Presentation of the restored version of this cult but little-seen Spanish film which, despite its homoerotic disruption, slipped through the cracks of Franco’s censorship. Over the years, the film’s rediscovery has affirmed its importance for its contribution to the history of Spanish musicals and its representation of a non-normative sexuality. In Different, we follow Alfredo, a bon vivant who rejects the precepts of his wealthy family at the same time as they reject him. A eulogy to the pleasures of queer extravagance.
Alfredo (Alfredo Alaría – the name coincidence demonstrates the self-reflexive dimension of the film, since as well as playing the lead role, Alaría was also the co-writer and responsible for the film’s choreography) is the ‘hedonistic’ and ‘eccentric’ son of a wealthy and conservative family. His love of theatre and dance leads him to hang out with ‘bad company’. Diferente is an extravagant queer musical set in Francoist Spain. Littered with homoerotic innuendo (sometimes not very subtle), the film stars an ostentatiously gay character whose desire is represented with no moralistic overtones, and yet it still managed to escape censorship (“not a single frame was taken away, not one. The first person to come out of the screening was Father Benito, who exclaimed: ‘It’s the first artistic film I’ve ever seen in my life!'” recalled director Luis María Delgado years later). Critic and film programmer Olaf Möller described it in Sight and Sound magazine as “a camp film avant la lettre made on a generous budget. It’s eye-popping. It’s mind-blowing. It’s unique. It’s a true pioneer.” (Ricardo Vieira Lisboa)
