Bruce LaBruce Talks “Saint Narcisse”
Director goes behind the scenes to discuss latest fi lm
BY GARY M. KRAMER
Bruce LaBruce’s latest
fi lm is a witty comedy
about a handsome
young man, Dominic
(Félix-Antoine Duval) — the opening
shot is of his crotch — who goes
on a journey of self-discovery (literally!)
after his grandmother dies.
He arrives at the address where
his mother, Beatriz (Tania Kontoyanni)
— long thought dead — lives,
and in a symbol of rebirth, is naked
when he meets her. Their reunion
is joyful, but her partner, Irene
(Alexandra Petrachuk), is wary of
the stranger. Before long, Dominic
also discovers he has a twin, Daniel
(Duval in a double role), a young
monk at a local monastery. Their
connection leads to an attraction
— and yes, twincest! — but Daniel,
is being held as a sex slave by
Father Andrew (Andreas Apergis)
who worships Saint Sebastian.
“Saint-Narcisse” depicts Dominic
as he tries process everything
and everyone he confronts. Moreover,
his self-love provides much
of the fi lm’s humor; Dominic cannot
pass by a mirror or see his refl
ection in a pool of water without
admiring himself. Duval gives an
unselfconscious performance that
exudes eroticism. LaBruce talked
with Gay City News about his
cheeky romp.
You play with genre as well
as content. What inspired this
fi lm?
I’ve always been fascinated by
twins. I was looking for a story to
talk about modern narcissism, and
narcissism as the default sensibility
in the world. It would be a good
opportunity to use twins and narcissism
as a metaphor. Also, I’m a
huge fan of Québécois 70’s cinema.
A lot of these Quebec fi lms from
the ‘70s address issues like incest
and hidden family secrets, and the
Catholic angle and guilt about secrets
and sexual transgressions
that are taboo. That’s why I set the
fi lm in the early ‘70s and shot in
the style of those fi lms.
Your fi lms are often about
identity both for individuals
“Sainte-Narcisse” comes out on September 17.
and groups. Can you talk about
that theme in your work? There
are various permutations here
— family, brotherhood, parent/
child, etc.
The brotherhood of the monks
in the fi lm is very homoerotic, and
they have their shaved heads so
it’s a parallel to the Neo-Nazi skinheads
in my earlier fi lm, “Skin
Flick.” It’s a bonding brotherhood
with homoerotic undertones. Sexuality
is part of their masculine
bonding. The fi lm is set up as binary.
Beatriz’s house and her relationship
with Irene — they are
identifi ed as witches, which is reference
to “The Fox.” She’s the earth
mother, wiccan, witchy woman
who smokes pot and is hippie-ish,
and having sex with a dead lover’s
daughter, so that’s a transgressive,
incestuous relationship. And then
you have Father Andrew in the
monastery, a Catholic institution
that is rigid and masculine, and
he is using some kind of drug to
drug the boy and indulge in sadomasochistic
sex acts with this boy
he’s been grooming. It was about
exploring those taboos that are
nebulous around incest and symbolic
incest.
Dominic admires his refl ection
and takes his photographs.
Can you talk about playing off
the myth of Narcissus?
In earlier incarnations of the
script I had more direct references,
but we cut them out along the
way. We had a character based on
Echo, and Ameinias, a male lover
of Narcissus who killed himself
over unrequited love. It’s a very
classic myth of narcissism, and a
cautionary tale. I still do have the
seer, Tiresias, who tells Dominic,
“Don’t know yourself.” I represent
Tiresias as a transgender sex
worker who is blind in one eye.
FILM
FILM MOVEMENT
Tiresias is blind, and he also turns
into a woman, so she is genderfl uid.
I was making those connections. I
also got the idea of transposing it
onto the myth of San Sebastian,
who is the patron saint of homosexual
suffering and sexy posing.
Reinterpreting these myths in a
modern context was appealing to
me.
The fi lm is sacrilegious — and
we would expect nothing less
from Bruce LaBruce. Can you
talk about how you determined
and approached the blasphemous
content?
I never really considered it pointedly
blasphemous or sacrilegious.
I realize that it was inevitably being
interpreted that way, but it’s
acknowledging that the Catholic
church is full of stories of perverted
saints who martyr themselves
➤ LABRUCE, continued on p.35
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