Romancefest 2014: Un Chant D'Amour

One thing that's always kind of annoying about Romancefest, as compared to Horrorfest, is that romantic movies are always so damn long. I mean, sure, there are plenty of 90 minute romantic comedies, but then there are the epic romances with war and death and disease and all that stuff, and those ones -- sheesh. The saying goes no bad movie is short enough and no good movie is long enough, but when you're trying to watch 28 in 28 days, you start to notice things like running times.

So, it was a rare surprise for me to realize Jean Genet's UN CHANT D'AMOUR (A Song of Love) is only 25 minutes long! And, as a bonus, it features lots of male frontal nudity. Finally, the two things Romancefest has been missing, in one movie: brevity and cock shots.

But seriously, folks, this silent, black and white art film from 1950 isn't really what most would call a "romance." It does deal with unrequited passion and desire, sexual frustration, voyeurism, repression and oppression, though, so it's close.

What we've got here isn't a narrative in the traditional sense so much as a series of evocative, metaphorical shots. We start with a prison guard walking his beat, then descend into a couple of prison cells adjoined by a wall where two male prisoners, one on either side, are desperately trying to connect. They pace their rooms, pound on the wall, dance in agitation and clutch at themselves. Occasionally the wall is penetrated by a straw through which the prisoners share some cigarette smoke. Also occasionally, the prison guard peeks in the cells' peep holes to see what's up, before eventually entering to engage in some sadism of his own.

This is eventually intercut with idyllic shots of our prisoners enjoying a nice day out in nature, though Genet never lets us enjoy this long before cutting back to prison to remind us this freedom is only in our characters' minds and that their reality is much more grim.

As a movie about the repression and oppression of gay love and lust, UN CHANT D'AMOUR is way, way, way ahead of its time, even more frank in some of its images of male on male sexuality than any mainstream gay romance made since.

The final result is a brief but effective film that gets its message across clearly. You can feel what these people are feeling. It's a shame Genet never made another film, he clearly took to the medium naturally, with flair and edge and something to say that no one else was saying.