End of the century gay movie
END OF THE CENTURY
Queer cinema has often depicted the transient nature of the relationships between gay men, fleeting moments of connection that spark for a brief period and then fade into memory. It's a perfect narrative device for filmmaking, often focusing on a closed cosmos over a closed period of time, like Andrew Heigh's extraordinary 'Weekend' or Francis Lee's magnificent 'God's Own Country'. However, that unity of time and space means we're only seeing the reality of that moment. In his exquisite debut feature 'End of the Century', Argentinian writer and director Lucio Castro considers what happens beyond that moment, and how a brief spark can echo across decades.
Ocho (Juan Barberini) is travelling through Barcelona after breaking up with his partner of 20 years. As he wanders the streets, another guy wearing a black Touch t-shirt keeps entering his orbit. Spotting the male from the balcony of his Airbnb, he invites the man up for a drink. His label is Javi (Ramon Pujol), and there's an instant sexual spark between them, though something feels a bit off. Even after sex, they still crave to hang out together, and Ocho has the strange feeling he has met Javi before. It tu
Oops
Description
END OF THE CENTURY
★★★★★
“A Reflection on our desires past and present…this could be a new same-sex attracted classic.”
Attitude
When Ocho (Juan Barberini), an Argentine poet on holiday in Barcelona, spots Javi (Ramón Pujol) from the balcony of his apartment, it sparks fantasies of a holiday romance. After fruitlessly searching dating apps for him, the couple have a second missed connection, spotting each other across a Spanish beach. When Javi sees Ocho from his balcony a second time, he knows he can’t permit him slip through his fingers again. A tentative “kiss” from the balcony leads to a lust-filled, passionate link up.
What seems like a one-time encounter between two strangers becomes an titanic, decades-spanning relationship, in which time and space oppose to play by the rules. In one of the best feature debuts, Lucio Castro’s End Of The Century bends perception of time whilst revealing raw human connection, breaking the traditional rules of the love story.
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES:
Two Short films by Lucio Castro
• Trust Issues
• With Mustard
Director:Lucio Castro
Country: Argentina
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: Engl
End Of The Century
Why I took it off the list:
After reviewing 2 similarly bleak offerings with Saint Maud () and French series The Collapse (), I decided to inspect something a bit more lighthearted/optimistic off my listand chose this well-reviewed lgbtq+ love story.
I planned to publish my review in time for Valentine’s Day, but due to unforeseen circumstances, it’s a bit late…which is maybe for the best as the film turns out not to be your characteristic romantic flick with a cut and dry glad ending.
Expectations
From everything I knew about End of the Century, it appeared to be a usual ‘romance develops over a short period of moment in a specific location’ style narrative along the lines of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise () and its sequels.
The trailer also gave me mighty vibes of Weekend (), Andrew Haigh’s breakout queer romance that follows what essentially boils down to a successful hookup that stretches out over the titular period of moment.
So, although both the actors and the background scenery (shot in sunny Barcelona!) looked pretty, I wasn’t expecting anything too groundbreaking or revelatory from Fin de Siglo.
Spoilers? Mild spoilers for th
End of the Century | a motion picture by Lucio Castro |
Synopsis
In his alluring debut feature, Lucio Castro offers both a sun-soaked European travelogue and an epic, decades-spanning romance. When Ocho (Juan Barberini), a something Argentine poet on vacation in Barcelona, spots Javi (Ramón Pujol), a Spaniard from Berlin, from the balcony of his Airbnb, the attraction is subtle but persistent. After a missed connection on the beach, a third chance encounter escalates to a seemingly random affair. But are these two merely beautiful strangers in a foreign city or are they part of each other’s histories—and maybe even their destinies? Castro deliberately parses out mystery after mystery, head the audience on a journey of discovery as the two leading men discover themselves and each other. With sumptuous lensing of a Barcelona summertime and tangible chemistry between the actors, END OF THE CENTURY is a love story that echoes across time.
Reviews
"THE BEST GAY Clip OF THE YEAR."
– Jude Dry, IndieWire
"Poetic. Ambitious. Ambiguous A promising first feature."
– Glenn Kenny, The New York Times
"a gorgeous
.