Father and Son
Father and Son
Beyond Absolute Intimacy
This chapter reviews the film Father and Son (2003). At the time of its Cannes premiere, the oneiric and sensual Father and Son mostly attracted questions pertaining to Sokurov's oft-suggested but never officially declared homosexuality. From its opening scene, Father and Son seeps with a powerful charge of homoeroticism, even in the display of mundane exchanges or youthful camaraderie; it is bathed in hues that connect it to at least one major landmark of queer cinema, and it has been embraced and appropriated by the gay community. This chapter explores what the intellectual short-sightedness (or dishonesty) of the liberal media, and the curt work of denial by the director, precluded; namely an open-ended, productive reading of the queerness to be detected in Father and Son, as it relates to its other undeniable qualities: its investment with the transcendental; to patriarchal society and to power in general. It suggests that the film is inescapably a paean from Sokurov to the relationship he wished he could have had with his father.
Keywords: Father and Son, homosexuality, homoeroticism, queerness, patriarchal society, power, father
Columbia Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
