Tras el cristal
Someone challenged me today to recall a film, book or TV show that had caused a great trauma (here is the first of his list of 10 posts, 2-9 should be there on the right).
The first film to come to mind to me was Tras el cristal by the Spanish director Agustà Villaronga (released in English under the name In a Glass Cage). I saw it for the first time in college. I was around 19. It left an indelible mark. To get an idea of the kind of things that happen in the film you can read a nice concise summary of what goes on in this Australian Government Document in which the film was refused classification.
I only rented the film once in the early 90s. For me, reading the memo brings the most traumatic major scenes back. I might actually consider the Australian Government's position to be the right one. While the work has a right to exist as there is no explicit call to violence, the act of having child actors (presumably as young as 8?) enact the scenes is a little fucked up and unethical. I am reminded of Gregg Araki's discussion of the diligence needed to direct child actors in sexual situations in Mysterious Skin. He mentioned the need for the children to be filmed separately and for them to actually not have a clear understanding of what the scene is about. The nature of the scenes in Araki's film, based on Scott Heim's most excellent book, hardly compare in their brutality of what is depicted in Tras el Cristal.
Strangely, I don't think I would see it again and so I don't recall if it is possible that the scenes could be ethically shot in the way that Mysterious Skin was. This is not a blanket endorsement of Araki's approach, but the standard he set in the director's commentary was a decent one. I would be interested to know how and when the child actor might understand the full context of the film (either film I suppose).
The most redeeming part of the story, on an extreme scale, is that it shows how the injuries suffered by the victim of sexual sadism can and usually are repeated by the victim. In an ironic and bold manner, the teen victim turned victimizer turns on his abuser who is completely flaccid both literally and figuratively. A positive review here describes fairly well the action and motives of the film and comes to the partly to same conclusion. "In A Glass Cage shows the transmission of evil, from the torturer to the victim, as an irremediable rite of passage close to vampirism." I consider Angelo's "transmission of evil" from victim to torturer far more important than Klaus' arc in the opposite direction if the film is to have any artistic value. (Also mentioned in the review was Bryan Singer's Apt Pupil. Interestingly it also suffered from a great deal of controversy due to the treatment of minor actors).
As for the trauma, I would start with the fact that the one of the main characters, Angelo the late teen "nurse", was extremely sexy, perhaps an older Tadzio from the Mann story Death in Venice(When I read it, I chose to ignore the part where Tadzio is Polish). He was brilliantly stoic. Strangely, the actor David Sust, who played Angelo, seems to have no searchable images on the web. (The best acting came from Marisa Paredes, an extremely prolific actress who I enjoy tremendously, especially in her collaborations with Pedro Almodóvar).
A couple years later, I noticed a lover of mine named Andreas had a striking physical resemblance to Sust. It was during sex with him that I noticed the trauma for the first time. It was the seductive beauty of Sust in this brutal role that created the close link to between the sex and the violence that made the greatest impression. That, it would turn out, would be the most memorable trauma I remember suffering due to a piece of "art". It was actually kind of disconcerting to me that the scenes and images from the film would come back to me during sex with Andreas. This was mostly because I was still infatuated with this kid. He was a recent high school graduate in Pittsburgh whose parents had emigrated from Greece. He was also a very sweet and physically generous person.
In retrospect I am happy to report now that my most striking memory of Andreas was his divinely potent smell that only an 18 year old Mediterranean boy could have. Very distinct. Like the way extra virgin olive oil smells different from corn oil. Luckily that was the only way "virgin" could be used to describe him. Damn, the memories...
(The best I could find for an approximation).
The first film to come to mind to me was Tras el cristal by the Spanish director Agustà Villaronga (released in English under the name In a Glass Cage). I saw it for the first time in college. I was around 19. It left an indelible mark. To get an idea of the kind of things that happen in the film you can read a nice concise summary of what goes on in this Australian Government Document in which the film was refused classification.
I only rented the film once in the early 90s. For me, reading the memo brings the most traumatic major scenes back. I might actually consider the Australian Government's position to be the right one. While the work has a right to exist as there is no explicit call to violence, the act of having child actors (presumably as young as 8?) enact the scenes is a little fucked up and unethical. I am reminded of Gregg Araki's discussion of the diligence needed to direct child actors in sexual situations in Mysterious Skin. He mentioned the need for the children to be filmed separately and for them to actually not have a clear understanding of what the scene is about. The nature of the scenes in Araki's film, based on Scott Heim's most excellent book, hardly compare in their brutality of what is depicted in Tras el Cristal.
Strangely, I don't think I would see it again and so I don't recall if it is possible that the scenes could be ethically shot in the way that Mysterious Skin was. This is not a blanket endorsement of Araki's approach, but the standard he set in the director's commentary was a decent one. I would be interested to know how and when the child actor might understand the full context of the film (either film I suppose).
The most redeeming part of the story, on an extreme scale, is that it shows how the injuries suffered by the victim of sexual sadism can and usually are repeated by the victim. In an ironic and bold manner, the teen victim turned victimizer turns on his abuser who is completely flaccid both literally and figuratively. A positive review here describes fairly well the action and motives of the film and comes to the partly to same conclusion. "In A Glass Cage shows the transmission of evil, from the torturer to the victim, as an irremediable rite of passage close to vampirism." I consider Angelo's "transmission of evil" from victim to torturer far more important than Klaus' arc in the opposite direction if the film is to have any artistic value. (Also mentioned in the review was Bryan Singer's Apt Pupil. Interestingly it also suffered from a great deal of controversy due to the treatment of minor actors).
As for the trauma, I would start with the fact that the one of the main characters, Angelo the late teen "nurse", was extremely sexy, perhaps an older Tadzio from the Mann story Death in Venice(When I read it, I chose to ignore the part where Tadzio is Polish). He was brilliantly stoic. Strangely, the actor David Sust, who played Angelo, seems to have no searchable images on the web. (The best acting came from Marisa Paredes, an extremely prolific actress who I enjoy tremendously, especially in her collaborations with Pedro Almodóvar).
A couple years later, I noticed a lover of mine named Andreas had a striking physical resemblance to Sust. It was during sex with him that I noticed the trauma for the first time. It was the seductive beauty of Sust in this brutal role that created the close link to between the sex and the violence that made the greatest impression. That, it would turn out, would be the most memorable trauma I remember suffering due to a piece of "art". It was actually kind of disconcerting to me that the scenes and images from the film would come back to me during sex with Andreas. This was mostly because I was still infatuated with this kid. He was a recent high school graduate in Pittsburgh whose parents had emigrated from Greece. He was also a very sweet and physically generous person.
In retrospect I am happy to report now that my most striking memory of Andreas was his divinely potent smell that only an 18 year old Mediterranean boy could have. Very distinct. Like the way extra virgin olive oil smells different from corn oil. Luckily that was the only way "virgin" could be used to describe him. Damn, the memories...
(The best I could find for an approximation).
posted by BrooklynSerpico @ 5:16 PM
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