Longing, The (Saudade)

By: Raymond Murray
In-House Review - Jun 27 2006

Set against the spectacular backdrop of a sun-splashed Brazilian beach town and infused with a variety of pulsating music (German hip-hop, Brazil pop, techno), German producer (Latin Boys Go to Hell, Hustler White) Jürgen Brüning's first directorial effort is this tale of romance between a blond German tourist troubled by a terrible secret and an innocent Brazilian youth. Erik (Hendrik Scheider) is vacationing with two German friends in an opulent beach house owned by the father of one of them. They spend their days snorkeling, lounging about, eating, watching Brazilian soaps and, when the mood strikes them (and to make a few bucks), making R-rated love in front of a live webcam. Erik's mindless days come to an end when a sexual tryst on the beach becomes violent, ending in the death of his nameless trick. While agonizing over the incident, Erik ? a muscular beauty ? meets Miguel (Aldri D'Anunciaçao), a fresh-faced young man and TV actor. The two fall in love but Erik's secret and intensifying guilt begins to haunt the relationship. A sensual, yet ominous drama of youth, desire, love, cross-cultural tensions and fate. (English, German and Portuguese with English subtitles)

By: Amos Lassen

"THE LONGING"
Brazil is for Lovers
Amos Lassen
"The Longing" is further proof of how far gay cinema has progressed. The movie has everything going for it' beautiful and masculine actors who can act, a literate script, beautiful photography and great music. Above all, it has a wonderful love story and while watching it you can feel the love with which it was made.
It is a tad melodramatic but then so is reality. It may exploit Brazil as a gay paradise but so what, it is a gay paradise. It may have some touching moments but so do we ?almost everyday of our lives and it may be a bit of a soap opera but isn't that what life is?
Good-looking muscle-bound Erik (Hendrik Schneider) and two of his good-looking muscle-bound friends from Germany arrive in Brazil to enjoy a vacation and spend days snorkeling and cruising and just lying around. They settle into an opulent beach house. When they run out of money, they even make a few web cams. Erik has a secret which he holds inside. Something happened after a wild night of sex on the beach when the trick he was with lost his life to violence which Erik feels he could have helped to stop. Suddenly, good looking Miguel, a Brazilian TV actor appears and he and Erik fall in love but Erik and his private guilt plague the relationship.
With only a brief smattering of frontal nudity, "The Longing" s a beautiful and sensual drama of young men in love and is one of the sexiest movies I have ever seen and the sex is not explicit. The subjects of youth, desire, love, cultural diversity, tension and above all love are the elements included in this beautiful film.
There are very few places in the world that can offer such a lush background for a movie of this nature. Brazil lends its beauty and the music that pulsates throughout the film is just what the movie needs. The musical background is the music of the life of the characters and as we are swept up into their lives, we are swept up into the music/.
If I have to give one minus, it is to the dubbing which at times was distracting but I found that as the film progressed it bothered me less.
If any of you miss this film, you will miss not just a film but an experience for the senses. Buy "The Longing", rent it, borrow it but see it. It has been one of the highlights of the end of the year and will likely remain one for the year to come.

By: Tempestuous Journey

I could do without the musical interludes between the scenes. I would have added more plot with the blonde and his trick before the death scene. It would be more interesting for me if they had a stronger connection and were more involved with each other and the death scene could have been more like experimental sex gone wrong. Then dating the brother would have been more awkward, especially if the mother already knew the German blonde before the introduction . By the way, the web camera scenes were not R rated. The review was misleading. I didn't find this film to be that erotic and sexploitation was at a minimum. However, I did appreciate the story and I was glad that I watched it. I kind of liked the German and Portugese rapping, even though I'm not a real big fan of rap.

By: Dreamlover

It seems that Marty is a bitter wretched queen who just enjoys spewing negativity as a normal lifestyle, I found the film very original, exotic and the brunette in it was very sexy, it is not perfect I agree but as a first attempt it is a valiant and courageous try.

By: marty