a single man

30/Lode

A single man - the directorial debut for Tom Ford, formerly known as fashion designer and creative director for Gucci. Handsome, charming, mysterious. Successful, brilliant, talented. Millionaire. Homosexual. Was his movie expected to be good? I don’t think so. Was it good? Yes, indeed.
A single man is a tragic love story. Not a gay love story as many might say. It is a story of love between two men indeed, but that’s not the point. The point is the feeling of love. And the terrible pain after the loss of the one you loved. And these are the emotions we are all familiar with, no matter if we are homo or heterosexual.
Is it a personal movie? I do believe so. However, it’s neither a spectacular coming out, nor any kind of manifestation of sexual belonging, since it’s been known from the very beginning of his career that he’s homosexual. Also he’s in a long-term relationship with his partner, a fashion journalist, Richard Buckley. But it’s personal, or maybe intimate, because it’s a story about true love between two people and this kind of feeling, despite all appearances, doesn’t happen very often and, luckily, happened to Ford.
The other reason of its importance for the director is that it bases on a book he was deeply touched by while reading it in the early ‘80’s and in which he, probably, found some elements of his own life story: A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. As Ford says, he was moved by its honesty and simplicity. Furthermore, he realized that although it was about a gay affair, it had, in fact, an universal meaning.
Ford was lucky or famous enough to have one of the best actors willing to participate in his project: always brilliant Collin Firth (who was awarded Copa Volpi for Best Actor performance in Venice), enchanting Julianne Moore and amazing Mathew Good. What a great team, isn’t it? But, still, even with such marvelous actors it’s easy to make a disastrous movie. What matters is the screenplay. And this was Ford’s task (along with David Scearce). And did he deal with it?
Let’s start from the statement that A Single Man is a masterpiece. Now, it’s also, along with Ang Lee’s Brockback Mountain, the best movie ever made that concerns homosexuality. It’s simple but overwhelming. It’s severe but intense. There’s no controversial, and meant to shock the audience, gay love scene. There’s no tacky dialogue. Emotions and sorrows, tears and gentle laughs- these aren’t fake at all. While watching A single man you can, actually, somehow experience the truth. There’s no faking.
Well, sometimes less means more, and who could know it better than a fashion designer? But from now on, Ford shouldn’t be related to the fashion industry only. I’m a firm believer that he’s already got an important position in the world cinematography. Because A single man is, simply, a very good movie. And there’s nothing more to add.
 

12:09:2009

pubblicata originariamente in venezia.66