In recognition of Cinequest, now underway, here;s a gem from the 2020 Cinejoy virtual fest. Erotic Fire of the Unattainable is the captivating study of a free spirited woman of a certain age and her relationships. Gay (Gay Walley) is a NYC author in her 60s who has a boyfriend, but there are other men available to sample; she’s had a history of struggles in trying to find a guy who is the best fit.
Her relationships are all asymmetric – either she loves the man more than he loves her, or he loves her more.
We don’t see many movies about the romantic lives of women of a certain age, but assessing the relative appeal of lovers is a universal quandary. Unless you have lucked into the Ideal Partner (like I have with The Wife), there are trade offs.
As the actress Gay Walley says about the character Gay, “She is a free spirit. All the men come with strings. She clearly wants to be with someone but she can’t take the strings.”
Director Frank Vitale works in his own form of cinema, docufiction – “people playing themselves in stories that relate to their own real lives”. He casts non-actors and their friends, who act out stories that spring from their own real life experiences. His star, Gay Smalley, gets the screenwriting credit. Smalley, who in real life has published a novel entitled Erotic Fire of the Unattainable, plays the author Gay, who has penned a book of the same name.
He may use non-actors, but there’s nothing amateurish about Vitale’s filmmaking – Erotic Fire of the Unattainable looks great. The cinematographer is Niav Conty, who directed another Cinequest/Cinejoy gem, Small Time.
Erotic Fire of the Unattainable twas my favorite discovery at Cinequest’s 2020 online festival CINEJOY. Erotic Fire of the Unattainable is now streaming on Amazon (included with Prime) and YouTube.