slipping
by Douglas Messerli
Cosmo Salovaara (screenwriter and
director) Enviar y Recibir / 2021 [9 minutes]
The US film in Spanish Enviar y Recibir, which I’m going to
translate as “Sent and Received,” is a slip of a story about a pink slip, in
fact, sent with a carton of such garments received into a warehouse shipping
facility overseen by worker Alex Cacho, who when his supervisor, Javier Ronceros,
comes to him to reprimand him for not wearing his protective helmet, notices
that one such item has slipped out of the bottom of the boxes Alex is taping
up. He writes down the problem and tells the worker to toss the piece in the
trash.
We know nothing at all about the warehouse worker, and are rather
surprised by the fact that he seems more than a little interested in this sexy
garment which seems to call up him a song from his past, although we can’t
truly be certain it’s the character’s memories or ones with which the filmmaker
wishes to engage his audience.
In any event, Alex carefully wraps it up as a present for what we
imagine to be his girlfriend, although again we can’t be certain in this film
of anything since the camera is the focus of narrative, not the dialogue.
He cooks a pizza which he seems to burn, serving it up nonetheless to
his table companion (Steph Fernandez Sanchez), who seems an unlikely partner to
Alex. She is younger, obviously a student, is terribly plain-faced with acne
still marking her face and with short hair that has never apparently been
styled. To put it nicely, she is no beauty and looks a bit like a boy, which is
only interesting given the events of this tale. She could even be his daughter.
Even Alex is wary of presenting her with the gift, unsure whether it’s
something which she might like or hate. And when she finally opens it, it is
immediately clear it is not to her liking as she pushes it back across the
table to him. He appears to take no offense.
Indeed, soon after, we see him approach a neighbor, Gerardo de Pablos with the pink slip, explaining the circumstances of how it has come into his possession and wondering whether he might not like it for his daughter. Gerardo takes a quick look at the garment and immediately states it is not something he would allow his daughter to wear.
In the next scene, Alex, working at home as he washes the dishes,
vacuums the floor, and places the garment upon an ironing board to gently iron
it, singing the vintage song “All by Myself,” returning, apparently, to events
from his own past. What is now clear is that it has almost become an obsession
for Alex, something of greater worth than anyone else seems to comprehend. Was
such a slip something like what his mother once wore, a sister, a lover?
Perhaps something he saw as a child and wanted to himself to wear, but which he
had put out of his mind as he grew into adulthood.
But clearly it is now too late, for in
the very next scene at the warehouse we see him bending over a box of another
shipment, taking a careful look at the items within. When he foreman comes
forward for a check, Alex quickly stuffs the clothing that he has been checking
out back into the box and begins to seal the entire package in plastic. But we,
as well as the foreman, cannot help but notice that under his open shirt we
spot the pink slip which he is unabashedly wearing.
The foreman wonders if everything is all right with him, and Alex
assures him it is. And we believe him, for apparently he found something in the
damaged garment that provides him with a sense of joy and satisfaction.
We cannot be sure if Alex is simply a
fetishist attracted to female undergarments or perhaps a long ago crossdresser
for whom the pink slip has suddenly rekindled something from his memory. Does
it matter? In the context of his world, Alex is most definitely queer. And
something is most definitely queer about his life.
Los Angeles, March 27, 2022
Reprinted from World Cinema
Review (April 2022).
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