Mala Noche

Mala Noche (1985) is the first film of Gus Van Sant, a director most noted for his gay-oriented films. Some of his later films are probably more famous, like Milk or Elephant, yet in his case there might be something in the concept that there is nothing to match the fresh honesty of a first attempt, when you try to add everything into your first shot, perhaps not knowing if there will be a second. There is a sort of greasy reality in this movie, without any visible attempt to achieve it or to compress the story into a network of prebuilt stereotypes where you anticipate the plot because you sense the maker's idea of a character's typical behavior. This is of course not to say that you would not recognize similar things in your own life, it just misses that urge to be more real than reality that - together with the other extreme - streams on and on from the media nowadays. Indeed, the magic of the film is that it gives a feeling of life quite independent from the specific situation depicted, and is therefore of a more general interest than an exclusively gay audience. I remember it took me some 3-4 hours to watch this 75 minutes long film which is a sign of how deeply I was moved by it. I felt very related to the main character in his longing after someone of his dreams... dreams that are always a step ahead of you and give you little chance to touch them, while you become exposed and vulnerable. But what I really liked in him, and I wish I could say the same of myself, is although he does not get this dream of his, he is not blind for the chances life offers while he is after it. And much of life seems to be like that, motivated into motion by something and built from the stuff you find on the way. That doesn't last forever either, but... what does? Still, you can get a handful of moments - sometimes at places you never would have thought if you think exclusively in your dreams - moments, you can say later that those were worth doing the whole thing for...