Risposta al film: Freier Fall: Vuoi uscire o devo prima violentarti?

23 ottobre 2015 In Recensioni di film

Caduta libera
Directed by Stephan Lacant
Germania, 2013

Pubblicato originariamente, con zero like, su Letterboxd.

Kay, un bel poliziotto gay con un taglio a spazzola, inizia a perseguitare aggressivamente un collega durante un allenamento di routine, senza sapere che ha una fidanzata incinta. Utilizza una serie di mosse di dominazione adolescenziale-maschile, come sfidarlo fisicamente e chiamarlo "femminuccia". Il collega, Marc, altrettanto bello, risponde in modo gentile e si oppone.

Kay invites him for a jog, ostensibly because Marc needs to work on his breathing while running. They share a joint and Kay attempts a kiss, which Marc rebuffs: “Are you crazy?” he says. But after accepting a second invitation to jog with Kay in the same deserted forest, Marc is eventually forced to have sex with him ? a quick handjob to be exact, which Marc at first resists but then his arousal is so sudden and sure and he comes so quickly, he’s thrown for a loop and succumbs. I don’t know any other way to read that scene, without calling it a rape outright. I suspect that tension is why the scene is hot. We know that Marc has a girlfriend but we also know that he’s intrigued by Kay’s pursuit. But does that mean that Kay had a right to force him? Is Marc getting what he really wanted?

L'impostazione è quindi a dir poco complicata, così come la facile identificazione con l'atteso e solitamente auspicabile scenario del coming out, che non avviene mai davvero, anche se Kay se lo aspetta e probabilmente anche molti spettatori. Dopo che la coppia inizia una relazione appassionata, le nostre risposte al film ruotano intorno alle varie interpretazioni possibili di quel primo atto sessuale, o se notiamo qualcosa di insolito in esso. Forse un modo migliore per dirlo è: le nostre reazioni dipendono da chi pensiamo sia il più stronzo.

The conflicts in the rest of the narrative are not dramatized so well. Obviously, Marc wants to hide the affair from everyone, not least his pregnant lover, but he also throws himself into it ? accompanying Kay to a gay bar, taking ecstasy with him, coming home late, avoiding his responsibilities as a partner to a pregnant woman and pointedly, accepting a key to Kay’s flat. But he doesn’t hide it that well, taking phone calls from Kay within earshot of his girlfriend. So he either wants to be caught or we can attribute these stupid risks as bad writing. I’m not sure. I just found the first half of the movie far more compelling than the second, during which all the straight people in his life ask him direct questions about where he’s been and with whom, and that’s supposed to constitute drama.

The two male leads share a genuine rapport and conjure believable sexual chemistry.  They’re directed appropriately for their disparate levels of experience with same-sex love. There are a couple intimate scenes in which Marc strokes and outlines Kay’s face with his fingers and hands in wonder and discovery. It works beautifully. But Marc’s love for his newborn son and his girlfriend rings true as well. So without putting a name to it, the film depicts bisexuality effectively ? or ambisexuality, as writer James Neill avrebbe voluto.

There are a number of notable, even affecting, elements in this film but it just didn’t quite gel for me, not least because it turns away from the implications of the first sex scene, but I still think it’s worth a look.