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Sexual Dependency review
:. Director: Rodrigo Bellott
:. Starring: Rodrigo Bellott, Lenelle N. Moise
:. Running Time: 1:44
:. Year: 2003
:. Country: Bolivia, USA
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These last few years have seen the emergence of a new cinema, born in the rough streets and dusty roads of Latin & South America from the eyes of filmmakers whose innovative works are rich in bold visual and thematic strokes (Amores Perros, Y Tu Mama También, The Crime of Padre Amaro). Their lack of a long national cinematic heritage has provided them with a unique creative freedom, allowing them to explore new directions, off-the-path from Hollywood "automated production chains" or Europe's excessive intellectualization.
Sexual Dependency, the first feature from Bolivian director Rodrigo Bellot, follows the intertwined paths of 5 teenagers, from Santa Cruz (Bolivia) to a US campus in New York. Shot in split screen, the film follows each character, as a distinctive act, giving them a chance to be in the spotlight, before fading in the background, a process mastered by Andrei Tarkovski in Andrei Rublev, decades before Lucas Belvaux's unbalanced trilogy.
While the film's title relates specifically to the sexual behavior of the protagonists, Sexual Dependency is above all a film about bodies and beauty and how humans interact with their own flesh. From the young Bolivian girl to the college football players, each figure, heterosexual or homosexual, relates to his or her body in a sacred and ritualistic way. We witness moments of auto-eroticism, getting ready in front of the mirror, and moments of shame, after a rape.
The key of Bellot's film, however, is within our selves. For him, sexuality is a way to celebrate our own bodies, as an egoistic act. In the same way, the shame of our own bodies isn't a personal impulse, coming instead from the eyes or actions of others; this is body dependency rather than sexual dependency. We therefore understand the need for a perfectly beautiful cast, since they are the most aware of their bodies and looks, thus presenting an extreme incarnation of this auto-eroticized behavior.
While shooting in split screen isn't new, Bellot offers a different approach. Where Mike Figgis went for rough experimentation (Timecode) and others used it as rhythmic trick, from Sam Peckinpah's Ballad of Cable Hogue to the show 24, the Bolivian filmmaker chose to make it an artistic and thematic brush. His screens are almost living creatures, constantly floating like a wave, caressing the beautiful and contrasted tones of the cinematography. They offer different perspectives of the same scenes, confront various characters and moments or sometimes dangerously flirt to become one. This is also a visual way to symbolize the central theme of dichotomy, from gender to countries and cultures.
The narrative, at first very basic, gets more intricate, playing on our perceptions and in the end fooling us with more subtlety than any "thriller with a twist". Supported by a strong, glamorous and daring cast and directed with great precision, Sexual Dependency is the work of an observer rather than of a moralist or problem solver. Just like Gus Van Sant's Elephant, this film is the medium of a palpable and neutral experience that reaches us with its ultra-realistic beauty.
Fred Thom
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