Timothy Smith | Le weekend / 2007

discovered in translation

by Douglas Messerli

 

Nyah Farier and Timothy Smith (screenplay), Timothy Smith (director) Le weekend / 2007 [15 minutes]

 

One might argue that the old enmities between France and England are played out once again in Australian-born director Timothy Smith’s British film, Le weekend.

     French film student Sebastien (Seb, played by Egyptian-born actor Omar) travels to London with his Super 8 camera to finish his required short film project. He begins by visiting only the tourist spots, commenting cynically on how many British monuments seem to display their wrath against their French neighbors. And from the beginning, accordingly, we find Seb a bit like an American tourist in Paris, not really truly interested in uncovering any truths or making any deep revelations about the country he is visiting, as Americans tend to do, for “le weekend” only. And one can only wonder whether his film project might turn up anything of interest given his viewpoints.

      As commentator Mike Kennedy, writing on Letterboxd puts it: “Not to worry, he wanders into queer Soho where he is checked out by and agrees to go for a drink with Rafael ([Brazilian-born actor] Fernando Peres) who then offers to show him around.” (words in brackets are mine)

     Surprised by the friendliness of Rafael—who is seemingly pleased not only to take the visitor on a tour of London which he may never otherwise have seen, but offers Omar a bed for the night—our visitor seems particularly dense as well as rather inattentive in not being able to discern that Rafael is a gay man looking for a boy with whom to spend a night of sex. And when Rafael’s sexuality finally dawns on the “Frenchman,” he resists telling his new friend that he is straight.

 

      Without blinking an eye, he allows Rafael to suck him off, and to continue touring him around the next day as well. Gradually, we witness what the narrator (Omar’s voice performed by Val Rassi) eventually perceives, that his London buddy is growing more and more frustrated by the fact that Omar will not hold hands or even offer up a kiss.

       Finally, even Seb dredges up enough guilt to tell Rafael the truth, and we just as suddenly discover that Rafael’s kindnesses were, in fact, all dependent upon sexual rewards, as he turns away and quickly moves off, leaving his new false friend alone. Perhaps Seb deserves it, but Omar still feels beholden to at least seek out Rafael to thank him for his gestures.

       He finally finds him walking outside a bar where they have previously had drinks. But just as suddenly, another gay man comes up to Rafael, kisses him, and with him in hand hurries off, perhaps the “Londoner,” if he has caught a glimpse of his French stalker, gloating in the delight of ignoring his heterosexual gaze.

 

      If you believe the film’s fiction, Seb, at the expense of the British boy’s sexual desires, certainly is able to finish his film. But, in fact, we finally realize that this is no documentary, and that everything in Smith’s film represents another kind of fiction. A Frenchman, played by Omar, an Egyptian, visits a London actually caught on camera by an Australian filmmaker. Playing a straight man, Omar’s character meets up with a pretend British boy, Rafael, actually played by Brazilian-born actor Peres, the gay man whom Omar deceives. The supposed documentary we are seeing is in fact a scripted movie, itself based on a genre created, in part, by Jean-Luc Goddard.

      In short nothing is what it seems to be. The characters are not of the same nationality as they claim to be, their sexuality, in truth, is unknown, and the British landscape is being framed as well by an outsider. In short everyone and everything lies outside of what the fiction tells us it is. This is a film, in other words, about outsiders trying to recreate a world defined by others, the dilemma faced by any gay filmmaker who chooses to portray anything outside of his own cultural, social, and sexual identities. We have to wonder, accordingly, might outsiders be able to tell truth better than those within? Or do they add further layers of fiction onto what we perceive as reality?

 

Los Angeles, April 22, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (April 2023).