El Príncipe

As a shocking view of depravity and brutality in a Chilean prison before Allende's election, the film is convincing. The events of the film leading up to Jaime's transformation are somewhat less so.

Nonetheless, the film held the attention and even though it was based on a trash novel one got the feeling of wanting to know what would happen next.

The lovemaking scenes were not even vaguely erotic including the ones where there was some tenderness.

I was slightly disappointed, but knowing the source material, I guess I wasn't looking for or expecting more. I don't regret watching, by any means.

I didn't expect too much, I thought (with some wishful thinking, I admit!) that this would be some flimsy soft-erotic gay prison thing. But to my surprise it turned out to be more serious than that, providing an actually involving story of a young guy who lands in a Chilean prison somewhere in the 70's during the Allende regime (I didn't feel by the way that this setting added anything substantial to the premise) and as a newbie is confronted with the existing prison rules and culture, especially with the sexual aspects of it. He gets sexually and emotionally involved with an older inmate, with all kinds of positive and negative consequences.

The biggest part of the movie is set in the prison, and this convinces the most. The smaller part (by way of flash-backs) in which we see how young Jaime came to commit the crime for which he was incarcerated, is rather fragmentary and felt a bit rushed. It leaves Jaime's background almost totally blank, so his sudden outburst into a jealous rage comes totally out of the blue.

Although there isn't happening that much (there's a lot more action in every single episode of Oz!), you keep being interested in how things will evolve. Apart from one pivotal incident towards the end of the movie, there's hardly any violence between all the inmates, but instead of that a surprising amount of intimacy and emotionally caring for each other. Touchingly illustrated when all inmates respectfully come to offer their condolences to Jaime when his protector and lover is killed.

There is a fair amount of very graphic gay sex, but I guess you could call it functional in this specific story. Still praise to the actors who had the courage to participate, it cannot have been easy.

Apart from the earlier mentioned flaws, I do have some other to mention. The leader inmate is called The Stud, but it is hard to relate that nickname to the middle-aged and rather frail looking actor Alfredo Castro. And biggest let-down to me was the way main character Jaime (The Prince) was played by Juan Carlos Maldonado. He mostly acted like an autistic nerd, walking and talking like a robot, being reasonably good-looking but for the rest totally uncharismatic and never (at least in my opinion) deserving that illuster nickname The Prince.

This is a surprising work of art. It is different. It has elements that make you go, "what the heck" and others that are endearing. When you are watching this you will be taken through a ride. You will ask yourself questions concerning elements of rape and homosexuality in prison. For one this is unlike prisons like we know them. I guess it is how love evolve. It is how one falls in love in prison.

Without giving many elements away, it is about jealous. It is about falling for a beautiful boy. It is about versatility and a cat. There is chant in the movie which surprised me. It is artistic in some aspect. The reaction of the prince after seeing the subject of his affecting getting it on with a girl, was surprising but relevant. What does this action mean? What does rolling in the dirt mean? It is raw in its depiction of certain emotions. It is quiet in others. You never know will happen in the next frame.

I applaud the choice of the depictions of the scenes and reactions of the characters and the audience. It is about being empowered especially in the last scene. It is about moving on. It is about carrying the mantle.

It is the 70 and so the fashion says a lot and it is quite nostalgic.

A young man, apparently having committed a shocking murder in a nightclub, is sent to prison in 1970's Chile. The prison is small and filthy, with men sharing beds, and homosexuality so rife it may as well be a gay bar.

The young man, known as "the Prince", is chosen to replace another youth in the bed of "the Stallion", apparently the master of this domain. He is immediately sexually assaulted by "the Stallion" - at least it appeared as such to me. This brutal beginning to their relationship doesn't stop romance from blossoming, strangely enough.

Interspersed are flashbacks to the friendship the Prince shared with a young man known as the Gypsy, which eventually led to the pivotal violence. There is also a bizarre sequence where Prince apparently has sex with his own mother (?).

This could have been an effective story, but the constant focus on sex makes it feel more like pornography, even down to the nonchalant attitude toward sexual assault. You don't see enough of the characters to get a feel for who they're supposed to be, and you certainly don't care about the protagonist.

Pedestrian adaptation of the only novel written by Mario Cruz, a little-known work from the 1970s (which I don't know, so I cannot talk about it). The result is a melodrama of sex between inmates, with clichéd situations and lots of nudity, sodomy and erections, and with allusions to the days of Salvador Allende, just because: you just change the bell-bottoms and it can be anytime, anywhere.

The worst is the ill-advised choice of Alfredo Castro as The Stallion, who changes partners at his whim and seduces the young inmate that has just arrived in his cell. Castro is a good actor... but a "stallion"...? It would have been more convincing if the character's name was "Old Goat". Gastón Pauls would have seem a better choice for the role.

P. S. The film includes the last film performance by the beautiful Lucas Balmaceda as El Rucio, before becoming Lux Pascal, equally pretty.