Un chant d'amour (1950)

A Song of Love (1950)
"Un chant d'amour" (original title)

 

Director: Jean Genet
Writer: Jean Genet
Genre: Short movie
Country: France
Year: 1950
Duration: 26 min

 

Stars: André Reybaz, Java, Coco Le Martiniquais

 

 

 

Un chant d'amour ("Ljubavna pjesma") jedini je film francuskog pisca Jeana Geneta, a on ga je režirao 1950. godine. Film je smatran kontroverznim zbog eksplicitnog prikazivanja homoseksualnosti te ga se sam Genet "odrekao".

Radnja je smještena u francuski zatvor, gdje jedan čuvar uživa promatrajući zatvorenike. U jednoj je ćeliji čovjek koji izgleda kao prosječni Alžirac, a u susjednoj neočit mladić od otprilike 20 godina. Stariji je muškarac zaljubljen u mladića, što pokazuje dijeleći dim cigarete s njim kroz slamku.

Nakon što čuvar to primijeti, on ulazi u ćeliju "Alžirca" i istuče ga, a nakon toga natjera "Alžirca" da stavi njegov pištolj u svoja usta.

"My favorite movie male-on-male love scene is one in which the male couple are separated by a cell wall but brought together by a straw and a shared lungful of smoke. Is this is a bad sign? Jean Genet's Un Chant D'Amour, his only movie, is set, of course, in a prison. A middle-aged prisoner knocks on his cell wall, frantically trying to attract the attention of his younger neighbor, who is dancing with himself in a dirty vest with a face as tender as it is tough. The old lag lights a cigarette, inserts a straw through a tiny hole, and blows smoke through it into the next cell. After studiously feigning disinterest, the young brute finally kneels at the wall, closed-eyed and open-mouthed, and receives the billowingn white smoke. It's a great, exquisitely poetic representation of the impossibility of romance—and even desire itself. To paraphrase Joni Mitchell, I've looked at glory holes from both sides now, from blower and inhaler, from younger and older, and still it's glory holes' illusions I recall."
— Mark Simpson, writer, Metrosexy