Beach Party Blogathon: Italian Film ‘Il Compleanno’, in English – ‘David’s Birthday’ (2009)

It’s pure Sex on the Beach. Not literally, but the seascape, south of the Italian Riviera, beckons and seduces, the cast, along with the audience, into it’s balmy bright waters. The premise of the entire movie is a lusty seaside adventure, set in the stylish holiday resort, away from the Côte d’Azur.
A Quick Synopsis
On the beach strip, below Mount Circeo, four friends (two couples), are on a summer vacation. Then the son, of one of the couples’, shows up, which stirs up repressed desires, in the husband (a father himself – of a little girl) of the other, seemingly, more happily married couple.

The Two Couples on the Beach Holiday: Played by (L-R) Maria de Medeiros, Massimo Poggio, Alessandro Gassman & Michela Cescon

The Beach Birthday Party    
David (played by Brazilian born, model & actor, Thyago Alves), a college student, studying in the states, joins his parents, Shary (Michela Cescon) and Diego (Alessandro Gassman), on their beach holiday, in Italy, to celebrate his upcoming 18th birthday, with them. His parents’ close friends, Matteo (Massimo Poggio) and his wife Francesca (Maria de Medeiros), are vacationing with them. Matteo, has known David, as a child, and even carried him in his arms. But when they meet now, David is all grown up, with a well sculpted physique to match. It’s lust at first site for Matteo, and he’s dying to see the, already, half naked, birthday boy, in his complete birthday suit, to it’s entirety.

The Seductive Beach
The movie starts off with the four friends at the Opera, watching Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, a tragic opera, set within the backdrop of the ocean. This beginning, itself, hints at the premise of the movie, in relation to ‘forbidden love’, and it’s consequences.

Thyago Alves in Il Compleanno (2009)

Soon the son arrives, and we start seeing the seeds of the, so called ‘forbidden love’, in this scenario, take root. The character of David, the college student, who also happens to be an underwear model (much to his father, Diego’s, dismay), is mostly seen walking around shirtless. Which only adds to the seduction of poor Matteo. Added to which the camera loves this shirtless wonder, just as much as the scenic Italian beaches. Both beautiful, yet could be tragic, if one ventures in too deep. The scene where Matteo is walking in the beach, unaware that David has gone for a midnight swim, is pure seduction. The dark midnight blue waters are mesmerizing, and out comes a wet David, all of a sudden, like a Greek god, a young Poseidon himself. The scene is spot on, sexualising the ocean, as a lusty element. The ocean is mostly showcased in the day time, in the sizzling heat; thus the wet Adonis figure, emerging onto the beach in the middle of night, adds to the fizz of the sizzle. Especially as Matteo is enamoured, by this, perfectly sculpted, statuesque beauty, akin to Michelangelo’s ‘Statue of David’.

The climax scene (pun intended); with Matteo and David, finally breaking out of their sexual repression, and getting intimate; and the tragic Operatic ending; killing off an innocent; is heart rendering. This sequence, of impending doom, is perfectly shot, with Wagner’s music in the background. In the finalé, the camera zooms onto the glittering ocean, just before the credits roll in.
Il Compleanno (2009), is a visually stunning movie, capturing the beauty of the ocean. With it’s purple hues in twilight, to the midnight blues, sizzling and sexual, and the golden waters under the setting sun. There is no real significance, as such, of the representation of the ocean, to go into deep analysis, here; but the picturisation, the cinematography, how the seascape is filmed, is just breathtaking.

A beautiful Italian movie, set in an equally beautiful Italian beach resort.

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense

Beach Party Blogathon (June 2015) 
This post is my second, & final, entry for the Beach Party Blogathon, organised by Ruth of Silver Screenings and Kristina of Speakeasy (See my first entry, Beach Party Blogathon: The Significance of ‘The Beach’ in Hitchcock’s REBECCA (1940), from earlier this week)
Il Compleanno, might not be the best gay themed movie ever, but it definitely is still a brilliant piece of the cinema. I watched it some years ago, online. And I didn’t really get a chance to see it again. But the excellent shots of the sea, remained in my memory, enough to work on this post.
A Big Thank you, once again, to Ruth and Kristina, for letting me be part of this interesting Blogathon. Enjoyed it to the utmost.

Cheers
Nuwan Sen