Night Stage is a film that challenges the very notion that people don’t care about someone being gay anymore, by exploring themes of public acceptance that is often conditional on gay men conforming to heterosexual norms or being nonsexual in their actions and opinions. Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon weave these discussions on acceptance into an erotic thriller that embraces a myriad of styles, from Giallo to the voyeuristic suspense of Hitchcock and De Palma.
Shakespeare famously wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages”. Spoken by Jaques in As You Like It, these words have come to epitomise the performative nature of life and our ability to craft ourselves into multiple characters, each with entrances and exits.
For many gay men, these carefully crafted personas are born not from desire but necessity, as we choose the version of ourselves that best fits the social expectations surrounding us. Even though things have become easier, many gay boys and men still hide their true selves for extended periods of time, often during adolescence. In doing so, they craft an identity they feel fits their world, only allowing their true self to shine in moments of privacy or the heated need for sexual release. Others, while confident in their sexuality, still find themselves meeting men who have crafted public and private personas that pull them into a world they thought they had escaped.
For their third picture, Night Stage, writer-directors Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon (Hard Paint) explore the stage that gay men find themselves performing on, a stage that occasionally allows for authenticity but often imposes numerous restrictions, especially when gay men are in the public eye.
Set in Porto Alegre, Brazil, we meet a promising young theatre actor and dancer, Matias (Gabriel Faryas), and his artistic rival and flatmate, Fabio (Henrique Barreira). Both young men are ambitious, and both know their new theatre production could open doors to new levels of fame. After all, a new TV series is currently casting, one that could propel whoever takes the lead role to national recognition. But one thing stands in Matias’ way; he is an out gay man, and the producers are looking for someone heterosexual and rugged, something his flatmate and theatrical sparring partner, Fabio, offers in spades. However, a clandestine late-night hookup is about to change everything for Matias.
When Matias meets the mysterious Rafael (Cirillo Luna), he is unaware of who Rafael is. He is also not prepared for their hot, steamy encounter in a city-centre mansion, due for demolition, to be the first of many. Rafael is discreet, edgy and always horny, their encounters full of eroticism and risk, and it’s not long before Matias discovers that Rafael is a closeted politician running for mayor, with some shady financial backers. At this point, you might think Matias would opt to run, but Rafael has the keys to his success, and that’s worth the price of an affair that sees both men fall into a risky game of public sex and uncontrolable desire, which will see their lives and the lives of everyone surrounding them drawn into a web of secrecy, darkness, lies and deceit.
The dramatic thrill and tension in Night Stage is not concerned with the discovery of Matias’ and Rafeal’s affair, but rather the price gay men pay as they become public figures. As both men attempt to navigate the heat of their sexual bond, the risks to them and those around them grow, as their sexual encounters push the boundaries of what is acceptable in public.
Night Stage is a film that challenges the very notion that people don’t care about someone being gay anymore, by exploring themes of public acceptance that is often conditional on gay men conforming to heterosexual norms or being nonsexual in their actions and opinions. Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon weave these discussions on acceptance into an erotic thriller that embraces a myriad of styles, from Giallo to the voyeuristic suspense of Hitchcock and De Palma.
Performances are often electric and rooted in carnal desire, dangerous ambition, and the urgent need to craft publicly acceptable performances to achieve success. Yet occasionally these performances slip into soap opera, causing the core strengths of Matzembacher and Reolon’s initial thrilling vision to waver. The real standout in Night Stage is the Giallo and Noir-inspired cinematography by Luciana Baseggio and the unnerving score by Arthur Decloedt, Thiago Pethit, and Charles Tixier. It’s these artistic elements that create unbridled erotic tension and a sense of looming disaster from the first scene to the last. It is, therefore, a pity that while the artistic brilliance of Night Stage is on display throughout, it runs out of narrative steam as it nears its climax, with its discussions on accepted performance among gay men ultimately left hanging.
However, while Night Stage may not live up to the thrilling promise of its opening hour, it prides itself on taking elements of the classic erotic thriller and creating a bold, thrilling and breathless erotic dance through Porto Alegre. Night Stage may not tick all the boxes needed to become a true cult classic of queer cinema, but it comes pretty dam close.
Night Stage (Ato Noturno) is playing in cinemas nationwide from April 3.
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