João Cândido Zacharias | Os Últimos Românticos (The Last Romantics) / 2019

sexual taboos

by Douglas Messerli

 

João Cândido Zacharias (screenwriter and director) Os Últimos Românticos (The Last Romantics) / 2019 [12 minutes]

 

Hardly a profound study in public sex—although that would certainly make for a very interesting film since it represents still a taboo in most societies, but one that is broken regularly by gay men—the three men in this story tell stories about having sex in public spaces.

    It should hardly be surprising that the first and second location is a cinema. I think every gay man of a certain generation has probably had sex at one time or another in a movie theater. I certainly have, but this not the time or place to discuss the incident. In this case it is a cute young curly-blond-haired boy (Maurício Barcellos) who tells of sitting down in an empty seat in an otherwise full movie theater next to a bearded man.

     He describes himself as primarily the aggressor, putting his hand on the armrest next to the others, who seems to be perfectly happy to leave it there. They quietly and discretely touch one another’s hands before the other man pulls his hand to his hard cock, with the boy begins to caress, eventually unzipping his pants and allowing the boy entry to the cock through his underwear, hiding the action from the neighbors, who apparently notice nothing with his backpack. The boy begins to jerk him off, but finally stops, the boy explaining that he suddenly came without even touching himself, just through the excitement of the event. The first time it has even happened to me, he muses.

     He observes that the other attempted to return the favor of jerking him off, but he pulled his arm away to prevent it since his pants were already full of cum.

     The scene changes to two bearded men, apparently lovers, lying in their bed. The one (Lucas Canavarro) begins to tell the same story as the boy, only Rashomon-like, the facts change ever so slightly. It is he the one who puts his arm up next to the boy’s and does the caressing, and the boy who reached out eventually for his cock. The bag is still there, and the incident of the boy stroking his penis through his underwear remains. But in this case, he does return the favor, touching the boy’s cock only to discover it covered with semen, slightly aroused by it but also a bit disgusted. After holding it a while longer he removes his sticky hand.

    Clearly we have to believe the second man’s story since he confirms that the boy has already cum. Evidently the boy was too embarrassed by his own early ejaculation to want to involve another person in the event.

       The other person lying in bed with the second story-teller (Victor Lisboa Gorgulho) tells another story of being on a sleeper bus, where a highly muscled young man sits down next to him. Later the guy lays down to sleep, but the storyteller cannot. Soon the muscled sleeping guy moves in a manner that his hard cock touches our friend’s hand. He doesn’t know if it is intentional or not. But he leaves his hand there and later it happens a second time and leaves it there. So he begins to slowly move his hand over it as if to jerk him off. And then “I said fuck it, and unzipped his pants, pulled out his dick and jerked it until he came.”

      He soon admits, however, that he made the last part up. That actually he did continue to touch it and massage his cock through his pants, but he doesn’t know if the man was asleep or not.

      Once more buses are one of the most common places in which both gays and heterosexuals have public sex. I too have done it on buses, several times, on particularly trains. Airplanes and the subway are far more dangerous, but are a common location for public sex in porn movies.

      What all of this has to do with “romanticism” I cannot explain. There might certainly be said to be something thrilling about the danger of such situations, not quite knowing whether the other totally agrees with what’s happening, and most important, knowing that there is the danger is something observing what’s happening and complaining or even calling for the police. The danger and taboo of the situation is like a drug with extends the pleasure of sex to the thrill of the crowd, the possibility of exhibitionism and voyeurism.

     These are often the subjects of porn movies, but seldom make their way into the mainstream LGBTQ films, except, as I have already noted, in the numerous public bathroom movies and gay sex bar scenes.

     I can only conjecture that perhaps Cândido Zacharias perceives anyone in the world of gay coming out, relationship dilemmas, and social bullying, who is still interested in verboten sex and love as being a “romantic.”

 

Los Angeles, December 14, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (December 2024).