jamie’s kiss
by
Douglas Messerli
Christopher
Manning (screenwriter and director) Jamie / 2016 [9 minutes]
British
director Christopher Manning’s Jamie of 2016 is a truly simple film with
rather deep feeling. The 19- or 20-year-old Jaime (Sebastian Christophers),
still living at home, is sexually out—at least to his father—but living in the
London suburbs or even a bit further away, hasn’t yet had many gay sexual
experiences.
As the film begins his younger brother
(Sam Atkinson) is apparently celebrating a birthday, but Jaimie stands away
from the group seated around a table fiddling with his cellphone, his father
(Paul Clerkin) finally telling him to put the phone away and visit with the
guests. For a few moments he returns, greeting his brother, but soon after he
is standing apart working on his cellphone once again.
Obviously he is making a date, clearly one
of his first, to meet up with someone since in the next frame we see him on the
train or tram into the city. There finally, a bit late, Ben (Raphael Verrion ) arrives at the predetermined spot and the two
begin to chat, Jaimie even showing appreciation for Ben’s having shown up since
his previous “date” never appeared.
Ben seems to have gone along with the
meeting more because he didn’t have something else on his schedule than for any
deep interest in the younger man. He describes his own reluctance to turn the
internet chat into a real date, a feeling Jaimie shares and is happy to hear
that others feel similarly
Yet most of their talk is centered around
questions that Ben asks about Jaimie. Is he out to his family? Who was his
first love? etc. Certainly not deep or probing questions. But Jamie seems happy
just to have another gay man to talk to and readily explains that although his
father knows, he has asked him not to tell his younger brother, yet another way
of forcing his son to remain in a sort of closet.
His first love, a fellow school mate,
John, was a footballer with whom one night as they strolled off the smoke, he
suddenly began to exchange kisses. Fellow classmates, however, were standing
behind a nearby gate, saw what happened, and began the catcalls, the kind of
reaction that would usually end in ostracization and bullying. The two boys
seldom spoke to one another ever again.
There is nothing special in Jaimie’s
confessions, but they speak of typical experiences for young homosexuals and
lesbians living away from the life of the central city. And they convey a deep
sense of loneliness and self-isolation. He has confessed early that he doesn’t
go to the bars.
Hardly has he begun to talk, when Ben
readies to move on, Jaimie putting his telephone number into his friend’s phone
without being offered the other. And Ben expresses the usual brush-off “See you
around.” Suddenly Jaimie leans forward and kisses Ben on the lips. And then Ben
leaves.
The denouement of this short, moving
piece is the fact that a moment later Jamie breaks down into tears before we
see him on the train again, returning to his family flat, and in a subtle stage
direction, opening a door, perhaps to his bedroom, and closing it as he remains
where he is, in the dark of the hall.
Surely he liked the casual manner of
Ben, the fact that his internet photo looked very much like his date actually
did. And he might have imagined joining him for sex and simply more
conversation.
He is left, however, the emptiness of
the very space in which he stands at the end of this small gem.
As one responder to the open notes at
the end of this film commented, “Being gay isn’t easy.”
He
might have added, “Even in 2016.”
It is important to remind heterosexuals
that as recent as a 2021 a poll among individuals in 27 countries found that
80% of people worldwide identified as heterosexual, 3% as homosexual, 4% as
bisexual, and 1% each as pansexual, asexual, and other. I have to presume that
the other 10% refused to answer. Ignoring the restrictions of appearance,
personality, or just population displacement (most gays live in urban areas),
imagine that out of every 100 people you met in your life, only 7 or 8
individuals might be interested in even thinking about gay sexual contact, let
alone any serious interchange. If you live in the suburbs or rural areas and
don’t visit gay bars your chances of encountering another gay man is even
slimmer. And we’re not even talking about differences in age or gender or the
circumstances being allowable for the possibility of any communication about
sexuality. Then imagine someone who is still somewhat closeted or shy or uneasy
about talking about his or her sexuality. It is truly amazing that there are
any LGBTQ relationships.
Los
Angeles, July 14, 2022
Reprinted
from World Cinema Review (July 2022).
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