We're to believe that a movie where a balding middle-aged man attempts to (and succeeds) in raping his daughter's lover is a cinematic masterpiece? Please. The fact that it won the Queer award at Cannes is disturbing and homophobic to say the least.
share'Beauty' is an art film. Art films are meant to be challenging, and sometimes make you uncomfortable. I found it a frightening comment on contemporary South Africa.
shareSo gay characters can't be portrayed negatively? By your logic that's a bit backwards.
if you don't like onions, you're not welcome!
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The fact that it won the Queer award at Cannes is disturbing and homophobic to say the least
Well, the person who started this thread seems to be reading out of the gay playbook of 1979, when CRUISING was considered homophobic. Gay culture has been able to move to a point where we're comfortable with negative characters on screen along with the positive. Besides, the movie is precisely about what happens to people who DON'T accept their homosexuality--they become warped and angry and potentially dangerous. People who come out and accept a gay identity are the opposite of this. The film is, if anything, offering a very pro-gay argument.
shareExactly, saltsan. The movie can be described in that sense as pro coming-out and pro self-acceptance; it sounds a warning call about the potential individual and social consequences of repressing sexual identity.
What I also found interesting in the film is how racism was shown to go hand in hand with homophobia: it was about not wanting to be outside the norms of society and not tolerating those who are situated there.
I agree Cathy, that the racism is very important in the film. In an interview with the director, I learned that they chose the word "Skoonheid" as the official title, rather than "Beauty" (even though most films in South Africa have English language titles), because he liked the fact that it has the same final syllable as the word apartheid. There are numerous little touches in the film alluding to the end of apartheid and the older white people who are messed up because they can't adjust to the changing world. In short, it's just a very impressive, important film.
People can intellectualise about this 'art' film till the cows...... - but at the end of the day that rape scene is unnecessary and effing well disgusting. Just as well have a close up of someone taking a poo and call that 'challenging art' ! Vile.
shareYou are supposed to find it disgusting and disturbing. That was the point of that scene. I am rarely affected by movies, and that scene stuck with me for days. Not so much for the rape per se, but for the utter realism of it and the horrifying victimization.
shareUnnecessary rape scene? It was the only scene in the film that made any sense and had any impact!! Boring and pointless movie APART from the rape scene!
shareHowever having watched the rape scene, was Francois able to get an erection? It seemed that he was trying to get one after all the time he had been fantasising about Christian, but couldn't at the last minute hence more frustration for him. It seems he beat up Christian and thought it would be the best thing ever for him, only for it to be a complete failure
shareErection or no Francois could still have violated Christian. And it looked, and sounded, like he did. Then there's the trauma from the physical assault and the humiliation of being intimately molested. By a guy you have known your whole life no less.
shareI agree that Christian was definitely assaulted and traumatised. My point was that there was added frustration from Francois in that things did not go the way he had no doubt been dreaming about for all that time.
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