.jpg)
Did you buy Scott's claim that he had sex with guys only for the money? Or did that strike you as a form of self-repression as in "Brokeback Mountain"? (In "Brokeback," the guys are clearly in love, but for one of them there still is a sense that two men can't truly be together — they can meet in secret and have sex, but they can't have a meaningful life together, only "vacations.")
9 comments:
I did buy Scott's claim, just because it seemed like the whole street life was just an act for him. I mean, he's clear from the beginning that he's only doing it to punish his father and that he intends to go back to his old life when his inheritance comes. Do you think we were intended to buy it?
Scott didn't strike me as gay or in denial like the guys in Brokeback Mountain. I think he just wanted to be as wild as he could fathom being, and being a prostitute was the ultimate wildness for him.
His character is complicated. He had compassion for Mike (at least until the Italian girl distracted him), but he didn't seem to respond sexually. I also thought it was part of the role he made for himself as a rebel.
I was curious in either case how Van Sant set up the sex scenes -- mostly a series of photographic stills that came off as detached; expressionless faces and frozen limbs. Maybe sex via any combination of partners was supposed to seem mechanical and joyless.
And there was a surreal element to it as well, because it wasn't still pictures, it was people sitting still in various positions.
(Maybe surreal isn't the right word. But it was definitely a departure from some of the realistic elements of the film.)
I really liked the still photos for the sex scenes, how the technique captured moments vs. action. Painting vs. video. I don't know if that's what Van Sant was going for, but I found it very beautiful.
I think he only did it twice, or am I missing one? He did for the threesome scene of MIke, Scott and Hans. And he did it for the scene of Scott and the Italian girl.
It did highlight the "mechanical," as Christy says, but I thought maybe the technique was almost meant to convey that there was something meaningful in these encounters, as opposed to the street hustles. The sex with Hans was paid for, but it also was an opportunity for Mike to be intimate with Scott. And obviously Scott and the Italian girl had feelings for each other.
Regarding Erin's question — Do you think we were intended to buy it? — I don't really know. Scott seems like one of those guys who's well aware of his own attractiveness and especially appreciates the male gaze. It's a way for him to exert power over people. He's definitely into debauchery just for the sake of debauchery. He's able to enjoy slumming because the slums are not his fate. And I think his love for Mike, such as it is, is more brotherly. He clearly is attracted to the Italian girl, but she is also something that's serviceable to him: a pretty foreign bride hanging on his arm and exciting male lust in her wake. (Just as Prince Hal in Henry IV went to France to choose a queen for his kingdom, Scott went to Italy to choose his.)
But in "City of Night," the book the movie is partially based on, there are scads of male hustlers who claim to do it only for the money and make fun of guys who do it with each other for free. Some of these are genuine and some are just so incredibly repressed that they can't be honest with themselves. And there are scads of married men who carry on like getting a blowjob from a stranger has no implication for your "heterosexuality." Only if you gave the blowjob would you be a fairy. And the whole male prison culture. So there's all this hocus-pocus about who's really "gay" and who just "plays at being gay" in particular circumstances.
I think Scott is genuine in his assertions, but Van Sant is definitely alluding to this running theme in the book and in our culture.
Good point about how the way the sex scenes were shot emphasized the meaningfulness of the sex.
I liked the still sex scenes. Very evocative. I especially like that they weren't still photos, as Ben said, they were just shots of the people holding still. It was a great look. Beautiful.
Good analysis of Scott, kc. It seems like he was so caught up in the game he was playing with his father and his future that he didn't have much time for feelings or desires. Even with the Italian girl, I think she's just a tool for him, a pretty bobble to complete his new, gilded life.
Uh, bauble is what I meant, of course. I didn't notice her bobbing at all.
Post a Comment