Simon Gualtieri | Ami d’ami (Friend of a Friend) / 2023

the bathroom saint

by Douglas Messerli

 

Simon Gualtieri and Anne-Marie Soucy (screenplay), Simon Gualtieri (director) Ami d’ami (Friend of a Friend) / 2023 [15 minutes]

 

Jules (Jules Ronfard) has just broken up with his girlfriend after meeting Samuel (Samuel Brassard), realizing perhaps for the first time that he is probably bisexual. He arranges to meet Samuel at his apartment, to just “hang out.”

      Both Samuel and Jules have evidently enjoyed their previous conversation with each other, and, despite Jules’ doubts about having arranged for the meeting, Samuel sees nothing unusual about their get-together.

      But Jules clearly has other plans, wanting it appears quite desperately to explore his newfound bisexuality for first time with a man, namely Samuel. But everything gets in the way. First of all, he can simply not find the language to speak to an openly gay man about his sexual desires; but even worse Samuel’s roomates, male and female, both apparently heterosexual, come tumbling into their tête-à-tête with their tales of their day, their equal claims to Jules (the male insists they met in college and the woman suggests she might have fallen in love had they met a supermarket) and a desperate desire to play dominoes.

      More than a little frustrated, Jules retreats to the bathroom, snapping a picture of himself in the manner of the St. Sebastian reprint hung on the bathroom wall, and sends it off to Samuel, hoping to reveal his inner feelings.

     Yet even that seems to fail when Samuel’s roommate pulls the cellphone from his hands demanding that there will be no texting allowed during their domino game. In desperation, Jules spills wine all over the table and prepares to leave.

        In Samuel’s bedroom where he has left his coat, the friend of a friend finally appears without all the others, permitting the two to talk, both afraid to broach the subject of their mutual attraction. But a kiss settles the issue, as Jules explains that being the very first time for him with another man, he may find he doesn’t like it, he may not want to sleep over, etc. Yet it’s clear the two, once they begin their sexual engagement, will truly enjoy the experiment.

       If Quebecois writer Simon Gualtieri’s likeable short film is not very profound, it does present gay love from a quite different perspective, and Ronfard is very appealing as the coming out bisexual.

 

Los Angeles, December 5, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (December 2024).