Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Billy Budd redux
Today's film is not about gay men per se.
But it is about gay feelings and internalized homophobia.
I did not realize that Claire Denis' film was based loosely on Billy Budd, the grand opera by Benjamin Britten.
It is a desert story. The French Foreign Legion. A tough non-com who starts to pick on a recruit. The attraction of the two men or of the non-com for the recruit is shown over and over again.
It is all "show, don't tell".
Very well done.
Lithe male bodies build a road in the desert. A senior officer oversees. The non-com supervises the actual work.
The senior officer warns the non-com about what he observes. The attraction or the preoccupation. Particuilar picking on a young legionnaire. So there is a narrative that helps us see what is going on.
