Night Stage Directors Champion Gay Brazilian Cruising and Political Cinema
In a vibrant interview from their Berlin apartment, Brazilian film-making duo Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher have declared that this is "the year of gay Brazilian cruising!" The partners, who co-wrote and co-directed the new queer thriller Night Stage, spoke candidly about public sex, political film-making, and their plans for genre-bending queer horror and western movies.
A Visually Electrifying Brazilian Double Bill
Following the Oscar-nominated The Secret Agent, which featured violent interruptions of nocturnal trysts in Recife, Night Stage presents hedonists flocking to a park in Porto Alegre for open sexual encounters. Reolon, 41, and Matzembacher, 37, describe their film as a "deranged erotic thriller" that explores the tension between performance and identity through the story of theatre actor Matias (Gabriel Faryas) and mayoral candidate Rafael (Cirillo Luna).
The couple, who met at film school 17 years ago and began dating and working together simultaneously, explained how their personal and professional lives are "one big messy thing" that works for them. Their collaboration has produced three features, including the ethereal coming-of-age drama Seashore (2015) and the confrontational Hard Paint (2018) about an online sex worker.
Deconstructing the Assimilation Myth
At the heart of Night Stage is what Reolon calls "the assimilation myth" – the false promise that LGBTQ+ people will be accepted if they comply with dominant expectations. "The truth is that as soon as we're not profitable any more, we are the first ones to be discarded," he stated. "This is the journey of the characters in Night Stage. They come to see how disposable they are."
The film uses motifs of curtains and stages – both theatrical and urban – to explore how Matias must hide his personal life for a TV acting job while Rafael's political team wants his kinks kept secret. As one character observes, queers are accepted now, but only "the ones who behave."
Genre as a Mirror for Heavy Topics
Inspired by Italo Calvino's Six Memos for the Next Millennium, the directors approached serious themes through what Matzembacher described as "lightness" and genre conventions. "Calvino mentions Perseus defeating Medusa by confronting her in a mirror," he explained. "So we thought: 'OK, maybe genre could be our mirror to address these heavy topics.'"
The approach proved so successful that they are now developing both a horror film and a western, despite genre cinema traditionally being "very male and heterosexual." Reolon noted that this is shifting, citing examples like the British thriller Femme, Knife + Heart, and I Saw the TV Glow.
Porto Alegre as Femme Fatale
The southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, where both directors were born and raised, serves as the film's noirish femme fatale. Matzembacher described how the city "used to be very punk" and progressive but became more conservative in the mid-2000s, losing some of its charm. In their previous film Hard Paint, a character likened Porto Alegre to purgatory.
"We were very angry with the city, and with the country, when we made that film," Reolon admitted, referencing Brazil's political turmoil and the rise of the far right that led to Bolsonaro's 2018 election. "The city became like an antagonist." In Night Stage, Porto Alegre remains "seductive yet dangerous" – offering possibilities while potentially ruining characters' lives.
Politics as Inescapable Reality
The directors expressed strong disagreement with Wim Wenders' recent statement that film-makers "have to stay out of politics." While Matzembacher suggested Wenders might not have expressed himself properly, Reolon was less forgiving: "I think he knew exactly what he was saying. It was embarrassing to say the least."
Both come from politically engaged families – Reolon's father was imprisoned for attending Communist party meetings during Brazil's military dictatorship, while Matzembacher's father took him to protests as a child. "The whole world is living this politically intense and radical moment," Matzembacher asserted. "It's a time to understand politics are part of everything."
This philosophy extends to cruising, which they see as a practice that "puts mainly LGBT+ people in spaces that in the past were public but are now being privatised little by little." Cruising, they noted, accepts everyone regardless of age, class, or race, creating connections impossible elsewhere.
A Stylized Celebration with a Happy Ending
Despite never having cruised in Porto Alegre themselves ("Maybe we were scared to meet somebody we knew from way back"), the directors created heightened, stylized cruising scenes for the film. They shot in the city's most popular area but "not exactly where people cruise – we didn't want to spoil people's fun that night."
With crash-zooms, split-screens, and lurid colors reminiscent of Brian De Palma, Night Stage builds to what the directors describe as "the most deranged erotic climax since Cronenberg's Crash." Matzembacher added with a smile: "We wanted a happy ending. Pun intended."
The Rio cinema in east London is embracing the film's spirit with a one-night-only naturist screening, advising patrons to bring towels and not mislay their hotdogs. As Reolon hopes: "People have fun watching Night Stage." Given its propulsive energy, sexual charge, and knowing absurdity, it would be hard not to.
