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| El Principe never dives too deep into any of its' characters, though that doesn't in any way detract from the film's potency. Here Danny El Rucio (Lucas Balmaceda) admires himself and El Principe in a broken bathroom mirror. |
El Principe is an Arthouse Film with Real Heat that Shows Gritty Life on the Inside
Desire. Power. Jealousy.
These 3 words nicely sum up the themes of El Principe (The Prince) a 2019 Spanish Prison movie that's written and directed by Sebastián Muñoz.
We begin with Desire. The main character Jaime (El Principe) has been imprisoned in a 1970s' era Chilean Jail for a murder in cold blood. Jaime (Juan Carlos Maldonado) is revealed to us in broad strokes as a narcissist who wishes to be famous. Yet for some reason I still felt sympathy for him as a viewer.
Our first meeting with El Principe takes place when he is checked into his new cell by the Prison's guards. He is sized up by El Potro (Alfredo Castro) in a way that any gay man will quickly recognize. The emotions playing out through El Potro's facial expressions are captured in a long shot. Jaime is obviously physically attractive and takes pride in his appearance.
Being his cell's top dog, El Potro naturally claims Jaime as his own, giving the boy proper clothes to wear and showing him the workings of his new home.
Power comes next. In the Prison's insular world there is, naturally, a pecking order. The guards have power over the inmates. Larger, older, physically stronger inmates have power over the younger, weaker and inexperienced ones. And their choice of the most attractive. Naturally.
There are also power struggles among the inmates themselves. El Potro's rival is Che Pibe. As played by Gastón Pauls he is a gay man with flair. Some would call it an effeminate side. Che Pibe has a way of dressing and moving, a certain style, that El Potro lacks.
Che Pibe has his own boy, Danny El Rucio (Lucas Balmaceda). In a very sexy shower scene Che Pibe uses Danny as bait to lure El Principe into a threesome. Here El Principe really shines. The creative team behind the movie understand male desire, and the games and machinations that often come with it.
There is real affection between Danny El Rucio and Che Pibe in this scene. It's a joy to watch. Equally interesting is El Potro's reaction when he catches Danny, Che, and El Principe in the shower doing what men do.
So we enter Jealousy. Which, as we'll learn, has just about everything to do with why El Principe ended up in Jail to begin with. Jealousy is also at the heart of a fatal brawl between Che Pibe and El Potro. Che Pibe covets El Potro's cat, Plato. When Che's feud with El Potro escalates, he decides to hang the cat outside of El Potro's cell to send a message.
In flashbacks we learn that our title character's Jealousy over the affections of a fellow traveler during a drunken night out lead him to kill the object of his affections with a broken Beer bottle. Hence his current lodgings.
By the film's end it is El Principe who has become the top dog in his cell. Danny El Rucio is now his boy.
While El Principe never dives too deeply into the development of any of its characters, the movie succeeds by using the themes of Desire, Power, and Jealousy to tell the story. It doesn't hurt that the principal characters are all attractive men, each with a potent individual aura.
The eroticism and depth of feeling in some of the scenes makes this the best gay movie I've watched in quite some time.
For those who have been a bit starved for affection because of the pandemic, and for those lucky enough to have someone to warm a bed with, this movie is an enjoyable hour and a half of escapism.
Here's hoping that 2021 brings us out of our current situation and lets us live loud and fabulously once more. And since the number 21 is connected with Luck, Risk, and taking chances, I figure why not.
It's something to bet on.
The shower scene is memorable.
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