"Queer' and 'Generation Romance': a weekend of great cinema

Divided into several chapters, the film follows the relationship between the two through their Mexican days and their journey to South America in search of yage, a drug that Lee is very interested in for its telepathy-enhancing properties.

As already demonstrated in excellent films such as 'Suspiria' and 'Bones and All', Guadagnino plays very well with the more visionary register, even bordering on the horror genre in certain passages and creating a truly fascinating and highly intelligent work.

If at the centre is the theme of unexpressed desire, of abstinence not only linked to drug addiction, Guadagnino succeeds in declining all this in a poetic story that is also very romantic in its own way.  

Compared to the novel, of which this film is profoundly faithful to the spirit, Guadagnino chooses to go further, going beyond the confines of the conclusion of the source text: whereas in Burroughs the two characters fail to try the much sought-after substance, in the film the consequences of taking it are shown, causing an experience that delves deep into the protagonist's soul.

There are also references to Burroughs' notorious murder of his wife Joan Vollmer: the writer accidentally killed his beloved and, while that tragic event led Burroughs to write the novel without ever mentioning it in the narrative, there are several references in the film, especially towards the conclusion.

The ending is touching and even plays with the cinema of Stanley Kubrick: for this reason, too, Guadagnino confirms himself as a director of extreme courage and his 'Queer' is one of those films that remain with us for a long time after viewing.  

Equally relevant and ambitious is 'Generation Romance' by Jia Zhang-ke, which was presented in competition at last year's Cannes Film Festival.

The film opens in the early 2000s, telling the story of a man and a woman who love each other and enjoy life. One day, however, without warning, he leaves to try his luck far away. She then embarks on a journey to find him.

It is a film divided into three acts 'Generation Romance', which continues in 2006 and ends in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jia Zhang-ke retraces the changes in China in the New Millennium and does so with an astonishing operation in which he also retraces his cinema: in addition to footage taken in the past and never used, images from "Dong" and "Still Life", both from 2006, re-emerge, with the latter having won the Golden Lion at Venice and continuing to be the pivot on which the poetics of the Chinese author revolve, as demonstrated also by "Children of the Yellow River".

'Generation Romantic', thus becomes an emotional journey into memory, cinema and life, orchestrated by a great director who has signed one of the most important works of all those released in Italy in this first part of 2025.