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What was the principal or headmaster's intent?


The scene where the headmaster demands that Conor takes his makeup off, he goes into his private bathroom and calls Conor in there. Conor says "I'm going to go to class" and pretty much runs out of his office. Was the headmaster going to molest Conor? There was a weird vibe to just that one moment. Obviously the headmaster later grabs Conor and almost drowns him cleaning his makeup off, but I wonder if he had different intentions originally.

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Since the Movie Director and writer John Carney, based the film on his actual experiences going to that very school in the 80's, maybe he knows what really happened later in in that scene that he might not have wanted to put in the film . It was a semi autobiographical movie for Carney.

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I don't think he had a clear enough intention there. He just wanted to show him the power he had to make sure Conor would stay under his control, plus some molestation if lucky.

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The headmaster was a major jerk, but I didn't get a molestation vibe at all. He personally doesn't like makeup on males and told Conor to take it off. Conor didn't listen which lead to the headmaster forcibly removing it. There may be factors at play such as the headmaster getting a kick out of bossing kids around and making them miserable but I personally didn't get a molestion vibe out of it

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I got some molestation vibes with the headmaster calling him "pretty" right beforehand.

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Exactly! He said: You're a pretty boy, you don't need makeup. Then he said come to my private bathroom (going in first!). It was obvious, the kid also was spooked about it and decided to run away.

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That was the vibe I got from that scene, too, sadly. I think Brendan's remark at the beginning of the film about Viriliter age meaning "Let's rape our students" might have planted the seed in my head, but something still felt off about the whole thing. Not sure if it was Carney's intention but that scene had some palpable tension in it.

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