Beauty and the beast

It’s a thought many a gay man has entertained at one point or another: what if I’d never been brave enough to come out? What if, instead of living as an openly gay man, I’d found myself trapped and repressed, suffering through a loveless marriage?

South African writer-director Oliver Hermanus tackles the topic head-on in Beauty, screening in June at the Sydney Film Festival.

Hermanus’ deeply repressed anti-hero Francois (Deon Lotz) follows his secret desires first to grubby sex sessions with other unhappily married men, then to a twisted, ultimately violent obsession with Christian (Charlie Keegan), the charismatic adult son of family friends.

It’s a shocking film in many respects, from the jarring, graphic depictions of gay sex to the fact that Hermanus has chosen as his protagonist an emotionally stunted sociopath. Did he ever consider shifting the focus of the story away from Francois?

“It definitely all started with Francois,” Hermanus told the Star Observer down the line from his home in Cape Town, ahead of his Sydney visit to introduce both screenings of Beauty.

“My previous film [2008’s Shirley Adams] had as its main character a woman who was a victim and had been wronged by society, and I felt like it was too easy for me as a director to get the audience to sympathise with her. The intention with this film was to generate a character who’s far more complicated and harder to like.”

It’s a testament to both Hermanus’ direction and Lotz’s quietly sorrowful performance that audiences find themselves by film’s end sympathising with, rather than loathing, Francois.

“He’s representative of a generation in this country who were, in some way, also victims of the system. I try to portray that, without using it as an excuse to justify his violent actions.
You can never say someone is completely bad or completely good — the truth lies somewhere in between those two.”

As Hermanus explained, Francois and his middle-aged ilk find themselves trapped between the old social divisions of South Africa and the progressive attitudes of a new, more enlightened generation.

“He definitely falls into a generation who are a bit like dinosaurs in post-apartheid South Africa. They just can’t seem to shake their sense of fear and dread around integration and reconciliation.

“It doesn’t mean all younger people are integrated and comfortable in their own skin, but they’re definitely less likely to be hindered by all that baggage.”

Much of what makes Beauty so powerful is down to the incredible performances by Hermanus’ two leads. He said he met with “just about every major South African actor” for the role of Francois, as he searched for someone who could do the part justice.

“It was hard to find an actor who wasn’t afraid of the character and the script,” he said.

“Deon instantly connected with the human element of Francois — that deep-rooted sense of longing that’s at the very base of the character.”

As for Keegan? The man is gorgeous, and perfectly cast as the object of Francois’ romantic obsession.

“We were trying to find a face everyone would fall in love with. Charlie had been in a TV show in South Africa, and he had loads of teenage female fans. When I offered him the role, I warned him, this is not the sort of film that’s going to attract loads of screaming fans.

“But he was very ready to do something like that. He was very brave.”

While Beauty is a dark tale, it could be argued that the film’s ultimate message is positive: be honest with yourself, lest you wind up as dangerously, violently repressed as Francois.

“If you avoid yourself, if you lie to yourself and everyone around you, you just end up being the product of your lies and completely alone,” Hermanus said.

“In the end, Francois realises that the construct of his life that he’s spent so long protecting is completely unimportant. The country has moved on and there’s nothing to be afraid of any more.”

INFO: Beauty, Sydney Film Festival, June 10, 11, Event Cinemas, George St.http://sff.org.au/