It's hard to explain what makes this short so interesting without "giving away" what it's about. So if you don't want to know what happens, then stop reading now... though I have to add, as fair warning, that if you're the kind of person who would stop reading now, then you're probably not going to like this film anyway. You'll complain at the end that nothing happened.
Which is exactly what I find refreshing about this film. So many gay films are fantasies about the fulfillment of desire: Finding that the object of your desire is also interested in you. Coming out of the closet and finding that you're accepted. Achieving love despite all obstacles. And that's fine. I mean, after the warm-fuzzy review I wrote of "Beautiful Thing," I can hardly pretend that I'm not susceptible to gay romances based on wish fulfillment.
But I also love the fact that "El Reloj" is the opposite of all that. This is a story about desire not being fulfilled--and not in a grand, tragic way, but in an utterly mundane, dammit-now-I'll-always-wonder-what-might-have-happened-if... kind of way. The story is ambiguous, which is part of the intellectual pleasure, but I'm operating on the assumption that we're supposed to understand that at least one of the protagonists, if not both, is sexually interested in the other but lacks the courage or the skill or whatever to make the final push that will carry him (them?) from desire to fulfillment.
I like it because it's realistic. There's a lot more frustrated, unrequited desire in the world than otherwise. I like that Marco Berger was able to capture that--and that he *thought* to capture that; that he thought this was a story worth telling. On the strength of this short alone, I'm keen to see his debut feature, "Plan B."
Which is exactly what I find refreshing about this film. So many gay films are fantasies about the fulfillment of desire: Finding that the object of your desire is also interested in you. Coming out of the closet and finding that you're accepted. Achieving love despite all obstacles. And that's fine. I mean, after the warm-fuzzy review I wrote of "Beautiful Thing," I can hardly pretend that I'm not susceptible to gay romances based on wish fulfillment.
But I also love the fact that "El Reloj" is the opposite of all that. This is a story about desire not being fulfilled--and not in a grand, tragic way, but in an utterly mundane, dammit-now-I'll-always-wonder-what-might-have-happened-if... kind of way. The story is ambiguous, which is part of the intellectual pleasure, but I'm operating on the assumption that we're supposed to understand that at least one of the protagonists, if not both, is sexually interested in the other but lacks the courage or the skill or whatever to make the final push that will carry him (them?) from desire to fulfillment.
I like it because it's realistic. There's a lot more frustrated, unrequited desire in the world than otherwise. I like that Marco Berger was able to capture that--and that he *thought* to capture that; that he thought this was a story worth telling. On the strength of this short alone, I'm keen to see his debut feature, "Plan B."