Here's my take on whether or not the Reverend DeBoer is gay or in love with Camille or just plain weird...in a nutshell, I think he is a COMPLEX character of sorts and that he comes off as all 3 of the above and here's why I say it:
a. Rev comes to Camille's house without calling first
b. In the office scene with Camille he seemed to me to sound a bit weird. The idea of the prayer seemed genuine but the way he said it made me feel something completely different than the spirit of the request to join him in prayer
c. He seemed taken aback to find Petra at Camille's home alone with her
d. Camille did try and clean it up, but just a few seconds earlier Petra was on the move with Camille and she was making headway with her. Petra had the top undone and the hands caressing thingy and Camille was clearly interested in these advances, though she did admit to feeling a bit weird about it. Then the Rev rings her bell and has to ring twice in order to get Camille to let her in as Petra picks up the phone thingy, just as Camille lounges for it and buzzes the Rev in, as Camille hurriedly dresses and buttons Petra's top also, saying "Sorry". Then there is this hurtful excuse she gives to the Rev as to why Petra was there. Which I thought she did not owe him an explanation for her having company in her own home...but I can see why she may have felt compelled to explain it seeing he is the Rev and the way he was looking at Camille....He did leave as he tells Camille she has to see him sooner or later.So Camille informs him she will meet him next day...he leaves. She goes to check on Petra who has now gone home via the window Camille asked her to take earlier and she originally refusedand has now taken upon hearing Camille's explanation to the Rev for Petra refusal to leave...but Petra is hurt and sadly leaves her lovestoned behind and goes home alone
e.Seems the Rev came to Camille's home unannounced to see if she was home alone or there with Martin, or to make a pass at her in private, or to confess his hidden feelings of being gay, away from the office setting and he seemed a bit defensive when it comes to Camille in general as if he were the one interested in marrying her, in order to have a rouge of marriage with her. Maybe he thought he'd finally found the perfect person to have an open marriage with whereby he could have his love interest in men and she could have her love interest in women,SECRETLY of course, thereby insuring his good name in the community and with the board and with the Christian society in general, while discretely carrying on his long hidden desires. Maybe with Camille he thought he could have a bisexual marriage. Maybe his character longed for both Camille and men too. Maybe he thought he'd found the perfect match with Camille. Thus when he says "You've got nothing to fear from me Camille" that he was sublimely confessing his hidden desires of homosexuality or bisexuality to her, hoping she felt the same way. Then when, as a last resort, to me, it seemed he offered her prayer
a. As a last resort to give her one last chance to make this pact with him
b. Or he could have been genuine in his desire to save her soul
c. Or he could have had mixed feelings of both of the above.
Camille decides to follow her heart and go to Petra instead. LOVE how the dog is resurrected in the end and follows hard after his mistress Camille...though I did think, what if he goes to the house and sees she has left and then I thought , somehow he has ESP and will know instinctively and in the movie-wise make believe world sense to:FOLLOW THAT CONVOY for dear life!!!Think the dog should have gotten an award too, after all it was his sense of dying that made Camille cry and made Petra notice her...the other lady in the laundry room with them did not seem to notice Camille's sadness.yet I see story wise why she had to be part of the story so that we can see this was a public place and somewhat busy place and that these two future love birds would meet by happen chance or sorts.
I AM A nut for romantic-love stories. This one is a classic for me. It has a lot of plots and story lines left to the imagination and could go off in several directions at any moment-like the Rev character. He could easily have trailed off down the bi or homosexual, closet marriage trail. There is an entire story line to be had with Camille as wife. Then there is the Camille-Petra-Martin triangle. This story line could have branched off into tons of places and several alternative endings. DID like the love scene with Camille and Petra and the high wire acrobatic dancers-absolutely spectacular, breath-taking to watch those two ladies. Would have like to have seen more closure though-the Martin-Camille thingy and the dog's resurrection/reunion with Camille thingy. Was tearful when Camille lay down in the snow near her buried dog to die. Was so sad for me to see. Felt she was torn between two completely different worlds: Martin-Camille and Camille-Petra. Felt she'd rather die than live without Petra. She kept dreaming of all her wonderful memories of Petra as she lay dying. Was THRILLED to see Petra making a bee line to save Camille's life. Loved the way she lay with Camille to give her body heat and how she prayed and made vows to care for Camille if she had another chance to. LOVED how Camille woke up to face the love of her life-Petra. (Would loved it if Petra had been on top of Camille BREATHING her warm breath into Camille's cold lungs over and over slowly until Camille became warm again...but did LOVE the movie all in all.)
My rating of When Night is Falling A+++ out of A. Great love story, fully satisfies the love story/drama people like me.lol.Great acting on all the actors part, loved Camille and Petra and the dog, even the Rev because he took me down alternative story lines with some of his quirky acting, but this movie is clearly a keeper. Was mesmerized from start to finish of this story. GREAT job!
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cypherpunk-1
13 years ago
Wow, there's a lot of unjustified speculation going on here.
Actually, I thought the Reverend was one of the most accessible characters in the film.
I don't think there's any reason to think that he's gay (though he could be), or that he was in love with Camille (though he was clearly fond of her).
I think that he just liked Camille, probably more than he liked Martin. On paper, Martin was probably the perfect replacement for him but I think he wanted Camille and therefore encouraged them to get the job as a couple. I got the impression that he wasn't as repressed as Martin and maybe felt that Martin was a bit stuffy and/or political.
It seemed as though he was a fairly progressive priest, more advanced than the church he was part of, and he was permissive of Martin and Camille's sexlife and Camille's views because of that. In the interview panel, he might have enjoyed Camille's more progressive answer but also wanted to bring her back to reality and encourage her to say something that would actually get her fired instead of fail the interview.
As for calling at her home...priests do that, even without invitation or notice...it's a church thing, they feel they have the right to butt into parishioners lives, that's part of what a church is about. If you're in a christian religion then you probably think this is a good thing.
And I'm positive that the "prayer" was really just prayer. That's how christian priests think, he was genuinely concerned that Camille was losing her faith (she probably never had Martin's kind of faith to begin with).
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