Thursday, January 27, 2005

 
Sexual Dependency
Directed by Rodrigo Bellot


Rodrigo Bellot’s Sexual Dependency is a non-linear narrative art house flick that thematically dissects emotional facets and aspects of sexual violence through various characters that are remotely linked by cleverly manipulated episodic visual references.

Like the controversial film, Irreversible, it challenges cultural normative concepts about sex through accepted notions of masculinity, feminism, virginity, rape and homosexuality.

On a film technique level, like Irreversible, it is also a critique on conventional Hollywood cinema.

Like Andy Warhol’s Chelsea Girls, Sexual Dependency is split into two screens such that it becomes a disruptive viewing experience for the audience but the similarity ends there. While Chelsea Girls screens relays two different plots or monologues, it serves more cinematic functions in the latter.

At times, it is employed to show various perspectives. When Jessica was talking to Isabel, her female friend who is celebrating her 15th birthday, we see the two different facial profiles side by side. At times, one shows an “alternate” version of the history of the other screen; such as the shots of Jessica walking along the road.

By using the split screen, Bellot manages to create various jarring effects to “jolt” the audience into believing that they are watching a production; and not some kind of simulated reality. The effect of the split screen critiques our perceived reality of space, time, and truth, deeply embedded in conventional Hollywood cinema.

Is what we see on screen real? This philosophical question would confront us time and again; until we reach the climax of the film; that will tie in with the twist.

Sexual Dependency is a post-modernist work as it deconstructs traditional narrative films by using flashbacks, and repeats. Organized around loosely structured themes, the climax only occurred towards the end of the movie. Watching Sexual Dependency is like reading David Mitchell novels where a narrative core is sorely lacking.

In the first narrative, Jessica is brought up by a dominating father, who is also the patriarch in the family. Even though she is told to keep her virginity, the taste of forbidden fruit and seduction by a sweet-talking young lad that crashed her friend’s party, made her disobeyed the golden warnings from her father.

In a similar vein, Sebastian, who is the virgin from Columbia and visiting his cousin, is shown around the city of Santa Cruz. His encounters of the city is a heady whirl of burger king hangout for punks, seedy nightclubs, and the red light district which promises him a night of whoredom.

The third episode centers around the make believe life of a model with her controlling, jealous and narcissistic boyfriend. He leaves her for United States to study; but after a row with her on his last night in the country, had a one night stand with a married woman he met in a club.

The crux of the movie begins after our story shifts its physical location to the States. The confession and monologue of the black woman has one of the most powerful on screen presence as she talks about her childhood, colour, first sexual experience, and a traumatizing rape encounter.

The male model whose face is plastered on the billboard in Santa Cruz is a rugby jock student who lives virtually “in the closet”. He hangs out with his teammates, a group of muscular white boys; and their idea of fun is to get pissed drunk and crack homophobic jokes. When he goes to a gay student's public gathering, he walks away. He would confront his homosexuality again in a secret rendevous and towards the end of the movie, that is related to its twist.

The greatest achievement of Sexual Dependency is perhaps Bellot’s challenge against traditional cinema. While established cinema gaze is focused on the female; Bellot seems to do the reverse. He chooses a stellar cast of good- looking boys and men. The narcissist who studies himself in the mirror after the shower; the steamy locker room scenes with overtones of homoeroticism as the camera zooms into perfectly sculpted male bodies and branded underwear; and even the feet fetish of cinema is replaced with ugly hairy feet of the transvestites.

It seems that almost all the characters in Sexual Dependency lack a voice as they go on the unhappy lives they lead, except the black woman, who finds empowerment by tracing the roots of her heritage and being fastidiously proud of her colour; and the black gay man who is flamboyantly out and proud.

On one level, Sexual Dependency depicts male sexual violence on woman and gays. On the other, it also traces American imperialism and its effects on poorer countries like Santa Cruz.

It is an interesting film which can be studied on a philosophical level; as an experimental film VS Hollywood; that is concurrent with the theme of cultural dominion and sexual violence of White Vs Others.

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