Futuro Beach
LGBT Cinema is finally getting its place in cinema, in the mainstream. After attending events and watching for the past couple of month it is clear that there has been an insurgence of normalising LGBT cinema and running them alongside regular features. Dear lord that seems really nasty on my tongue, using the words normal and regular as though loving someone of the same sex was sordid. Heck, I should know it’s not. What I mean is is that LGBT cinema is fiercely showing to the world that Christ, we are people too and not every film is about the prejudice struggles, overtly camp or about coming out. That’s not a bad thing either. Yet showing how human LGBT humans like me are human doing humany things as humaney as possible feels so unheard of in the world of Hollywood prejudice and stereotypes that it’s somewhat of a celebration when it finally happens.
Though lagging and weighted down with its beautiful aesthetic, Futuro Beach is a film about humans first - that just happen to be two men that fall in love. Donato is a lifeguard in a lazy Brazillian seaside town, looking after his brother Arytan. Together, they live an idyllic life but Donato is always grasping and searching for more. However, when German tourist Konrad drowns alongside his friend, Donato is only able to save one and the pair begin somewhat of a holiday romance. Only when Konrad leaves, Donato is yearning from more and eight years after they meet, he absconds to Berlin - only to have his younger brother follow.
There have been talks about the struggle in pacing, so let’s get that out of the way first. After all, director Karim Ainouz does chose to linger too much in silly paces that it distracts from the story. His work is sublime, that’s true - it burns with colour and vibrancy against using the backdrop to highlight character. For example, for Donato the tranquillity of the sea and enriching sun’s rays hazily builds up this somewhat isolated character whilst the dingy city atmosphere of Berlin represents Kondrad’s engine lifestyle revving for high velocity. This is all well done and fine if the camera didn’t pause on them, which can drag the film into an almost stop.
Yet this is a small complaint against a thematically resonant film that tackles variations of masculinity and sexualities. Here, the biggest emotional response is that yearn for more. For escape and how Ainouz has brilliant twisted the “paradise” element so that Donato choses to leave our seemingly ideal version of paradise for the wilder urban landscape of Berlin. The element of melodrama burns as brightly as the Brazillian sun on sand as the romances fritters away from the warmth of holiday belongings. Ainouz deals these rudiments with a wildly sublime cinematic tongue that beats stunning spectacle across the sand shores and pavement stones of both worlds.
True, the story is somewhat lost against the boredom at times but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a great effort and remarkably tragedy and humanistic story telling. Understandably, it will not please everyone and that’s fine on their side. But those who it does impress will happily lap up the film in all its paradise based content.