Alexander Pfeuffer | Frühstück? (Breakfast?) / 2002

breakfast without the bed

by Douglas Messerli

 

Alexander Pfeuffer (screenwriter and director) Frühstück? (Breakfast?) / 2002 [15 minutes]

 

German director Alexander Pfeuffer’s short film Frühstück? (Breakfast?) takes on a topic that is not frequently enough discussed in LGBTQ cinema, namely what does one do when a young gay man is attracted to and quite in love with an individual who, in the German phrase used in this film, is a punze (in German street jargon, a “pussy,” but here meaning something closer to a male whore).

    The film begins with the cute kid Boris (Nico Link) opening a gift package from his mother, two mugs on both of which are inscribed the words “him,” obviously from a mother who knows her son is gay but would like to imagine him finding a nice young boy with whom to settle down.

    Boris immediately telephones up his friend Til (Tobias Schenke), who is breakfasting with a girl, Giselle (Anna Thalbach), a “girlfriend” well aware of his sexual identity.

     Til, apparently delighted to hear from Boris, invites him to go swimming; but when Boris shows up and observes that almost all Til’s attentions seem to be directed on Giselle, it puts a damper on his hopes to presumably to have a more intimate day with his friend.

      The couple, Til and Giselle, go into the waters, but Boris stays behind, freshening up in the pool bathroom, where a slightly older, but good-looking man, showering behind him attempts to catch Boris’ glance. Boris indeed does notice the naked man (Andreas Schneeberg) luring him into a sexual act, and for a moment given his frustration with Til one might even imagine Boris giving in. But Til suddenly appears, wondering once again why Boris hasn’t joined them in the pool.

     But at the same time Til also notices the cruising of the showering man, and, as Boris goes to leave, we observe Til joining the older man for a sexual encounter.

     Back with Giselle, Boris suggests that Til has decided to take a shower, as he attempts to better understand Giselle and Til’s relationship. Evidently, she is simply someone who serves as a kind of home base for him, as a bit like a puppy dog he wanders away each day, returning to have breakfast.

     Til returns to leave the pool, showing more affection to Boris, and finally the boys pull away from Giselle, Til shouting after, “Breakfast?”

     Boris, desperate to have some time with Til alone, races off hand to hand with his friend to a rooftop view, where they might catch a kiss at least. Looking over the city, Til comments that there are over 3 million people all them yearning for something. “Some of them must get what they want, right?”

      Boris responds that he doesn’t know, which leads Til to philosophize: “Rule number 1: Nobody knows anything.”

       “And rule number 2?” Boris enquires.

       For a moment the two boys move their heads together as if they are about to kiss, interrupted by Til calling out the word: “Dancing.”

       By the next frame they are in the middle of a hectic dance scene of a gay bar. Here, finally in the middle of the floor, they do kiss, and just as suddenly Til pulls Boris out to a back street where they begin to make love. Another man, waiting outside the club for just such an instance, moves in on the couple, feeling up Til’s ass as Boris and Til engage in deep, passionate, kisses.

      Boris attempts to push the man away, but Til accommodates his ass to the man’s explorations, Boris finally pulling away, obviously not wishing to have any part of a threesome. Boris leaves Til to what we glimpse will probably be an intense streetside fuck.

       At breakfast with Giselle the next morning she wonders where is Boris, Til responding, “Breakfast is just for you and me,” Her response: “You are such a dumbass.”

       Soon after, Til visits Boris, attempting to restore their relationship, suggesting Giselle is waiting for them at breakfast, but Boris gives him a cold reception. Moving closer as if for a hug, Til says “I am what I am.” Boris pushes him off, “A bitch. A punze.”

       Angry Til storms out, but soon calls from a nearby phone booth (in 2002 there were still banks

of phones booths evidently in Berlin). Boris rushes out to find which one his friend is calling from and, finally finding him, knocks on the glass, the two finally joining up for a breakfast with just the two of them.

        Of course, the query of “breakfast?” also suggests that a couple would have spent the night together, which in this instance is not at all the case. But perhaps the wandering puppy might be locked away one night, at least, in bed with the boy who truly loves him. The film does not attempt to even suggest that possibility or what Boris might do with a love for someone who is ready for sex with anyone and anytime. Is such a relationship even possible?    

      Certainly not in the increasingly tightly restricted gay monogamous relationships that were beginning to develop and would eventually help to create the demand for the legalization of gay marriage in most Western countries.

     Same-sex marriage in Germany, incidentally, was first legalized in 2017, 15 long years after this film. Accordingly, monogamy was perhaps not even an advantage in gay relationships when this movie was made, when simultaneously young men, because of a regimen of medicines, finally did not have to fear death through AIDS from casual sex.

 

Los Angeles, November 20, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (November 2022).