Ernesto

Set in 1911 Trieste, this is the story of a homosexual relationship between a 16 year old middle-class office clerk (Martin Halm) and an older common laborer (Michele Placido). Although the film has erotic sequences, some of them of great tenderness, its real intent is in the portrayal of a young, social-climbing manipulator. Ernesto eventually ditches the laborer and becomes enamored of young twins (one a boy, the other a girl!) from a wealthy family. The scenes in which the twins, both played by lovely Lara Wendel, flirt amorously with Ernesto are equal to anything from the films of Francois Truffaut. His possible marriage to the girl hints to him that he can have it both ways, the boy and the girl! This is really a film that appeals to all audiences and won numerous accolades at film festivals and during its limited release. It is based on a controversial novel in Triestino dialect by poet Umberto Saba, controversial because of its frank and unapologetic narration of love between an adult man and an adolescent boy. The movie also boasts Virna Lisi as Ernesto's worried mom, has marvelous period backgrounds and a very captivating musical score. It is an ironic, witty delight.

Only when I checked it out after watching, I found out that this movie dated from 1979, so it's more than 40 years old. And the remarkable thing is, that it impressed me as being as fresh and as cinematographically up-to-date as if it was made only a year ago! This is such a wonderful movie, it's story is original and daring, the photography is beautiful, the colorful settings and costumes are luscious and evoke flawlessly the bourgeois Italy (in fact: Triëst) of the first decade of 1900, and all this is accompanied by a sumptuous musical score.

Main character in this sensuous picaresque story is young (17 year old) Ernesto, who works as an administrator for a construction firm, and thinks the world of himself. When a rugged factory worker makes sexual avances and gradually becomes totally smitten with the boy, Ernesto, with the sleek opportunism of someone who knows he is irresistible, starts playing with the mans feelings, and finally seeks his own sexual playmates in an even younger beautiful boy and his twin sister, in the process cunningly forcing himself into the higher social circles. In the end it's as if he's caught up by his own ambition and schemings, illustrated by the very last shot, where he almost apologetically looks us right in the eyes and seems to say: "what can a boy like me do?".

The story and atmosphere is a mixture of (light) drama, irony and absurdity (at several times I actually laughed out loud!), there are several beautiful dreamy scenes (like the boatings along the sun-drenched sea), and I want to mention one especially enchanting, erotically titillating scene where Ernesto teaches his new young friend to play the violin, it's pure magic! The pace of the movie is high, and the acting of all concerned is great. Especially Martin Halm, hardly 18 years old himself, and in one of his first acting jobs, is really amazing as Ernesto, the indefatigable pivot of the movie, playing him exactly as arrogant, self-righteous and aloof as he should be (and being wildly attractive to boot!).

I called the story daring, and I guess it could not have been made in the last ten years, by nowadays standards it's totally inapropriate (we see a grown up man forcing himself upon a minor boy). But in 1979 this movie actually won several prizes, and there is no denying that cinematographically it's an absolute masterpiece and with that a real hidden gem!