Nans Laborde-Jourdàa | Boléro / 2023

dionysus

by Douglas Messerli

 

Nans Laborde-Jourdàa (screenwriter and director) Boléro / 2023 [17 minutes]

 

Dancer Fran (real life dancer François Chaignaud) has returned unexpectedly to small hometown in the Pyrenees. We see him first either in a rehearsal or a performance of a new work Boléro, which commentator Mike Kennedy in Letterboxd as nicely summarized: “bare chested and wearing a costume of a long skirt made up of multiple layers of rainbow coloured tulle, with long red fingernails, long curly [red] hair and white makeup.”

 

     In the next frame he is sitting in his mother’s (Muriel Laborde-Jourdàa) car attempting to get a motor to turn over, she yelling for him to stop, fearful that he’ll flood the engine. She has made a phone call to Fran’s sister (Mellie Laborde-Jourdàa), who soon shows up to drive his mother to work, Fran wandering off instead of joining them.

      In real life Chaignaud describes himself as a dance artist whose choreographed works “criss-cross the confluences between erotic dance and operetta, hooping, drag and cabaret shows, as well as the 20th century avant-garde choreographic modernism, with influences ranging from François Malkovsky to Isadora Duncan.” And it is into the realm of erotic surrealism in which this short film now proceeds.

      Almost as under a sexual spell—a word in characterizes much of what follows—Fran first wanders through a nearby wilderness where, from the look of it, obviously lovers, primarily gay lovers, go to have elicit sex. There are numerous condoms spread throughout wilderness, filled and empty. But no one is visiting the spot in the middle of the day, and Fran moves on to a small stream that runs through the area.

      Soon after he has found his way into the center of the town and makes his way into the local grocery market. There he is recognized by a couple of teenagers, who claim that he studied athletics with one of their father’s; they want a photograph.

     Observing a rough gay man entering the nearby toilet, Fran soon follows, but the young man is leaving almost as he arrives. Instead he meets up with an older man. Asking if he comes to this toilet regular, Fran explains that he hasn’t been there for years, the man also telling him of the woods in which we’ve already seen Fran.

    The dancer recognizes him as a former beloved teacher with whom he and apparently many another gay student had sex. The teacher does not recognize him, Fran joking that he must have had quite a “harem” back in those days. The teacher asks if they mightn’t “warm up” together in the stall, to where, in fact, Fran immediately retreats, but locking the door. The former teacher becomes confused as he observes Fran removing his shows, socks, and all other items of clothing. He goes to the next stall, attempting to catch a glimpse of what is going on, as we observed Fran’s feet going into dance positions, his long hands waving their bright-red fingernails as he begins the rhythmic sounds of what is clearly his choreography of Boléro.

      The teacher himself seems to enter a sort of sexual trance as we hear him rhythmically masturbating to the dancer’s audible movements. Soon a couple of younger gay men enter the bathroom quickly becoming aware of the sounds. One of them lifts up the other to the top of the stall so that he can observe what’s going on, and he too soon begins masturbating.

      The music for Ravel’s famous composition can now be heard.

 

    A woman evidently in charge of the toilets also enters, fascinated by what is happening, and she is soon joined by numerous others, male and female, who begin to perspire in suddenly “hot” room, fanning themselves as discover themselves spellbound, unable to move. Males and females both lean their heads together obviously opening themselves up to all sorts of sexual possibilities.

       As a rhythmic pattern begins to be established by dancer’s feet, members of the group begin to breathe deeply, heaving in what can only be described as a sexual heat. Finally, an authoritative black woman enters and brakes open the stall door, the others crowding around her to find the dancer having passed out in exhaustion.

       They gather the dancer up, lifting his entire body into a horizontal position upon their shoulders as they parade him through the town and into the nearby countryside. Almost like a miracle whether they go, people are suddenly seen engaging in sex, two women at the grocery check-out line, three male soccer players engaging in sex in the middle of the field as another two head off, arms around one another, into the showers. 

      As they pass through the streets it appears as if chaos as occurred everywhere. Outside the city, a woman sits on the ground a tree with two men, the trio seem exhausted from a sexual encounter.

The crowd moves quick into a small wooded area almost falling into a kind of frenzy as the camera looking back into the two catches the images of several of the village buildings on fire, smoke pouring from them. Desire and lust have clearly created chaos for these small-town folk as they worship their new sexual deity.

      Laborde-Jourdàa’s 17-minute film was awarded the Queer Palm for short film in the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

 

Los Angeles, June 4, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema (June 2024).