Armen Kazazian | Gold / 2005

heart of gold

by Douglas Messerli

 

Armen Kazazian (screenwriter and director) Gold / 2005 [16 minutes]

The “kept boy” of Canadian director Armen Kazazian’s 2005 Gold, Jay (PJ Laic) is asked by his elderly lover, the now blind artist Calvin (Aron Tager) to paint under his careful instructions of where and how to place and push the brush across the canvas. It is a grueling and quite impossible task, particularly for a young street boy who has learned nothing about art in his youth, and given the fact, moreover, that Calvin is painting through his lover’s eyes simply out of need, a sense of pleasure which the boy cannot share, with no intention of selling the works.    

     The artist’s temper, moreover, is nearly impossible to deal with, and when Jay complains, Calvin’s only reaction is a further threat. It is a relief when the boy is sent off for cigarettes. He also stops by to pick some art supplies, where a young painter working in the store extols the wonder of Cal’s paintings, pointing to a new hardback edition of a book of the artist’s paintings.

   The young artist complains that he can never succeed in attaining the vision of Jay’s artist friend, to which Jay simply and quite innocently suggests that he should perhaps get his “own vision,” a viewpoint mocked by the would-be artist, Barry (Darryn Lucio), who suggests Jay stick to what he knows best, demeaning his role as Calvin’s gigolo, which seems to be knowledge shared by the whole city.

     Hurt, Jay cannot resist joining up for a few moments with an old street friend, Ken (D. Garnet Harding, who also performed in Greg Atkins’ Build of a year earlier) who stands at his usual corner, sharing a few snorts of cocaine and a good fuck. Ken admits that before Jay, he was Cal’s sweetheart and he can’t understand why Jay doesn’t take advantage of the blind old man, after all accidents do happen. His paintings must be worth a fortune. He brags of having stolen the wallet of a john who Jay knows as a kind man who pays well. It is apparent that Jay is disturbed by his former street-friend’s suggestions.

      When he leaves Ken’s apartment and returns to the corner, a car slows down and he, almost by rote, gets in, picking up a man for suck as in the old days. Clearly Jay is conflicted and can’t resist returning, at moments, to his old ways.

     But he does finally arrive back at Cal’s with the packages. Cal knows where he’s been and is angry, but is so anxious to continue the painting that he can hardly take the time out to reprimand his lover. As Jay again takes up the brush, he insists he can’t, that Cal find someone else, but the old man insists he needs only Cal, and together they make another painting; Cal holds Jay’s hand, guiding it to the center of the canvas where he puts a large daube of red paint that drips slowly down the canvas. “Bleeding, it’s called bleeding,” Cal purrs into Jay’s ear, his head almost resting on the boy’s shoulder, shuddering with pleasure in what might almost pass for an orgasm. Art is clearly necessary to his life, and Jay is willing and being paid to help him find it.

     As they move up the stairs soon after to put Cal to bed, the artist admits that he only paints to feel, that all Jay needs to do as well is to “feel.” He brings him near to kiss him, but falls back against the banister, for a moment making it appear as if Jay might indeed to be playing out his friend’s scenario. But Jay pulls him back.

     As the boy pulls him close almost in tears, Cal asks why he does “this” to himself, that he’ll take care him, he doesn’t need to worry, suggesting that he has already sent up a financial support for the boy. The vague referent presumably refers to Cal’s continued backsliding into prostitution, Jay pleading that he feels “so fucking old.” “You’re damaged, that’s all,” Cal insists. “You just have to heal. I healed. You will too. You just have to try.”

     Suddenly he asks the boy, “What color is your hair?” Jay mutters, “Brown.” “What color are your eyes?” “Brown.” “What color is your heart?” Jay smiles, kissing the artist. “Jay, what color is your heart?” From rote, apparently a kind of litany they have exchanged before, Jay whispers, “Gold.” “That’s right,” Cal concludes. Obviously in Jay he has found the fabled prostitute with a heart of gold.

 

Los Angeles, March 27, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (March 2023).