Dominic Leclerc | Nightswimming / 2009

nightmare of pleasures

by Douglas Messerli

 

Dominic Leclerc (screenwriter and director) Nightswimming / 2009 [14 minutes]

 

In British director Dominic Leclerc’s haunting Nightswimming all three of the film’s central figures, Luke (Harry Eden) and Ellen (Linzey Cocker)—runaway children who break through the back door of a now closed-down Victorian swimming pool (filmed at the former Manchester Swimming Baths, now in commercial use)—and the night guard Martin (Tim Dantay) encounter each other only to discover that within the strange world of labyrinthian showers, odd-shaped rooms and an emerald-like glimmering pool, to say nothing of the sickly pea-green office in which each night Martin usually sits alone, that they are strangely compelled to behave in ways that even they will never comprehend.

     From the moment Martin meets up with the intruders, who caught red-handed, are strangely met with acceptance and permission to spend the night if they only do not destroy anything else. Indeed, Martin seems immediately to comprehend their plight, that of two would-be lovers, having escaped the confines of their heteronormative homes are still totally unable to break free of its traditional values.

      Ellen, in particular, is still quite conventional and terrified of the implications of truly having escaped with her young Romeo just for the adventure of it. The more she tries to pretend to be a tough kid of the streets, the more she makes it apparent that the ways she has been taught to behave have truly entrenched themselves in her consciousness.

      Finally able to have complete sexual freedom, she allows Luke only to kiss her, still refusing sex with him—as she has apparently for their entire relationship to date. The young sex-driven boy also still displays the chevalier manners of his bourgeois upbringing, assuring her that he will not sexually force her despite the fact that he, to put it simply in his adolescent language, is clearly “hornier than hell.”

      Both of them are also fascinated and terrified of Martin’s seemingly ever-present observation of them. Suddenly they have been thrown into world where they are objects of voyeurism, of interest for the very behavior that they have previously had to hide away from their families. In this vast night water-world you might even imagine a sinister network of cameras hooked up to Martin’s unpleasant warren to offer him the opportunity to observe their every move.

     This is, however, still a Victorian world and no such modern devices are in existence—or even necessary given the cat-walk structures of the building and the fact that Martin completely knows his way around the watery funhouse that allows him entry and views that they cannot even know exist.

     Ellen, more freaked out by the situation than Luke who is perhaps even a little intrigued and excited by the sexual possibilities, simply wants her boyfriend to hug and protect her, while he like a traditional male hunter faces what Martin immediately hinted it would be: “a sleepless night.”

     Early on he asks her to join him in an exploring trip, where once more they encounter Martin who gently asks them how long they’ve been on the road—apparently for only one or a few nights—and almost gives them permission to take advantage of the large pool.

     Once again Ellen returns with Harry to the main camp, an odd-shaped room that appears to be tucked under a staircase where they have spread their knapsack, blankets, and few other belongings, where finally she falls asleep.

     But Luke is immediately up and once more on the hunt, again encountering at half past three Martin in a locker room. The two smoke, Martin bending down inexplicably to work on an ancient air ventilator cover, asking about the boy’s relationship with Ellen. “She’s not really my girlfriend; we just hang out together,” replies Luke in the first of three “betrayals” by the trio of figures, an explanation that strangely permits his availability to other possibilities.

      Before any of those “possibilities” might even be mentioned let alone acted upon, however, we observe Martin’s breakdown, as he suddenly mutters, “This is stupid. I was just making sure you were all right. I’m married.” In this second “betrayal”—a kind of coward’s coverup—we finally perceive that if the two children might be confused by the feelings welling up within them, that Martin is far more psychologically disoriented. Somewhat like Christian in Till Kleinert’s Cowboy, he has been totally unprepared for the sexual feelings that he suddenly has for a young male. Nervously pulling on the vent as he makes this mini-confession, he seriously cuts himself, Luke, dressed only in his skivvies, taking on the role of nurse in bandaging Martin’s hand.

     A moment later, in a scene that most definitely requires full on-screen nudity, Luke is seen showering with Martin nearby standing with his back to the naked boy facing the wall as if terrified of witnessing the boy’s well-developed pectorals, penis, and well-shaped ass.

      He turns slowly as Luke, now draped in a full towel moves into his space, as he, gradually moving toward the boy, reaches out his hand to touch and caress his face, the two slowly moving their heads together in what becomes a deep embrace, while Luke begins to unzip the man’s pants ready to pull out his penis. If the children are still conditioned by their upbringing, so too is Martin a man of Victorian sexual values as he pulls away unable, just like Ellen, to engage is what he so desires.

      As if to further entice the terrified man, Luke drops his towel displaying his entire body, Martin by this time moving even further back, shakingly trying to explain his actions: “I just wanted to hold you. Get dressed!”

      Cruel as only children can be who cannot understand their own feelings which they turn against others when rejected, Luke now calls Martin “nance” and “faggot,” the elder responding in macho fashion by grabbing the boy and threatening to beat him. There might have been violence accept for the fact that unknown to them Ellen has sneaked in to watch the entire scene understandably upset and even more confused by what she has witnessed, and in fleeing knocks over an object.

       In what has now grown into almost a soap-opera of misconceived confessions, Ellen now comes to Martin to insist that she’s “not jealous. He says he loves me, the piece of shit. Well, if he thinks I’ll cry over him, fuck him.” In this third betrayal of love, the young girl confuses obviously a moment of sexual lust with a sexual relationship, now pretending to be the street tough girl by denying the love she really feels for Luke while miscomprehending the true possible consequences of lover’s sexual come-on to another man.

      In fact, it is doubtful that these sleepwalking figures will fully recall and assimilate what they have experienced in this wet nightmare.

      Besides the sun is up, and the two interlopers into Martin’s silent world are prepared to leave, Ellen asking, as if nothing of importance has transpired, if he will let them stay again some time, to go “skinny dipping.”

     Martin, looking into their innocent faces can only answer, “Maybe.”

    She leaves, as Luke turns to Martin for a moment, both humming vague apologies, with Luke closing the conversation by saying “I think I’m in love”—presumably with the now seemingly older girl he’s been traveling with. After the kids have left, Martin strips and dives into the pool to cleanse his body and, one presumes, his memories of the nightmare of pleasure with which he struggled.

     Remember this film for the next time some homophobe argues that all LGBTQ cinema is an attempt to covert young people to homosexuality.

 

Los Angeles, September 16, 2021

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (September 2021).