Marco van Bergen | Vattnet (Water) / 2012

the lost moment

by Douglas Messerli

 

Marco van Bergen (screenwriter and director) Vattnet (Water) / 2012 [15 minutes]

 

Dutch director Marco van Bergen’s short 2012 film seems to rely as much on its press kit as on the images of the film itself, the general description of the film reading that the central character, James “leads a lonely life in a luxurious castle” (IMDb), and in other descriptions that the “castle,” is an expensive hotel which, evidently, his mother and father operate.

     Simply watching it, I might have presumed it to be a kind of prep school or some similar institution, in which what are described as Swedish soccer players might have been seen as students or visitors, with which the head master’s son James (Tobias Kersloot) is discouraged from meeting.

     It doesn’t change the story as much as it alters the tone of the piece. In the “authorized” interpretation James is even more magically separated from the world around him, looking down upon it with sincere fears, strong attractions, and confused feelings. Certainly, had I been more attentive the first time watching this film, I’d have noted the sign stating that this was a Bilderberg Hotel, a chain of exclusive hotels throughout the Netherlands and Germany from where the mysterious Bilderberg Group, an exclusive club involved with world finance, politics, and fine dining (depending upon which source you consult) took its name.

      If nothing else, James’ busy mother (Barbara Labrie) certainly is determined that he brings no friends into his room, particularly young women, that he join his parents for their private meals, and that he focus on his homework for his obviously private school education. And in her constant attentions to him, she is a bit like a mean queen who’s locked away her son in the castle tower.

     The imprisoned prince, however, has no appetite for spaghetti, which his mother tells him his father has just made for dinner, but does hunger for the Swedish soccer players stopping over at his hotel. He follows their group peregrinations both from his indoor staircase balcony, as they traipse through the hotel lobby, and from an outside balcony where he looks down upon them, marking sure to duck out of sight if they should ever chance to look up.

      And from his distant viewpoint there are a great many mysteries concerning the world he is observing, as there are also for us. Why does one of the boys suddenly fall over in his chair in the garden, why does our young prince wander down to the swimming pool to check out all the dressing cabins? And why is one of the Swedish soccer players found in a cabin with his nose-bloodied. The few reviews which I’ve read about this movie simply suggest he had an “accident,” but that makes no sense. How did he fall near the pool, bloody his nose, and crawl into a cabin? 

      Obviously, the boys have gotten a bit drunk, and something this particular boy, Tobias (Serge Mensink) said, something long-simmering in the group dynamic, or more likely, Tobias’ attempt to show his love to one of them—the name he calls out upon James’ discovery of him, “Peter”— called for him to be beaten up.

      But why James has gone in search of him or why the Dutch boy who can’t even speak Swedish has a Swedish flag on his bedroom wall is one of the film’s gentle reminders that we can never truly know another person or fully interpret what is happening.

       What we do suspect is that James has just begun to discover that he is attracted to boys, and has been following the soccer players, similar in age to himself, for that reason. Finding the hurt boy and bringing him back to his room to wipe away the blood and allow him the use of his shower is similar to a dream scenario, in which James has been able to kidnap someone to play out his sexual fantasies. The very fact that they must speak English, since neither of them speak each other’s language, places them into a coded world in which they must speak a special outsider language they “alone” share.

       His plans are almost destroyed by his intuitive mother, who suspects his lie about making sandwiches for his own dinner and now perceives that someone might be in his room. But fortunately, business calls distract her from further investigation.

       While Tobias continues to shower, James takes up his jersey and hides it under his pillow, picking out another, far more expensive one, to replace it. When the boy finishes, towels off with a freshly provided linen, and puts on the new jersey without question, he turns to James to provide him with a gift for his friendliness, a kiss on the mouth. This may have been precisely what James has dreamt of happening, but the suddenness and unexpectedness of the event forces him to turn momentarily away. He immediately returns to consciousness and leans toward Tobias to provide a kiss, but by this time the Swedish flirt has himself turned away, irritated by the rejection of what he certainly recognizes the hotel prince has so desperately wanted: his first (male) kiss.

      Recognizing just how meaningful and uncommon this event is in his life, James rushes after the boy into the hall, daring to continue what he had hoped might happen in his room in public. He almost insists upon the lost kiss, but the other now can only put his hand on his cheek, look in tenderly in the eyes, and thank him for helping. It is nearly as good as kiss. But it cannot ever answer the loneliness and longing of the young locked-away hotel prince.

 

Los Angeles, June 3, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (June 2023).