来自远方2015

Propitiously won Venice’s Golden Lion in 2015, FROM AFAR, the debut feature of Venezuelan filmmaker Lorenzo Vigas, ostensibly purports as a queer relationship drama exploring the class discrepancy in a sink neighborhood of Caracas, when a middle-aged, well-off denture manufacturer Armando (Castro) pays a street yob Élder (Silva) to quench his libido.

But Armando has an unorthodox proclivity, physical contract is strictly off limits, he is perfectly satisfied by a distanced wank, echoing the title “from afar” (even no need of visual genital aids from a youthful body), as if he is both aroused and repulsed by a young man’s body, which underlines his own troubled past, it is a transaction solely thrived on monetary terms. But Élder appears different from his usual biddable commodities, he is more recalcitrant, incandescent and restive, which challenges and intrigues Armando to take a different approach aiming to tame this beast, ergo, go-arounds of earning one-upmanship pan out in Vigas’ self-contained narrative with staggering restraint and unrelieved elisions, for instance, the missing father is an obvious vacuum in both men’s lives, but Vigas has no intention to expound what happened between Armando and his estranged father (sexual abuse?), without even a medium shot of the latter, what we see is only the action of Armando dogs him relentlessly, and coolly articulates that he wishes him dead.

Eventually, it is Élder’s bruised dignity, inherent impressionability and have-nots status altogether that puts him on the back foot, after Armando’s munificent gesture of rescuing him from bovver, paying off his debts and contest of superior manliness, Élder avails himself of physical capital (the only thing he possesses) to show his gratitude, but is rebuff with a slap in the face. At that point the balance tips towards Armando, he now has Élder completely at his beck and call, who finally find a father figure to fill that missing hole, yet to Armando, Élder is nothing but a perfect executioner of his long-gestated vengeance.

After that, Armando vouchsafes Élder the physical satisfaction the latter hankers for as a thank you, then throws him as a spent sidearm to the mercy of police force in the gritty finale (like father, like son, Élder ends up exactly like his own father), which even triggers viewers to second-guess the verity of the man we assume as Armando’s father, a telltale shot of both men in an elevator shows no apparent recognition from a father to his son might suggest the older man could be a target Armando is assigned to rub out, a theory supported by him being the same killer from Pablo Larraín’s TONY MANERO, also played by Alfredo Castro with a peculiar gusto of perversity, and this time, he cunningly finds him a perfect whipping boy.

Castro gives an unforgiving, enigmatic impression as a victim-turned-victimizer out of a vicious cycle passing from fathers to sons, who is capable of projecting a soul-searching gaze that is smolderingly pregnant with manifold rays of emotions. Youngster Luis Silva, on the contrary, invests a throbbing directness that salts the masculine tug-of-war with his own macho swagger, perplex and conflict, vividly. Habitually playing up with his in focus/out of focus perspective, Vigas makes a big splash with FROM AFAR by intelligently excoriating the core of a cankerous male mentality concerning what constitutes the masculinity as we know it today, a scope well above his genderqueer front and accomplished with a refined difference.

referential entries: Pablo Larraín’s TONY MANERO (2008, 7.2/10); Sebastián Lelio’s A FANTASTIC WOMAN (2017, 7.7/10).

老头的手段确实高明，一开始你对我爱答不理，那就用金钱来建立这种联系，毕竟没有人会跟钱过不去，更何况是一个小混混，Elder尝到了金钱的滋味后，开始慢慢中计，Armando也展开了攻势，开始对他关心照顾。接着，在一起生活的过程中难免会有一些碰撞交流甚至争吵，在这个过程中Armando得逞了，那就是Elder开始从心底里接受同性恋了。而之后的下一步就是，借着酒精的作用，Elder把控不住自己，开始投怀送抱，而Armando开始由攻转为守，欲情故纵，一直不肯跟Elder发生关系，时间久了无非就是想让Elder发现自己的心结所在，Elder看他一直闷闷不乐的样子决定义无反顾地为他走上了杀人的路。这才是Armando的最终目的。你说Armando不是gay吗？他当然是，你说他对Elder有爱吗？不见得。如果是真对他有爱的话，从一开始就应该好好地“劝妓从良”，而不是一而再再而三地装作没看见他的小偷小摸的行为，所以Armando一开始就是想利用他的这种不良缺陷。最后Armando看着Elder被警察带走，红着的眼眶湿润了，那也不是出自对他的爱，而且一种惋惜，或者对父亲的悼念，终于能跟过去告别的兴奋，亦或是对自己犯下的错的忏悔。另：1.Elder把钱包退回来让Armando找到了突破口，他觉得这位青年内心深处还是存有良知在的。2.Elder为什么不是top？因为他从小被父亲打惯了，比较“服老”。这应该是我目前看过的最好的一部同影。3.为何如此肯定Armando对他没有爱？他心里深知像牙医这么高贵的职业，不可能跟底层人民的有任何情感上的联系，活了一把年纪了，打破阶级的界限是多么天真可笑他心里比谁都清楚。