Caresses
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C+
Ventura Pons attempts to weave more multiple storylines
into a single film with Caresses, his 1996 drama that is sexually bold
as What’s It All About (reviewed elsewhere on this site), but with much
less humor. Here, the characters are
not sectioned off into vignettes, but co-exist in the same city. They are all characters that are abusive,
abused, confused, and emotionally isolated.
The title is meant ironically, as any physical contact is
pointless, destructive, self destructive, or does not get any help, healing, or
message across form one character to another.
Of the eleven stories (sort of) weaved together, the three standouts are
about the guy (Sergi Lopez) who drifts through life unhappy and unable to
connect, especially to women, the shockingly dysfunctional couple who are
physically and verbally abusive to each other (which never makes sense or is
convincing), and the teenager who becomes a hustler for personally damaged
reasons.
That last one is the big shocker, offering two scenes that
are especially bold. The boy lives with
is parents, who have no idea what he is doing.
He gives money to his bewildered mother, while feeling unconnected to
his father. When his father visits him
in the bathroom as he bathes, they fight, the father eventually lands up in the
bathtub with him, and the conversation and result shows the son’s insecurity
about his body (unfounded) and manhood.
This contrasts with the scene where he is with an older man having
rent-boy sex. We have to wonder if the
boy may have even been abused by, if not his father, someone else briefly. Otherwise, it is an issue of sexuality
crisis, and this film is not shy about this or having him nude.
It may be arguable that director Ventura Pons gets too
distracted by this, at the cost of the film, though this is only addressed in
sections. There is a story to be told
here, but the film is too busy with its other stories that none of them get the
time they really need. If it had been
about the three noted, this would have been more up to What’s It All About. I know the rent boy storyline would get this
film an NC-17 just in nudity and theme in the U.S., though not as graphic as
that rating would suggest, this is at least a very hard R. This is Todd Solondz territory.
The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image is above average, with the
lack of anamorphic enhancement holding back the impressive cinematography of
Jesus Escosa somewhat, but it is still sharper than lesser video formats. Note how unusually the night sequences are
covered. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
decodes into Pro Logic surround well, but is not what it should be for 1996,
even for a film so dialogue-based. This
shows in the music, what there is of it.
The DVD has no extras, except a trailer after the film.
I give Pons credit for taking risks, but for all the
freedom he allows himself, so much feels unresolved. Though there are no easy answers and a film that makes you think
should not try (or over try) to give answers, Caresses is worth a look
at best as an interesting non-success.
- Nicholas Sheffo
