Enjoyment Can Wait: announced as the explosive film of the Venice Film Festival, whose 81e edition will end on Saturday, September 7, Queerby Luca Guadagnino, with Daniel Craig in the role of a gay man under the influence of drugs, is just a more or less well-oiled machine. Adapted from the book of the same name by William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), written in 1952 and published only in 1985, this feature film in the running for the Golden Lion – twenty-one films are in competition – is devoid of originality: its story is literal, its image clean, and Daniel Craig appears a little tense in his linen suit with hat, like those worn by Burroughs.
Because the novel by the Beat Generation writer is largely autobiographical: in Mexico, Lee, in his forties, drags his malaise into gay bars, seeks to satisfy his desire for young men. He has a passionate but thwarted affair with Allerton (Drew Starkey) with whom he will leave for the Amazon to find a very specific plant, the yagé, known to promote telepathy.
Daniel Craig, labeled for more than fifteen years as agent 007 (of Casino Royalein 2006, at Dying can waitin 2021), takes on the role of this weakened man here, even if the hero of Queer shares with James Bond an immoderate love of weapons. Burroughs himself was a complex being, a scholar who frequented criminals, a married man who killed his wife unintentionally, playing William Tell: he aimed badly and the bullet went into his wife’s head instead of hitting the glass that was placed on top. The tragic episode is transcribed in Guadagnino’s film.
Too explanatory
This is also one of the faults of Queer : it is too explanatory. From the first shots, everything is pointed out to us in a scholarly manner, the guns spread out in Lee’s room, the full ashtrays, but also the stains on the bedspread of the brothel, where the first sex scene takes place. On this shot, don’t expect anything exceptional, except for beautiful pairs of buttocks, and also this erotic moment where Daniel Craig “bites” a penis through a well-formed pair of underpants. It goes without saying, Queer is eligible for the Queer Lion, the LGBT award of the Venetian festival.
Paradoxically, this drama under substances does not really seek to make us feel the character’s wandering: Queer favors action, except for one or two scenes of reverie, such as this naked woman’s body without legs. Daniel Craig is almost always on the move, with the narrowed eyes of a wanderer: he enters a bar, orders a drink, and comes out, in search of flesh. But the streets smell of fabrication, we don’t believe for a second that he’s walking, and the warm, permanent light gives the impression that it’s always the same time. The staging is highlighted by conquering music, the story is divided into chapters so that we don’t get lost. By dint of guiding the spectator, Guadagnino loses him and empties his imagination.
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