Review by Benjamin Poole
Directed by: Zacharias Mavroeidis
Starring: Yorgos Tsiantoulas, Andreas Lampropoulos, Nikolas Mihas, Roubini Vasilakopoulou, Vasilis Tsigristaris
Straight people, for once be honest with yourselves: you're jealous of The
Gays. The carefree lifestyle of clubs and parties, the sex, the meaningful
friendships forged in the shadows of a performatively heteronormative
culture, more sex, the way stuff like eating food is a sensory experience
and not a joylessly fulfilled bodily obligation, along with all the de
rigueur oral and anal sex you dream of: admit it, you crave gay. But, and
come close so I can whisper it, perhaps your hedonistic fantasies, the
source of your homophobia and profound self-loathing, is a disingenuous
stereotype fuelled both by your own lack of satisfaction with your station
and numerous reductive representations plastered across pop culture...
With a shamefully compulsive twinge of the sphincter muscle, you'll
recognise the opening of Zacharías Mavroidís' (co-writing with
Xenofón Chalátsis) audacious
The Summer with Carmen as it depicts a sun blessed
tessellation of a Greek hook up beach; emerald seas, naked flesh and a
dozing otter who offers "cuddling, oiling, happy ending" for fairly
reasonable rates. What may perplex, however, is the imposed title card
which outlines "The Golden Rules of Screenwriting" and goes on to disclose
the most asinine Syd Field-esque bromides concerning goals and acts; the
triteness of which is surely an affected (something you'll never get: the
life lived as theatre, wherein everything is at once intensely serious yet
ridiculous. Imagine watching football via Sontag!) indication of this
film's clever and (most importantly) funny meta-humour. And then what most
confronts in its especial rarity is The Summer with Carmen's thoughtful, considered examination of responsibility, friendship and
heart break within homosexual culture; a shade thrown upon the cartoon
simplicity of the populist queer archetypes which support and comfort
hetero-hegemony.
In a like-Charlie-Kaufman-but-gay conceit, we eavesdrop holidaying bear
Demosthenes (Yorgos Tsiantoulas) and his twinky best friend Nikitas
(Andreas Labropoulos) as they discuss a break-up which the former
endured last summer, and, as the two are resting actors, their formative
designs to make a film about the experience. As they spitball ideas, we
"see" the film in sequences which resemble flashbacks, but which are
successively subject to the two's criticism and reflection: a slave to
film class, Nikitas may question Demosthenes' motivation as a "hero" in
the preceding scene, and a deftly imagined/presented musical arrangement
is then discarded for being beyond the budget. An epitome of camp,
The Summer with Carmen negotiates sincerity via a colourful
artifice which is fresh and entertaining, making the usual tedium of other
people's break ups (more boring than listening to someone else's dreams)
urgent and intriguing.
The (hypothetical?) narrative line focuses on Demosthenes' fractured
relationship with Panos (Nikolaos Mihas); the lack of closure, the
rebound pickups, and the custody of Carmen, Panos' gorgeous Chihuahua.
Gay, straight, in denial: you will fall in love. I can't think of a more
amazing animal performance than this insanely cute good-girl, her bemused
little face anxious yet oblivious to the ongoing psychodrama enacted
around her. What a pro. Carmen becomes a pawn in the dynamic, and a symbol
of ongoing, unresolved tensions between the two (a metonymy acknowledged
by the budding producers in their beach chat). Like the best comedy, there
is a palpable melancholy running through
The Summer with Carmen... with Carmen and Demosthenes sharing a specific senescence: the canine
and the gay man both age in dog years. And Demosthenes is at that point
where the hook-ups lack the spark, the parties have become too similar,
and the life has become lonely. A new era of responsibility and acceptance
looms...
I remember being at a press screening once for, I think,
Lie With Me
(or something equally forgettable) and in the bar afterwards a fellow
hack, lost for words at the flatness of the two hours, described it as
"just a.... gay film." In honesty I got what he meant: that genre of movie
which merely presents gay experience, usually via a homophobic narrative
context and disingenuously happy ending, as if the novelty of such is
enough drama in itself. It was hardly Fassbinder. And so, it is delightful
to see The Summer with Carmen skewer such a mode both
literally, through Demosthenes and Nikitas' scathing conversation, and
cinematically by means of the film's heart and depth. Because the gay
experience is different to the (sick and boring, etc) life of the
heterosexual, and The Summer with Carmen's playful exploration of what it means to be an aging gayboy is deeply
felt: the death of a parent who never fully accepted you, the value of
platonic friendships and the accountability you have towards others; be it
children or, in this case, the most gorgeous dog who ever lived (apart
from my own, of course). And even more than that, as a pop cinema
statement, with its explicit sexuality, gorgeous scenery, and
meta-mischief, The Summer with Carmen is its own warm ray of
sunshine.
The Summer with Carmen is in UK/ROI
cinemas from February 28th.
