Bisexuality
is not well understood in cultures that are accustomed to
either/or categorizations of human sexuality. Now, the Spanish
film I Will Survive (Sobreviveré), directed
by Alfonso Albacete and David Menkes, joins the 1999 French
film The School of Flesh (L’Ecole de la Chair)
in presenting a male lead actor who plays both sides of the
fence without apology. When I Will Survive begins,
Marga (played by Emma Suárez) walks out the door of
her home, fed up with her authoritarian father, to marry Roberto
(played by Adría Collado). En route to a blissful honeymoon,
however, Roberto swerves his car to avoid hitting a child
and dies at the wheel. Marga survives, but emotionally is
brokenhearted, as she is carrying Roberto’s child. Having
been disinherited by her father, a girlfriend, Tini (played
by Rosana Pastor), takes her in and gives her a job as a clerk
at her video rental store. Some five years later, Tini runs
off with a man and sells the store to Marga, who can only
afford the sales price with the aid of two male lovers, Carlos
and José (played by Javiet Martin and Alex Brendmühl),
as cosigners, and the store is renamed Boom Video. Meanwhile,
Marga is then taken in by Rosa (played by Mirtha Ibarra),
a Cuban refugee. One day, Iñaqi (played by Juan Diego
Botto), a sculptor, enters the store to rent a tape. Although
he is almost ten years younger than thirtysomething Marga,
the two are instantly attracted to each other. They meet again
at a stage performance, where Rosa is fascinated by one of
the performers, a crossdresser named Rolando (played by Manuel
Manquiña). Soon, both couples begin to date. Iñaqi,
however, has recently abandoned Oscar (played by Alberto San
Juan) after a six-month relationship. When Iñaqi and
Marga date, she meets some of Iñaqi’s gay friends,
including Oscar. One night at a gay bar Oscar tries to rekindle
flames under Iñaqi, just as Tini enters the bar. Tini
has broken up with her boyfriend, and she wants to fill Marga
in on her latest misfortunes, so the two leave the bar and
drive to a quiet spot to talk at more length. When they drive
back to the bar, Marga sees Iñaqi walking out of the
bar with Oscar and infers the worst, and the two become estranged.
Soon, wedding bells toll for Rosa and Rolando. At the wedding
reception, Iñaqi suddenly emerges alongside Marga,
and the two admit that they could not live without each other.
But the film ends with a monologue by Marga directly in front
of the camera. Noting that her relationship with Iñaqi
lasted one year longer than his affair with Oscar, she indicates
that she will survive nevertheless. Clearly, I Will
Survive attempts to be a mainstream film, speaking
to females who are misled in the belief that gays are men
who just have not found the right woman while affirming Sigmund
Freud’s observation that human bisexuality is the normal
condition of humans at birth that later is cast aside as we
conform to the requirements of modern civilization. However,
for Latin cultures, where divorce is unthinkable, secret extramarital
affairs provide a customary outlet. And, if we are to comprehend
the plots of an increasing number of French and Spanish films,
the younger generation is very accepting of gay relationships,
which appear alternatively as intense and as fragile as those
involving opposite-sex couples. MH
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