Consul of Sodom (The)

Jaime Gil de Biedma...an un-prolific poet, wealthy socialite and, perhaps, a gentleman with a penchant for the rough and ready, downtrodden boy.

This is Franco's Spain...from the perspective of the elite...from the perspective of a wealthy gay man who could luxuriate himself and his dalliances of privilege within a totalitarian dictatorship - without the money it would be a completely different story.

Ironically, Biedma was refused entry into the Spanish Communist Party because of his homosexual shenanigans...Lenin wouldn't have liked it...this probably saved him from arrest and a life of misery.

The film is a straightforward narrative of the man's life - there is a tendency, by the director, to romanticise - especially some of the more tawdry aspects of a life lived by the favours of prostitutes - the brief explicit scenes of erections are, bizarrely, out of place...there's no need to be so revealing. A very strange decision on behalf of the director.

It is an elegant piece of filmmaking...the saving grace is the lack of sentimentality - it could have easily gone overboard...that said, the downside is the lack of passion.

Aren't poets supposed to be passionate people? This was played - admirably by Mollà - with a detached nonchalance...it really did need passion.

Agustí Villaronga was meant to have directed this...now, that would have been a very different film indeed.

This is a fine film nevertheless...

"Until my mother dies, I am not queer...".

Truthful words for so many...

Trailer...