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所给评分： 6
To Play Or To Die recalls the memories of loneliness and victimization familiar to any gay teen, and turns them into an intense thriller. In the locker room, we get shots of many naked guys in the shower behind frosted glass - dark, but there. Then we see the main character, Geert, in his jock. A bully grabs him from behind while another rips off his jocks and starts chucking them around the room. You see the boy jumping up and down trying to grab his jocks and his penis is bobbing up and down and left and right. It's an immense turn-on! Then there's the hottie Tjebbo. You don't see much of him, but some nice underwear shots.
的舞步-de-deux与 吃惊结果
To Play or To Die Kees is an introverted boy who attends an all-boy Dutch school where powerful bullies and sadomasochistic games are the stock in trade.
Kees is fascinated by the extraordinarily handsome Charel, the ringleader of his tormenters.
Seeking to turn the tables and stem his victimization, Kees invites Charel back to his house when his parents are away.
He plans revenge, but Charel gets the upper hand.
So begins a difficult and painful pasde-deux with surprising results.
To Play or To Die (Spelen of Sterven) Holland 1990/1 Director: Frank Krom Starring: Geert Hunaerts, Tjebbo Gerritsma, et al.
Kees (Geert Hunaerts) is an introverted schoolboy who falls for his macho schoolmate Charel (Tjebbo Gerritsma).
After inviting Charel over after school when his parents are away, Kees gets into a brawl with the aggressive Charel.
This is a strange coming of age film.
I thought To play or to die was an exelent movie, wich caught my attention fully.
Great performances of the young actors and beautifuly filmed.
I didn't consider it to be homophobic, but more as a tragedy of a young guy who is caught in complete loneliness, fighting his way out.
Having no friends at all, the beautiful and at the same time brutal guy from his class is his only challenge.
I can recommend this film strongly.
Sven Ona (from Kopenhagen, Denmark) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank Krom's impressively doom-laden Dutch drama To Play or To Die, based on a short story by Anna Blaman, has made a welcome appearance on DVD courtesy of Water Bearer Films.
But it's somewhat alarming to discover that this short feature (it runs a mere 46m 50s!) has arrived on disc in a no-frills edition, priced the same as any mainstream DVD.
The film originally premiered on VHS along with two other gay shorts under the umbrella title Boys on Film (vol.
2), and many potential customers may be unwilling to pay full price for this somewhat abbreviated presentation.
But interested viewers are urged to suspend judgment and check the film out for themselves - To Play or To Die is a grim, unyielding examination of teenage emotions, played out against the stark backdrop of a Dutch boys' school.
The film focuses on the plight of Kees, a bright, handsome kid, crippled by shyness, whose life is devastated by a group of school bullies.
Nevertheless, Kees is attracted to the ringleader Charel, a beautiful thug whose macho posturing is little more than a show for his like-minded circle of friends.
Kees invites him back to his (Kees') home when his parents are away, ostensibly to take revenge and seduce the older boy, but Charel's inability to drop the pretence and succumb to Kees' infatuation leads to a painful conclusion for them both.
Or does it?
Beautifully photographed in muted colors by Nils Post (an accomplished cinematographer who also shot the highly controversial For a Lost Soldier in 1992), the film takes place in an emotionally desolate world where the characters are unable to connect with one another in any kind of meaningful context.
Gerritsma and Hunaerts are superb as tormentor and tormented, respectively, with Hunaerts in particular giving a truly committed performance, especially towards the end of the film during a moment of (non-explicit, non-salacious) sexual candor.
To Play or to Die is NOT homophobic, as some have suggested;
it's simply unwilling to play the Hollywood game of providing its viewers with easy answers and a neat resolution.
Gay filmmakers have a responsibility to depict the broad range of experiences which affect their community, and that means confronting the harsh realities of their daily lives as well as their triumphs over adversity.
Some gay men are driven to tragic extremes by circumstances beyond their control, and failure to address these issues on film would make for a very one-sided view of an extremely complex subject.
As such, the film may not be a pleasant experience for some, but it dares to be bleak and uncompromising when others might have hidden behind wish-fulfilment fantasies.
That's honesty, not homophobia.
In any event, Krom's rich visual style distinguishes the film from many of its American counterparts, and the expert editing (by Krom and Sander Vos) maintains a keen sense of rhythm amidst the slow-burning tensions inherent in the drama.
Incredibly, Krom (whom the packaging informs us was once an assistant to Paul Verhoeven) doesn't appear to have directed anything since, and his subsequent involvement in filmmaking has been relegated to technical support only.
That's a real shame, because To Play or To Die seemed to herald a bright new talent on the European movie scene, especially in light of the New Queer Cinema movement which emerged from the US shortly after this film was made, boosting the production of gay-themed movies on an international scale.
Water Bearer's non-anamorphic presentation is framed at approximately 1.66:1 and is derived from a print that's beginning to show signs of age (the faded color scheme isn't entirely an artistic choice).
The overly-large subtitles are permanent and the sound format is two-channel stereo, though the soundstage rarely expands beyond an appropriately melancholic score by Kim Hayworth and Ferdinand Bakker.
Gary Palmer (from Co.
Durham, U.K.)
Set in a Dutch boys' school, the introverted and shy Kees enters into a psychosexual battle of wills with the handsome bully Charel, the leader of the brutal gang that uses fascist sadomasochistic games to exert their power.
With Geert Hunaerts and Tjebbo Gerritsma.
Dutch with English subtitles.
59 minutes.
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