➤ FORBIDDEN SPEECH, from p.26
Juan (Alfonso Barón) is renting
out his spare room to his colleague
Gabriel (Gaston Re). The men hang
out watching TV, drinking beer,
and smoking. Friends come over
from time to time and do the same.
The tableau of life presented here is
quotidian. Still, there is an undercurrent
of homoeroticism percolating
between the two men. When
Juan places his hand in Gabriel’s
lap for support in one scene, Berger’s
camera freights it with sexual
suggestion.
One night, Gabriel spies Juan
naked through his doorway. Was
this a deliberate provocation on
Juan’s part or just the happenstance
of living together? Berger
builds the sexual tension between
the two men deliciously as they
often stare at each other or stand
intimately close on the train. The
men do not talk much. They have
a brief conversation about girlfriends.
Gabriel pays weekend visits
to his young daughter Ornella
(Malena Irusta), who lives with her
grandparents. But the unspoken
attraction between these two men
is palpable. And the way Gabriel
looks at Juan, it is clear he is romantically
intrigued by his roommate.
In Berger’s previous features,
“Plan B,” “Absent,” “Hawaii,” and
“Taekwondo,” it took almost the
entire fi lm to unfold before one of
the men makes the fi rst move on
the guy he desires. “The Blonde
One” cuts to the chase early, with
Gabriel acting on an impulse to
stroke Juan’s cock through his
sweatpants as they stand side by
side in a doorway. It is an extremely
erotic moment that leads to a
scene of passion.
But is Juan simply bored, horny,
and bi-curious? Or is he expressing
his deeply-buried same-sex
Alfonso Barón as spied by his roommate in “The Blonde One.”
feelings? Berger keeps viewers on
tenterhooks as Juan sends Gabriel
mixed messages — starting with
sending him back to his own room
after sex.
As Gabriel becomes ever more
confused, he fi lls their post-coitus
encounters with stony silence.
Still, Gabriel’s puppy-dog eyes indicate
how fast he is falling in love
with his roommate.
Berger is very exacting as a fi lmmaker
in depicting this bromance.
It is not just how he fi lms the
LA RELEASING
men together, creating sensuality
through their cozy body language.
He shrewdly shifts focus to blur
out Gabriel self-consciously disrobing
in front of Juan, and he pivots
to Gabriel’s face when Juan leaves
the room to have sex with his girlfriend
Natalia (Melissa Falter).
He also deliberately objectifi es
the men’s naked bodies with an almost
voyeuristic eye, lingering on
their buff, hairy chests, pert asses,
and casual full-frontal nudity to
entice viewers, making them actively
join in the lust.
“The Blonde One” tells its story
almost entirely through Gabriel’s
experiences — he is “the blonde
one.” This approach serves the fi lm
well. Gabriel conspires to spend a
weekend alone with Juan, only to
become jealous when two of Juan’s
friends visit and Juan stay out
overnight. This episode prompts
Juan to assert, “Don’t make me
explain myself like you’re my girlfriend,”
leading Gabriel to silently
wonder if Juan isn’t really just his
fuck buddy?
Berger tips his hand as to who
has the power in the relationship,
but that does not minimize the
fi lm’s pleasures. A scene in which
Gabriel caresses Juan’s naked
body in bed is lovely, even if the
frank discussion the men are having
is quietly devastating.
Alfonso Barón makes Juan super
seductive, and the actor deliberately
keeps his character’s emotions
in check; he does not to reveal
much more than his sexy body.
Barón’s downplaying, however,
magnifi es Gaston Re’s moving performance.
Re conveys so much of
Gabriel’s pent-up feelings through
the simplest of expressions.
The scenes of him staring longingly
at Juan or at his daughter
Ornella suggest a love that consumes
him. Re’s mostly internal
performance is hypnotic because
viewers come to understand his
every thought as Gabriel processes
his inchoate emotions.
Marco Berger masterfully captures
the heightened sexual tension
between two men in a fi lm
that is both exquisite and excruciating.
THE BLONDE ONE | Directed by
Marco Berger | TLA Releasing | In
Spanish with English subtitles |
Available on DVD and via streaming
| tlareleasing.com
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