His Secret Life (2002) (AKA Fate Ignoranti)
Note: Some
Spoilers
It's pretty obvious from the Anglicized
version of the title of this film what this one's
going to be about, especially if you see it at a gay
film festival. (The literal Italian title by the way,
which was what was on the English subtitles of the
print I saw, is "Ignorant Faries"). This is one of
those films about a woman who has been married for
a long time to the same man discovering that he has
been having an affair (or two) with other men. But
"His Secret Life" takes this well-worn gay film genre
plotline and does some new things with it.
The first thing to explore about
the film, if you are discussing it, is that the husband
is dead. This is particularly interesting in this
film because his accidental death, getting hit by
a car when he is a pedestrian, is handled very oddly
in the film. Using CGI effects, the filmmaker has
the actor's body tossed around by no less than three
passing cars as if he were a pinball. The effect really
gets your attention.
There is at least 20 minutes of
sorrowful widow stuff before the wife character, Antonia,
goes to see what she presumes will be "the other woman."
Then there's a lot of expositional whim-wham to get
to the point that her husband's lover was, indeed,
a man. Perhaps if one was seeing this film without
any knowledge of the plot beforehand, this would be
interesting, but when you see it knowing it is a gay
film, it seems to drag on a bit.
What eventually happens is, of course,
she discovers her husband's "secret" life and then
has to come to terms with it. Now, here's where this
film veers into interesting territory. Of course,
she and the male lover become friends. That's a given.
They loved the same man, of course they are going
to have much to talk about. But the male lover, Michele,
has a wide and varied group of friends, primarily
gay, whom also become Antonio's friends. The group
dynamic here is explored much in the same way it might
be in a "commune" film or a "hippie" film.
Now, even though I thoroughly enjoyed
this film, the characters are interesting, one thing
began to trouble me as it unspooled. Why is it that
in so many gay movies, gay people are shown as having
this wide, diverse, eclectic, group of friends who
are colorful and campy and full of piss and vinegar?
I am now officially going to dub this genre the "gay
people are like circus folk" syndrome. Again, I liked
this film. But if I see one more film where a gay
guy has all these colorful friends, I might get up
and leave. Not all of us know drag queens, and lesbians,
and cute young guys, and fat mama types, and spurned
lovers and former lovers and AIDS patients and...
you get the picture. It's stereotypical to think all
gay people live like this. It's foolish. It reaffirms
the notion that all gay people are like clowns, happy
on the outside but sad on the inside, as if our "gayety"
is only a painted facade to hide the deep emotional
scars on our insides.
I highly recommend "His Secret Life."
It's a really interesting film. The characters and
performances are quite good. And the story veers into
unique yet wonderful territory. But the next "gay
people are like circus folk" genre film will probably
feel my wrath.
Note:
In Italian with Subtitles
Directed by Ferzan Ozpetek.
