Young, handsome bin man, Sergio (Ricardo
Meneses) is the protagonist in the 2000 Portuguese-made film O Fantasma by João Pedro Rodrigues. The
film resembles an intimate fly on the wall documentary, with the use of
handheld camera as Sergio is seen roaming the streets of Lisbon both during his
job as a waste collector and in his free time as he stalks his prey in search
of his next sexual victim.
The title O
Fantasma (The Phantom) seems fitting as Sergio, who lives alone in an empty,
banal apartment, haunts his city alone at night. Moreover, shot mainly in the
dark of the night, each scene including interactions with other characters is
followed by various others of him in his solitude, or with Lordes, his company
mascot, hiding as he haunts his objects of desire, only being seen when and if
he wishes it.
Extra care is also taken in highlighting
Sergio’s animalistic nature in line with his apparent “ghostliness” through
exaggerated scenes of violence and sensuality such as sniffing the crotch of
those he’s interested in, like Fatima and the Policeman, and marking his
territory by peeing on the bed of a man he has taken to be his sexual prisoner.
This, along with his self-isolation, creates an abjectified character, one who
struggles to understand social norms and instead flouts them, deliberately
choosing to detach himself from others and live as an outsider alongside Lordes.
Sergio’s lustfulness and homosexual promiscuity
further amplify his abjectification – the scenes of him strangling himself whilst
masturbating in the shower and soliciting sexual relations with male strangers
in public spaces – and further displays his slow descent into a more primal and
animalistic being, far from the normal
humans around him.
For the average Western viewer, a film of this
nature would undoubtedly provoke anger, confusion, even disgust. However, winning the prize
for Best Feature Film in the New York Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, implies
that a sexually provocative film is what director Rodrigues wanted. By the end
of the film, as Sergio takes to the streets in his gimp suit we sense a loss in
his human identity, he embraces his solitary and animalistic nature and assumes
his self-abjectification, a role in which he appears more than comfortable. From
a personal point of view, Rodrigues succeeded in his intentions with the film.
For a picture that so closely denotes a week in the life of a gay porn star,
Sergio’s obsession with sexual violence, and domination within it, becomes as
captivating as it is confusing, so much so that the viewer is forced to ask the
question: “Honey, how did you get this way?”
