Sérgio
(played by Ricardo Meneses) is a North Lisbon garbage worker
who lives in a one-room flophouse in O Fantasma
(Phantom),
a film noir that takes place mostly at night and has very
little dialog. Although a female coworker, Fátima
(played by Beatriz Torcato), is attracted to him, he is
attracted to men, though he also enjoys nonsexually the
company of a dog that is a pet at the Department of Sanitation
headquarters. In his early twenties, Sérgio has
a macho appearance; in addition to a physically attractive
body, his ultramasculine stare provokes interest in sex
from men, and he has several encounters in the film. In
the prologue, we see someone in a latex suit, from head
to toe, performing anal intercourse on a man, not realizing
that Sérgio is the one who is latex-clad. After
we are introduced more properly to Sérgio, his first
anonymous sex experience involves him in jacking off a
uniformed officer in a police car. In a public toilet,
he attracts a man to come down on him and then pushes him
away, showing apparent disdain not only for the gay man's
amateurish technique but also for his effeminacy, thus
perhaps explaining why Sérgio is not a male prostitute,
a profession not uncommon among persons with his appearance,
proclivities, and social class background. One evening
on his regular trash route, he runs into João (played
by André Barbosa); about five years older than Sérgio,
João lives in a house with his mother and has a
shiny motorcycle. Although Sérgio asks him how fast
the motorcycle goes, he is obviously more interested in
making time with João; however, the feeling is not
mutual. Thereafter, Sérgio stalks João on
successive nights. One time he paws though the trash outside
João's house and finds a torn swimsuit; later, he
wears the swimsuit and reaches inside to jack off while
choking himself with a shower hose. On another night, he
enters João's property, climbs up to peer into his
room, but hides when João goes to the window. Next,
he goes to a gym, sees João coming out of a shower
naked, and he is again rebuffed. Later, he swims alone
in the nude, and he jacks off while showering and licking
the wall. One night two police see him but leave him alone
after he sports a masculine glare, but on another occasion
a police officer handcuffs him; hoping to be released by
performing fellatio on the officer, the latter is soon
called away, leaving Sérgio handcuffed. Sérgio
then locates João outside his house and pleads for
help because he is handcuffed, but the latter tells him
to "piss off." At this point, the film becomes
surreal. Somehow, the handcuffs come off, the latex suit
goes on, Sérgio apparently returns to João's
house and overpowers the latter, applying duct tape to
his mouth, wrists, and ankles. Still latex-clad, Sérgio
then wanders crazed in the junkyard as if a dog, a bizarre
performance reminiscent of the last scenes of the Vietnamese
film Cyclo (1995). His one faithful companion, in short,
is his role model. Directed by João Pedro Rodrigues,
O Fantasma is an intense portrait of homoerotic
impulses that haunt men in macho cultures who are doomed
to seek
anonymous sex when they instead crave meaningful, more
permanent relationships with other men. Due to the scenes
of rough sex, not all gay filmviewers will be able to stomach
what they see, though for others the film may be a turn-on.
The unremarkable tagline is "No one can live without
love." As a critique of the pathological tyranny of
homophobic cultures, O Fantasma has no parallel. MH
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