Fabio's family


This was a pretty good film. I was actually hoping for a little more substance to it, but it was good.

I thought an interesting scene was when Lukas went to Fabio's house unannounced and observed that he lived with his parents, who were aged and ailing. We see Fabio tending to his father before he notices Lukas and rushes him out of the apartment. The scene is important to Fabio's character because we had been told by other characters that Fabio has no substance, that he's only good in bed and has nothing else to offer anyone. Lukas senses there is more to Fabio than that, and it is confirmed for us when we see Fabio's tender, caring side as he attends to his parents' needs.

The scene is also a reflection on Lukas because it shows that people are not always on the inside how they may appear to others on the outside. Lukas may have been physically female on the outside, but he was as much a man as any other naturally born man on the inside.

These two were destined to find each other.

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Thank you for these thoughts!! Great!
I must admit I didn't think much about that scene so far - *now* I see the point! You're absolutely right ... :-)

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Good point! I totally missed this bit of characterization and humanizing.

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Great post. Your thoughts made me think that Fabio was parenting his parents in a way and maybe got put into that role at too young an age. So when he's outside of his home, he just wants fun and to not be responsible. Everyone looks at him like that's all he is. This is a good example of us to not judge a book by it's cover.

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For most of the movie we only see Fabio through Lukas's eyes, an cariacture of the perfect Italian lover. Fabio is an Italian name after all. He's larger than life, flawless and up until one point I was still kind of rooting for Sven to step up to the plate. The real turning point was when the boys were hassling Lukas and Fabio on the balcony and Fabio got up and slipped in the mud.

That was his symbolic fall from perfection; Lukas smiled. Fabio was offended. Lukas visited Fabio at home and saw Fabio for who he really was, a caring son with an ailing father. The beautiful irony was that Lukas for most of the movie was afraid of being seen for who he really was but now it was Fabio who felt embarassed precisely for the same reason and he and Lukas break up.

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Sven did step up. I would have liked to learn more about him.

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