Screen shot from Night Swimming

Nights in Love tells the story of a 17-year old Swedish boy who falls in love with a local recluse after he keeps on returning to buy illegal alcohol from him. Set against a bleak background of small town Sweden, the film beautifully puts on screen a touching relationship between two men, both unsure of where their affections are leading but both unable to resist each other. The film pays close attention to the intensity of the relationship between these two men and through exceptional acting the audience is encouraged to lose itself in the narrative of a powerful love story. 

Night Swimming follows two young punk rockers as they head out to New York to see their favourite band, however, after only a short time on the road their car breaks down and they are stranded in the middle of a forest where they are forced to spend the night. What ensues is a night of discovery and the film’s central character’s journey towards realising his homosexuality. The film truthfully portrays the joys of youth and tension in that first sexual encounter as well as exploring the aftermath of taking the first steps towards admitting to being gay.

Both films have a strong sense of narrative and effectively put on screen the power of desire and its consequences. Both films also honestly focus upon the exhilaration of being young and gay and those initial steps towards self discovery. Especially successful at engaging the audience, Nights in Love stands out as a film about gay issues, without being a gay “issues” film. Something that the festival highlights is the obstacle of making a gay film. There is a definite awareness in some of the films to present a story that shouts at the top of its lungs that it is gay. Although this is sometimes effective and necessary, at times the audience are aggressed too much and leave the cinema without having connected with the characters or story put before them.

How easy is it then, as a filmmaker, to make a film about gay “issues” without compromising the integrity of narrative, style and content? Perhaps where some films fall down is in the emphasis they place on being defined as a gay film? However, this is not to suggest that we shouldn’t promote gay cinema; quite the opposite, gay cinema should be widely encouraged. However, filmmakers shouldn’t be scared of portraying a gay relationship as normal. 

This was the biggest difference between the two films. Night Swimming was perfectly produced and competently directed but it lacked something of an emotional integrity. The narrative although developed to an extent, seemed too focussed upon making sure the film was gay focussed. The whole film was geared towards the one scene and the sexual act between the two central characters, leaving the end of the film as something of an anti climax. The film was highly personal and the director in an interview after the screening professed to writing the film based on his own coming out experience. This seemed to detract some of the accessibility of the film, which then became more personal as opposed to encouraging the audience to interact with the characters and build their own response to the narrative. 

A Clip from Night Swimming

To overly criticise either film would detract from the successes of both. However, both highlight how the festival enables gay filmmakers to transpose their experiences of gay life into a receptive medium. Cinema is something of a brutal art form in the fact that it has the power to engulf its audience or to alienate it. However, at the core of a good film is a good story and both Nights in Love and Night Swimming tell good stories. However, both films deal with the act of making a gay film differently. Essentially, as in society do we need to be made aware of whether a film is gay or straight? If the film has a strong story and emotional integrity then it will be successful. There is of course the matter of a target audience, and understandably gay films are going to attract a predominantly gay audience. What the festival proves though is the exceptional diversity of gay culture and the many ways of presenting that through film.

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