sex control
by Douglas Messerli
Jean-Baptiste Huong and Nicolas Mapache
(screenplay), Jean-Baptiste Huong (director) À l'orée (Because You're
Mine) / 2018 [12 minutes]
While the voice of Stéphane Rideau comments on
his love from a former boyfriend and reads passages from a goodbye letter,
figures (Samuel de Sagas and Andrew Sheather among others), play out the
apparent sado-masochistic relationship in which these two gay “bears” were
involved.
The scenes are played out in nature with the nearly nude men performing a metaphoric ritual that expresses the underlying forces of the two central figures’ relationship.
It
begins with an intense kissing session that gradually seems to arouse other
forest denizens who come into and intrude upon their love-making session,
eventually enveloping one of the lovers into a kind of group orgy that
gradually shifts to a complex activity involving ropes and a cross of wood onto
which they stretch the body of the narrator, forcing him to become a sort of
laid-out Christ figure.
Suddenly it appears that the preparations have been made for the return
of the original lover, who now that his partner is forced to remain in
position, will have full control over his lover’s attentions. Yet even here the
errant lover turns his face away, discouraging the other to come nearer.
Despite this, however, the narrator realizes that he has still has
complete control over his lover, that even while tied up in his cruel
multiple-partnered relationships he still “owns” the other.
It
is difficult to see the purpose or the even the pleasure of French director
Jean-Baptiste Huong’s macho S&M pean to power. This is simply not my kind
of movie, and I find its themes somewhat disgusting. Although sex may be
powerful, it is not something with which I might like imagine controlling
others. And the bears in this forest, at least, are not my kind of men.
Los Angeles, March 23, 2023
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (March
2023).
No comments:
Post a Comment