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.
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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.
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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).
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