Buy Twisted Romance on DVD

Twisted Romance

Breaking Glass Pictures / Year: 2008

DVD

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$9.99 (60% off)
List Price: $24.99

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Synopsis

A boldly original tale of sexual power, dominance and oddly enough, love, Twisted Romance tells of the explosive relationship between a fragile young man and his volatile 50-year-old lover. Brooding teenager Raúl (Oscar Génova) and the rough-looking Roberto (Nehuén Zapata) meet and have an afternoon fling which turns sexually violent. Despite the age difference and the older man’s controlling nature, the two form an uneasy relationship. But when Raúl becomes involved with a fellow teen, the palpable sense of impending danger becomes even greater. Exploring the darker side of relationships rarely seen in contemporary gay cinema, Twisted Romance is a compelling drama capped with a shocking conclusion.

3 Reasons To buy this film

A bold, unflinching drama that's played at film festivals across the globe.
Plunges into the seldom explored territory of gay domestic violence.
The inter-generational scenes can be pretty hot if you don't mind it a little rough.

Review

Young Roberto (Nehuén Zapata) walks the streets of his dangerous Buenos Aires neighborhood day and night. He can’t really go home. His purportedly loving, but horribly neglectful mother and sister – both bartenders who know how to earn money on the side – may be hosting strange, horny men at any given time, and they don’t want Roberto cramping their style.

Roberto longs for a regular place to sleep, a little bit of stability, someone to love and to be loved in return. When he meets Raul (Oscar Génova – who looks a little like Argentina’s version of Mickey Rourke), a confident, much older man with ties to illegal firearms, it looks like some of his prayers will be answered. Raul offers his home to Roberto, inviting him to stay whenever he likes. The only problem is that Raul’s behavior is unpredictable and often a little scary. He isn’t one for romance. In numerous graphic sex scenes, he strips Roberto and violates him with little regard for the pain that he is causing – in fact, Roberto’s pain turns him on even more.

Though Roberto asks to be treated as an equal, he suspects that Raul will never come around to the idea. When he starts seeing a handsome new guy named Cesar – much closer in age and ideals – and reporting his older lover’s abuses to family and friends, Raul’s jealous and possessive side really starts to show – culminating in an unexpected act of violence.

Twisted Romance offers up a very bleak worldview – complete with hard-to-like characters who frequently behave in selfish and sometimes sinister ways. Even Roberto, who is introduced with the kind of hard knock life rarely seen outside of a Dickens novel, is difficult to empathize with. When the character do show traces of kindness, however, it proves all the more powerful given their ordinary “kill or be killed” mentalities.

Released to gay and lesbian film festivals back in 2008, Twisted Romance is just now coming to DVD in the United States. It’s easy to understand the delay. Writer/director José Campusano showcases staggeringly effective performances and a gritty, commendably realistic style, his story is a bitter pill to swallow.

-- Robert O'Neill

Product Format Information

DVD : $9.99

Availability: ON ORDER
Ships when stock arrives
Region Code: 1
UPC: 857965003313
Catalog #: DV30585203

Studio : Breaking Glass Pictures

Languages: Spanish (Primary) , English Subtitles
Aspect Ratio: 1.85, Widescreen

Customer Reviews

Love, Jealousy, Fear

Amos Lassen wrote on 07/30/2012:

We all know people who either or have been in relationships that should not have been and in “Twisted Romance”, director Jose Campusano shows us one such relationship and it does not make for comfortable viewing. That statement is not to be taken negatively because we learn from discomfort and many times uncomfortable situations carry a very strong message.

Roberto (Nehuen Zapata) is a brooding teenager who sees Raul (Oscar Genova) as a mystery. Anyone else would not have tolerated him for a moment but there is something in Raul that draws Roberto in. Raul believes in brutal sex and Roberto, instead of walking away from it especially when he sees how bad things are becoming, movies in with Raul who is in his fifties and he even introduces him to his mother and his sister. Roberto should have fallen in love with Cesar, a young man travelling through Argentina who falls for him after one night together. The problem is that Roberto is in love with Raul, a man involved in the illegal sale of guns and is violent and quite possibly guilty of murder.

The director certainly shows us the dark side of gay relationships and this is not something we usually see in the movies and certainly have not seen much of in the new queer cinema. Raul is depicted as a disgusting person and certainly not partner material. His wife had already left him and took their daughter with her. Roberto does not seem to understand the situation he is in and it is not until the end of the film that he sees Raul for who he really is.

What is interesting is that Campusano gives us a love scene between the two and it is quite bold especially due to the feelings that he makes us sense. We are not going to like Raul no matter what and no love scene could possibly change the way we feel about him. But he also does something else—he shows us the lives of those living in the poorer section of Buenos Aires and how they survive. The director filmed this with a hand held camera and then gives us a film about an unlikely and unhealthy relationship and involves Roberto’s mother and sister. There is both physical and sexual violence but we know from the title what we are going to see and yet we watch. To me, that says something about the nature and quality of the film.