Leon Lopez | The Definition of Lonely / 2015

finding a friend

by Douglas Messerli

 

Leon Lopez (screenwriter and director) The Definition of Lonely / 2015 [14 minutes]

 

A man (Nick Hayes) wanders the streets every day of what appears to be London dressed in a suit, although he clearly has no job. Indeed, according his narrating voice, he has not only no job, but no purpose in live, no friends, and, what’s worse, no wish to make friends or find a companion. Looking at other people every day, he observes what he sees behind their open smiles as a great unhappiness. But since he cannot be made by others to be unhappy, perhaps he is simply happy since he has no one could make feel anything. He likes being alone, he suggests.

     His only true friends, and they themselves are greedy things, are the ducks he daily feeds on the pond where nearby he sits on a bench, pretending to be like all the others. But this day, something unusual happens.

     He seems to doze and suddenly upon awakening sees a small dog standing in front of him, who simply stares up at our friend without moving, even though the man attempts to send him off. But soon another man (Lucas Rush) arrives on the scene calling out “Charlie,” obviously the name of the dog. Our lonely friend calls out to him, pointing at what he seems to be looking for. Surprised that Charlie (Lola, in real life the companion of Rush) has been friendly with the stranger since she usually has nothing to do with them.

     He sits beside the well-dressed man, explaining that Charlie was going to be sent away if he didn’t keep him in the settlement, suggesting his divorced companion was a real bitch. The first man presumes the “bitch” was a woman until the newcomer explains the situation with a pronoun, our friend apologizing for his presumption.

     He makes a couple of witty statements, suggesting that Charlie might have been attracted by his perfume, but suddenly falls into what appears to be a daze, the stranger worrying about what’s happened to him, attempting to wake him up and joking about the fact that certainly he can’t be that boring!

     The lonely guy finally comes to, explaining he has catalepsy, meaning that he feels and hears what’s going on, including having felt the man’s touch, but is unable to respond. Very different, he explains, from narcolepsy, from which he also suffers, which is a sudden and deep sleep. Now, finally, we understand why he has no job, no close relationships, no apparent friends.

      But the gay man finds him charming and quite clever—which to our surprise our retiring friend seems to be—suddenly asking if he likes girls or boys. Strangely, the first man doesn’t really know, never having had a date or anyone of either sex bothering to take an interest.

      Charlie’s friend, however, truly does take an interest and invites him to a 6:00 date the very next day, insisting once he has obtained his telephone number, he will call him on the hour starting tonight so that he has no excuse for claiming catalepsy or narcolepsy and even turning suddenly shy.

     And if he should be straight, he declares, that’s all right too, since he has lots of straight friends.

I’m sure given his sort of campy gregariousness that he does have lots of friends, both gay and heterosexual. But now the loneliest man in the world will have his first date and, at least, have a chance to decide what gender he likes best or even if he likes sex. As he notes to himself, it can’t hurt to have at least one friend.

     As Rick says to Louis at the end of Casablanca, “I think is the beginning a beautiful friendship.”

These actors play so well together that one might imagine them having worked as a team for much of their careers. They haven’t, although both have performed in numerous theater musicals, and both director Lopez and Hayes have appeared in different British productions of Rent.

 

Los Angeles, May 27, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (May 2023).