Claudio Bonelli | En el WC (Nel WC) (Restroom) / 2006

the inevitable

by Douglas Messerli

 

Claudio Bonelli (screenwriter and director) En el WC (Nel WC) (Restroom) / 2006 [8 minutes]

 

Argentine director Claudio Bonelli’s 2006 short film Restroom is a tease in several respects. First of all, what happens in this film depends very much on the viewer’s own perceptions, his or her own viewpoints about what such seemingly bizarre behavior truly means.

    If one is a fairly innocent, new to male bathroom sex, and not quite prepared for the incidents that occur in this work, I think you would read the film in this manner:

     A young, rather nerdy looking boy, Julian (Ignacio Berreta Cádiz) enters a public bathroom, oddly done out in white tiles with blood red walls. As he enters, he immediately encounters as tough looking, bald, tattooed man, Caco (Adrián Morales) looking somewhat like a leather number, leaning against the wall as if waiting for him. The boy is immediately frightened, perhaps awed, but quickly moves off to the urinals in hoping to escape the frightening bathroom denizen, representing many a straight and gay public bathroom user’s worst fear.

     The tall monster not only clumps over to the urinals where our young boy is trying to go, but stands immediately beside him, looking down at his cock, clearly checking him out without any hesitation. Sex is clearly foremost of his mind.

      Our boy freezes, not quite knowing how to react. Does he dare to challenge this beast. He finally pulls up his zipper and quickly walks away to the wash basins, perhaps believing his finally escaped the open observations of his cock.

      The monster follows, washing his hands a few basins over, and still staring at the boy as if he were in control. Men who hang out in bathrooms looking for sex often spend a great deal of their time washing their hands, drying them under air dryers, posing as if about to leave, but hanging on to their territory with a relentless tenacity apparent only to those who stay and watch their actions.

    Our friend looks startled, amazed at the monster’s refusal to accept his disinterest in his sexual display—what today we would describe as clear abuse, but when I was growing up perceived only as an intense display of sexual invitation, like a peacock shameless strutting around without regret or the intense embarrassment which was felt by the other for both himself and the beast.

      As the boy looks on in wonderment, the leather pants moves over to him, closely exploring his face as if considering the possibility of a kiss. Suddenly the boy breaks out of his trance and rushes off to the noise of the air dryer before slipping quickly out the hellish public toilet.

       But our monster seems almost unperturbed, wiping his hands on some toilet paper, before he leans back yet again on the wall in wait of another victim.

     There is, however, another likely interpretation, the one that turns everything else we have just thought we saw into mere misunderstandings and speculation.

        The young boy had chosen to enter the bathroom, knowing what he might encounter there, hoping for it in fact. His fears, as always, got the better of him, despite the fact that he attempted to curb them, to allow what was about to happen to proceed at its own pace. He desperately desires what the other is so nonchalantly offering, but cannot act on his own. He must be guided into action, not asked but demanded to participate in the sex acts he desperately desires. The man is no beast, but a friend hoping he would show up, trying to encourage the young nerd to allow his urges to lead him into the sex in which he so desperately desires to participate. He will not demand the boy act, only encourage; he is the devil’s helper, not the devil himself.

       He knows that he can afford to wait. Like clockwork, at some point, he moves down to one of the red-painted stalls, and pushes the door open. Our distraught boy enters the bathroom, walks slowly over the stall, and enters, the leather number following him in and slamming the door shut.

       If you can’t imagine what happens in the stall, you don’t want to know. But it was inevitable.

 

Los Angeles, August 2, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (August 2023).