of intimate sexual approaches of Antonis Stampoulos towards his friend, Kostis Xaramountnais, of deep embraces, tousling his hair, and intense sexual hand movements across his chest.

    In this 3-minute film, it suddenly cuts off as we observe the Xaramountanis figure simply smoking while the other watches. There is no further sexual foreplay. We have no idea about what has happened, whether there has been an absolute rejection of the one by the other, or whether time has separated them, or if the other is now ill, unable to engage in the sexual possibilities that the first few minutes of this film hinted at.   

     We only know that something has ceased to be, that perhaps the two men could not accept their relationship or something else prevented it.

      The very attenuated subject of this very short film delimits its ability to explore or explain what might have occurred between the two major figures, and forces us to perceive Greek director Papageorgiou’s work as merely a gay tease.

       I cannot suggest this film for anyone interested in serious LGBTQ+ cinema since there is clearly no there there, no explanation why two men might not possibly be able to continue the exploration of their bodies. Forgive me, but this film seems only to be a tease. No “history” is fully documented, and we cannot imagine how they might proceed.

 

Los Angeles, December 14, 2023

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (December 2023).