Customer Reviews

O Fantasma [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

In 2000, Joćo Pedro Rodrigues directed and co-wrote a dark and unusual film entitled "O Fantasma" ("Phantom" in English). The film's protagonist is a young man named Sérgio (Ricardo Meneses), who works as a garbage collector in Lisbon, Portugal usually during the predawn hours. Sérgio lives alone and has very few friends (which are mostly his coworkers), but identifies with a dog named Lorde. He is also obsessed with having casual, gratuitous sex with anonymous men, which never seems to satisfy him. One morning, while collecting trash from a private home, Sérgio meets a very attractive and muscular man named Joćo (André Barbosa) working on his motorcycle and is immediately attracted to him. Unfortunately, Joćo, who lives with his mother (Maria Paola Porru), becomes the object of obsession for Sérgio, who begins to unrepentantly stalk him. This and several other actions by Sérgio are symptoms of a mental disorder known as De Clerambault's Syndrome, which causes Sérgio to enter an increasingly delusional, animalistic and predatory state of mind.

Filmed mostly at night, the cinematography in "O Fantasma" is usually dark, colorless and surreal. This adds to the feelings of inner darkness and loneliness that Sérgio experiences as his obsessions slowly destroy his ability to interact with others and transforms him into the anonymous, shadowy phantom wearing a tight, black, all-encompassing costume like a comic book antihero. Other memorable characters in the film include Sérgio's coworker Fátima (Beatriz Torcata), his boss Virgilio (Enrico Vieira), Mário (Joaquim Oliveira), Matos (Florindo Lourenēo) and the two police officers (Jorge Almeida and Joćo Rui Guerra da Mata, who also did the art direction and costume design in the film). Overall, I rate "O Fantasma" with 4 out of 5 stars. Clearly, the film isn't for everyone, but it was directed and acted well.

First, let me say I am giving this completely unorthodox film four stars because I can't stop thinking about it. I'm not really sure I liked it, but I will say it is pretty daring in its approach to what can loosely be called "storytelling." There is very little dialogue, so we don't learn much about the characters, particularly Sergio, the central character, by what they say. Their actions are the primary sources of information into their unusual psyches. Sergio, a very attractive but deeply disturbed young man, is in the midst of a psychological meltdown, but I don't think his bizarre behaviour fully explains what is going on deep in his soul. The minimalist approach of the filmmaker in depicting Sergio's descent seems intent on providing slightly less information than we need to know. Perhaps the idea of this approach is to leave viewers in the dark just enough to be haunted by the film's imagery long after it is over. Maybe this film is an indictment of promiscuous gay sex, but then again, maybe it's an endorsement. I say this because there is an insidiously sexy edge to this work that snuck up on me and wouldn't let go. It's both seductive and repulsive at the same time. A very interesting, but perhaps not altogether successful endeavor. Yet, I highly recommend it!

No matter how you look at, the reason to buy "O Fantasma" is the actor play sexy Sergio. Yes the story is a downer, if well photographed. Sergio's character seems to be slowly going insane,
from loner to crazy. But, you do not come across many actors in gay flicks who were born to play a role and are flat out sex personified. The star of "O Fantasma" fits the bill on both counts. Ironically, the director in his commentary talks about the star wanting to appear in his next movie, but he was not right for any of the parts and went back to his small village to live. What a shame, because he is the only real reason that this film was even released in the U.S.=== albeit a very good reason.

O FANTASMA is not a movie for the casual audience. This dark and seamy vision of sexual confusion is almost unremittingly harrowing, but director Joao Pedro Rodriques drives his vision of a young lad (who lives on the periphery of society and longs to be wanted and loved, even in the 'forbidden world' of same sex attraction) from reality to surreality. Metaphors abound: the hero works in garbage disposal on the night shift - a stance that sums up the world's view of his persona. Apparently the actor Ricardo Meneses was selected for the lead simply on the basis of his presence and his animal appeal. This is a rich performance of a boy with an approach/avoidance to his sexuality and Meneses is unafraid to bear it all in his portrayal of passion on the edge. The drive for sexual gratification is dark, sensuous, and bordering on dangerous. His eventual transformation as a 'comic book-like' predator seems natural in the way both director and actor drive this story to its inevitable ending. The film is VERY dark photographically (it is afterall intended to be a night drama) and while this technique matches the message, it is difficult at times to visualize the action. The noisy musical scoring becomes almost unbearable at times. But despite these reservations O FANTASMA suggests the debut of a remarkable diretorial talent and certainly gives heed to a major screen presence in Ricardo Meneses! Not for everyone, but for those with an eye for something original then try this little film. In Portuguese with subtitles.

Portuguese director Joao Pedro Rodriguez has created a film of austere beauty and sinewy power, dark and brooding like its striking protagonist. Ricardo Meneses, as the sensual, very sexual Sergio, gives a truly astonishing performance - especially considering his youth and inexperience, the nature of the material, and that this was his first and, I'm sorry to say, only film. Sergio is a lithe, muscular young garbage collector working the graveyard shift in Lisbon, but all we see of the city are its fringes. He roams forsaken moonscapes (the dumping grounds), jungle-like parks, forsaken roads. Sergio's compulsions and the force of his lust are reflected in these primitive terrains, and manifested in the increasing aberrance of his sexual behavior. The action takes place almost entirely indoors, or outside in darkness and shadow. There is, symbolically, only one moment of sunlight in the entire film when a magnificent Sergio stands, his lean body beautifully and boldly bare, on the roof of his pensione.

Ricardo Meneses, who was born to play this extraordinary part, is sensuous, narcissistic, exhibitionistic, and profoundly sexy. Mr. Rodriguez draws us into Sergio's life like voyeurs as the camera follows him, drinking in his flawless feline form as he showers, swims, admires and touches himself, prowls his habitat, has sex (with his girlfriend, his lover, his boss, a policeman, tricks), and stalks a handsome swimmer with whom he becomes obsessed. It is this last ephemeral human connection - one awkward gesture towards a world with sun - that dooms the boy. Sergio quietly asks his paramour for help and is coldly rebuffed. He becomes ever more animalistic, spiraling unremittingly downward. The tragedy which ensues is startling and seductive, like Sergio himself.

As a Portuguese guy it was interesting to find a gay Portuguese movie....it is strange but also interesting. A young "Lisboeta" falling for some one he cannot have....i think it's happened to all of us atleast once. His fettish is a bit out there...but hey to each-his-own.

This is a very interesting and unusual film.
Centering around a (very sexy) young man, who works as a dustman, and becomes obsessed by a man on his round. The film is about his descent into obsession, becoming a stalker, and his lust for anonymous sex.
Its well acted, and a brave and interesting film, if not a little too slow at times.
It must be said that the sex scenes are without a doubt the most explicit I have ever seen outside of pornography.
The extras are interesting and definately worth a viewing.

Countries that maintain stiff macho, anti-homosexual laws leave theirselves open to the kind of result depicted in "O Fantasma."A case in point was Germany, especially under Nazisim, and other homophobic countries like that of "O Fantasma." How sad a result: our anti-hero is so frustrated with pent-up sexual emotion that he becomes crazed with one-track attention. Going from repression and confusion to blatant animalistic activities, he embodies the consequences of a society trying to maintain its male population in particular. However, such repression affects females too in a direct way, as demonstrated in our anti-hero's physical abuse of women.A cautionary tale, "O Fantasma" graphically demonstrates the dire consequences of homosexual repression, particularly as backed up by laws. It's a crucial message that should be heeded by everyone. Therefore, "O Fantasma" becomes a highly significant and important film work.

I, like others I have been reading recently, am enamoured with this film but not exactly sure why. Joao Pedro Rodrigues does a fantastic job of directing a very different type of film. The thing that stands out in my mind is the unabashed sex scene (one in particular) that seems to border on unconventional. In all my years of watching gay and gay themed films I have NEVER seen anything like it and this film doesn't make apologies. The scenes are important to the story. I actually will buy this film as it is a good addition to my ecclectic library.

This picture is a mess of misused metaphors and confused imagery from start to finish. I was left scratching my head wondering who these people are and why they behave the way they do. Forgive me for expecting the film to provide any answers. First the good news - if you like beautiful boys, Ricardo Meneses as the twisted Sergio is one of the most gorgeous creatures to ever stand naked before a lens. Despite the hopelessly confusing script, his acting (such as it is) is amazing, especially if you take into account his age (18) and experience (his first film). It's too bad he had to be "discovered" by a director who thinks nothing of making his audience beg for each scrap of insight, and pretentiously expects the viewer to read their own interpretation into whatever nonsense he sees fit to set up as his next scene. I wanted to give it the benefit of a doubt, so after sitting through one screening of this erotically charged but confused tangle of a movie, I sat through it again, this time with the directors commentary on. Cheating, I know, but after shelling out all that money for the DVD I was hoping to gain some idea of what the hell was going on. I emerged from watching it the second time half in love with the beautiful young actor Ricardo Meneses, but with only a fraction of the respect I had for the director, Joao Pedro Rodrigues, after my first screening. And that wasn't much.

Sergio is a garbage collector for the city of Lisbon. He works a graveyard shift with an assortment of other oddballs, and in between collecting garbage he has a series of sexual escapades that seem impossibly jaded for one so young. While other boys his age are swimming or surfing, he's dressing up in a full-body suit of latex, having anonymous sex in men's rooms (including the most explicit act of fellatio I have ever seen in a non-pornographic movie) and exploring S & M adventures with any willing male he can find. Just so you know how kinky he is, in one scene he masturbates in the shower while strangling himself with the shower-massage cord. You really have to wonder where all this imagination comes from, until you realize that the writer-director has been harboring some pretty extreme sexual fantasies about his friendly neighborhood garbage men. Sergio has a female co-worker who is in love with him, but she's busy having sex with the foreman, and Sergio's only interest in her is to tease her sexually and then play cruel jokes on her. He finally meets a man who doesn't succumb to his charms, because he's obviously straight. This was not the first or last thing in this film I didn't get; when I was that age, and almost as pretty as Sergio, I understood that some guys just couldn't be had, so I shrugged my shoulders and moved on. Not our Sergio. He takes obsession to unheard of heights, especially for an 18 year old. He stalks the young swimmer, goes through his garbage, and steals his torn old swimsuit. Of course unrequited sexual obsession in films is not exactly new - remember Reflections In A Golden Eye? In that film, made in 1967 and still considered by many critics to be one of the ten worst bombs ever made, the male object of Marlon Brando's desire was almost as pretty as Ricardo Meneses, but that film had the advantage of a script that was at least coherent at times. In one of the first of many explicit sexual encounters in O Fantasma, Sergio, while walking his dog, comes upon a policeman handcuffed and gagged in the backseat of a patrol car. He proceeds to masturbate the cop to orgasm, leaving him tied up in the car and then running off to work, where he spends the rest of the night sniffing his hand and licking the residue. I was hoping that the director's commentary would maybe explain how and why the cop is tied up in his own squad car, but his sole comment on the soundtrack is, "You don't understand in the film why the cop is handcuffed". Excuse me, Mr. Rodrigues, but I didn't understand it in the audience, either.

Sergio's only tender scenes are when he takes care of the dog, a mascot of the sanitation workers. In one scene, Sergio is busy cleaning the dog dishes and doghouse with a hose, when he turns and sees the foreman standing in the door. He pushes past, their faces register some indications of conflict, and then the foreman shuts the door. The director's commentary on this action is, "The door closes, and you know what will happen, but you don't see it". Uh, no, I'm afraid the relationship between Sergio and foreman is the least developed of all the underdeveloped relationships in this film, so what will happen next is anybody's guess. Not that I really cared; Sergio is the only character in the script whose personality is even partially explored, and all we ever really learn about him is that he's sexually compulsive and kinky to the max. The picture goes on endlessly, with Sergio refusing to let go of his obsession for the young surfer / swimmer, until he has the most excruciatingly slow breakdown ever recorded in a movie. At the same time, what little there is of coherence also breaks down. The director's commentary infuriated me even more when toward the end, after spending most of the commentary praising the cooperation, beauty, talent and maturity of his young lead actor, he proclaims, "It is cruel to say it, but he wants to continue acting, and I think he will not act again. I will not use him in my next film...it's like his body has been used up". I haven't had the benefit of seeing anything else by Mr. Rodrigues, but if given the choice of viewing Mr. Rodrigues' next film or Ricardo Meneses next appearance I think I'd opt for the beautiful boy any day. After botching the attempted kidnapping of his beloved obsession, Sergio takes off to spend the balance of the film wordlessly running. The final scenes treat us to a guided tour of the sights, sounds (and by way of commentary) smells of a garbage dump. As Sergio wanders through the dump clutching a live rabbit he finds among the garbage ("I saw the rabbits there" says the director on the commentary, "so it's believable") the director, grasping for a final metaphor, remarks "He is like a cross between a bug and an insect" a comment that seems to me to be a cross between the idiotic and the insipid. He then ends this drivel after the slowest twenty minutes of film I've ever sat through by more or less telling us he didn't really know how to end it - like I hadn't figured that out a full ten minutes before the end credits started running. As Sergio continues to stumble on into the dawn before the final fadeout, the director says, "I could bring him back to the city, but that would not make much sense". The idea of a scene that might not make much sense didn't prevent him from filming the other 90 minutes of this drek - I dare say he should have gone for it.