Poly Movie Review - Farinelli (aka. It's Not Poly If...)

[joreth]

OK, look, I totally understand wanting more polyamory in art and pop culture.  It serves two purposes:  1) We can use it as a resource to help explain polyamory to people and to make people feel more comfortable about polyamory when there are visible examples of what it is.  And 2) common art and culture helps bring people together and fosters a sense of belonging and community, especially when the dominant culture is so opposed to their own subculture.  Hearing all those popular songs on the radio about the One True Love and I'll Never Love Anyone Else Again Forever can feel intimidating, exclusive, and even insulting, so having songs with lyrics like "I love you, I love you, I love you too" is comforting.  I get that, I really do.  And I agree, I would like to see more polyamory in art and pop culture.

But please, please, PLEASE do not pad the lists of movies, songs and books with any old piece of media that happens to have someone engage in sex with more than one person at a time just to feel better about our lack of poly culture.  It does no one any favors.  A really long list is actually intimidating in its own right because it makes it hard to choose when there are too many options.  And when people take you up on your recommendation and watch a movie or read a book on your list, only to discover it's about cheating or is a morality lesson about non-monogamy being bad, that kinda defeats the purpose of having the list in the first place, unless your list was created for the purpose of giving polyamory a bad name.

The reason for my request is because I'm adding yet another Do Not Watch This Movie to my poly movie reviews.  At least, don't watch it for poly content.

I received a movie from Netflix that took me half the movie to figure out why I put it on the list in the first place.  It didn't fit into any of my usual movie interests, and that alone should have suggested it was from a poly list somewhere.

The movie is called Farinelli, and it is a foreign film about a castrated male opera singer, based on a true story.  The reason it got put onto a poly list is because, since Farinelli was castrated, he makes out with his groupies to the extent of his abilities and then passes them off to his brother/manager to finish the job.  That's the deal, any girl who swoons over him gets to make out with him, but then has to fuck his brother - no exceptions.

There was nothing about love in this movie, but an awful lot of co-dependence, self-loathing, and resentment (which, I suppose, actually does represent an awful lot of relationships, poly and otherwise).  The two brothers are royally fucked up.  Farinelli was a boy soprano who witnessed the suicide of another castrato who, just before plummeting to his death, warned Farinelli not to let them castrate him too.  So he quit singing at the expense of his brother's career, who was a mediocre composer who only composed for Farinelli.  Shortly afterwards, their father died, and soon after that, Farinelli took on a devastating fever.  The older brother, having no future or job prospects without his younger brother's singing voice, took the opportunity to dope him up with opium and have him castrated, later claiming it was the result of a surgery from a horse accident and was the only way to save his life.

Now, as adults, the brother desperately rides Farinelli's coattails as his voice shoots him to stardom in spite of the crappy scores his brother produces.  Women are conquests and a source of reminded pain - that the older brother can't get anything without his younger brother's help, including women, and that Farinelli is not a complete man - his voice being the result of his incompleteness and that which brings him the women that remind him he is incomplete.

Eventually, one of Farinelli's groupies manages to insinuate herself into his life long enough that she's around when the brothers have a massive falling out and don't speak for 3 years after Farinelli discovers the truth about his castration.  She attempts to take the brother's place as Farinelli's keeper and manager.  There is never any indication of whether he actually loves her or not, but she doesn't seem to mind that Farinelli's sexual performances are lacking.

Finally, the brother (whose name I can't remember, which is why I continue to call him "the brother") comes back, they have a big fight, but when the brother attempts to commit suicide, the groupie nurses him back to health.  At one point, he wakes, and he finds his old dressing gown near the bed.  He used to walk into his brother's sexcapades wearing the dressing gown, would disrobe and hand it to his brother when they tag-teamed a girl, and then Farinelli would put it on and sulk in the corner while the brother finished what he had started.  So, rising from his sickbed with bandages still on his wrists, the brother puts on the dressing gown and wanders into Farinelli's bedchamber.

There, he finds Farinelli making out with his groupie (wife by this point? No one ever says).  The brother strips, Farinelli moves over, and the brother fucks the groupie.  The difference this time, however, is that Farinelli doesn't go sulk in the corner, he remains on the bed and holds the girl's hand as they gaze into each other's eyes while she gets fucked by the brother, who is largely uninvolved for all the action he's giving her.  He is completely out of the shot, this is a sex scene between the groupie and Farinelli in spite of the fact that it's the brother doing the fucking.

The final scene is the brother riding away and Farinelli gazing adoringly at and rubbing the very pregnant belly of the groupie, with some voice over about the two brothers being complete, each one doing what the other can't.

So, basically, you have two very fucked up brothers who use women for their own pleasure and insecurity, who eventually find peace with each other by using one as a brood mare to compensate for each other's failings.  You could possibly argue that the final impregnation was an act of love between 3 people, which is how this movie got onto a poly list in the first place, but even if we accept that argument at face value, it was the final 10 minutes of a 2 hour movie that had nothing to do with polyamory even with several threesome scenes.

So, maybe you should watch the movie if you like incredibly dysfunctional artist biography-dramas, but don't watch it thinking it will be a movie about polyamory, a movie that shows polyamory in a healthy light, a movie you can show to other people to explain what polyamory is, or a movie to make yourself feel more a part of an inclusive subculture.  Because it's not.

Comments

[spirit-genocide.livejournal.com]

what movie(s) would you recommend that do handle poly well (i.e., more realistic to the truth of the nature of poly relationships)?

[joreth]

If you click on the tag "reviews (movies)", you'll get my complete list of movies I have personally watched and reviewed and what I thought of them.

Also, I have started a list of poly-ish movies that are movies I personally vouch for as being "poly-ish". The list continues to grow as I watch more movies, the reason for its brevity is only because I am including movies that I have actually seen and not taking someone else's word that they are poly movies. Those movies should almost all have a review here on my LJ.

[joreth]

Beware, though, I give spoilers in my reviews, so if you don't want them, then just visit the Netflix list & rent the movie without reading my review. If I thought it was crap, I don't put it on the Netflix list.

[spirit-genocide.livejournal.com]

excellent...thank you for these lists =)

[joreth]

Hey no problem! I voluntarily expose myself to shitty media so that you don't have to ;-) LOL