Forty-seven is the number of the years Frameline, the
world's oldest and largest LGBTQ+ film festival, has been
running so far. It's also the number of screenings this
year the festival is going to hold at the
iconic Castro
Theater. This year's festival takes place Wednesday,
June 14 – Saturday, June 24, 2023, in theaters in San
Francisco and Oakland, with a streaming encore available
to the U.S. audience to follow from June 24 – July 2,
2023.
The 47th edition of the festival showcases the emerging
queer cinema around the world, as well as exhibits a few
retrospective films that reflect the history of both
queer cinema and community. This year, the festival holds
more than 90 screenings, including 12 World, 16 North
American, and 9 U.S. premieres.
The following are a few samplers in this year's
selection. (You may click on each still image or poster
for the corresponding screening or event's show time and
ticket information.)
The writer-director Jun
Robles Lana is one of the most prolific and
talented filmmakers from the Philippines. His
latest drama "About
Us But Not About Us" is an engrossing
gem that you absolutely should not miss at this
year's festival. Even though the film is set
entirely at a dining table over the conversation
between two individuals, the twists and turns
never stop from the beginning to the end, with
high drama and raw emotions.
When 40-year-old Eric (Romnick
Sarmenta) and 20-year-old Lance
(Elijah
Canlas) sit down at a restaurant table, we
are immediately intrigued about their
relationship. Their conversation quickly reveals
that Eric is an English department professor, who
is mourning the death of Marcus, his boyfriend of
17 years. Lance is Eric's student who gets Eric's
help and attention. We also learned that the late
Marcus is also a literature giant that both Eric
and Lance admire.
Over the meal, they discuss the dynamics of their
relationship, explore the motives of their
actions, discover the secrets of their lives, and
reposition their moral compasses through the
course. Blended with Tagalog and English, their
fascinating and intelligent conversation often
sparks exploding emotion in a very quiet
setting. Hardly leaving their seats, they ride
the wave of the drama, like on a rafting trip in
the Colorado River.
For a film heavily relying on its dialogues, its
remarkable achievement is credited
to Jun
Robles Lana's sharp script. The convincing
and subtle performance from the two lead actors,
Romnick
SarmentaElijah
Canlas, terrifically brings Lana's words to
life.
After this meal, you will definitely feel hungry
again and eager to find out
what Jun
Robles Lana will offer you next. But more
pressingly, you might wonder what the two
mesmerizing characters, Eric and Lance, will do
next.
By the way, the Korean auteur Hong
Sang-soo, who is famously making at least one
film per year featuring people talking about
their relationships, could learn a thing or two
from Jun
Robles Lana on how a conversation-over-a-meal
film should be done—with a compelling story
and interesting characters.
Old Narcissus
(老ナルキソス |
Japan 2023 | in Japanese | 110 min.)
There are very few movies about older gay men who
fall for young men, and it's even rarer if an
elderly has an S&M fetish. The Japanese
writer-director Tsuyoshi
Shôji's drama "Old
Narcissus" candidly tells a story about
such an old man, a 74-year-old author of Children's
illustration book. The film is an extended version
of his 2017 short
film with the same title. It creates a
character that is seldom portrayed in cinema.
The aging author is narcissistic Yamazaki
(Tajiro
Tamura), who is lonely and having a writer's
block to deliver another children's book despite
the nagging from his editor. He hires 25-year-old
escort Leo (Atomu
Mizuishi) to satisfy his S&M fetish
desire.
"Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection
and drowned." That line in the film describes the
stage of mind of Yamazaki who still lives in his
past and longs for his lost youth and beauty. He
hopes that he can be together with Leo and relive
his past through Leo's youthfulness. But Leo is
having trouble committing to a same-sex
partnership with his own boyfriend. As the
interaction between the two progresses, they both
come to terms about where they are and what they
want.
The writer-director Tsuyoshi
Shôji boldly created an aging eccentric
character that we have never seen before. Yet,
the audience can resonate with so many traits of
this colorful character. Much credit needs to be
given to Tajiro
Tamura, who is remarkable in playing this
complicated role without a slight sign of
self-consciousness.
While the film doesn't offer any resolution to a
universal problem, it does shine a spotlight on a
corner that has been dark for too long.
Following the formula of a typical sentimental
Korean drama, the Japanese
director Daishi
Matsunaga's eye-candy
drama "Egoist"
tries hard to make your heart ache and your eyes
wet. However, the unconvincing plot cuts the
effectiveness of that effort.
That egoist in the film's title is the well-off
fashion photo editor Kôsuke
(Ryohei
Suzuki) who has a full closet of designer's
clothes in a fancy apartment with a view. Over
dinner with a group of his gay friends, he is
introduced to a young personal fitness trainer
Ryûta (Hio
Miyazawa), a sunny boy with a bright smile
that can melt you on the spot.
Even though Kôsuke is full of himself, he
quickly falls in love with Ryûta, and he is
willing to do anything for Ryûta, including
providing financial support for him and his
mom. They become a lovely couple that can easily
appear on your wall calendar. You begin to
believe that money can indeed buy anything,
including love. They look so good together and it
makes you wish you had met your Ryûta.
But the filmmaker has no intention to make a
sweet romantic gay movie, and you fear something
bad might happen to the couple. Sure enough, the
plot readily goes down that cliché path and
turns the story into a soppy soap opera.
The film could have dug deeper into the character
of Ryûta, instead, it only uses him as a
disposable pretty prop, as if it can be taken off
from a store shelf, as long as you have the money
to pay for it.
Frameline47
takes place June 14 – 24, 2023 in San Francisco and
Oakland. The festival will also include a
nationwide streaming
encore June 24 – July 2, 2023.
