In Cinemas 11/18 DVD & VOD 12/18
Director: Steve McLean
Cast: Harris Dickinson, Johan Hauer-King, Alessandro Cimadamore, Leonardo Salerni, Raphael Desprez
Postcards from London is a world in which handsome young men embellish their sexual services for dreamy, aging intellectuals by learning to be art connoisseurs. The young men (“of age” teenagers) are dapper, "cocky little cockneys" or "continentals". They are intense about art and cavalier about sex. The desire of the older man is wrapped up in a profound love of Renaissance art depicting the perfect male form. In Postcards from London, the young male-escort of Soho honours a time-immemorial, professional living. The film claims a homoerotic tradition; the proof is in the art. It recreates the tableau of Caravaggio, bringing to life the acquiescence of beautiful young men.
"On face value, this is a liberating, mildly homoerotic film, which celebrates the history of male beauty in art, but it ignores questions of exploitation in the prostitution of youth by sentimentalising the rent-boy (“we don’t like that term”) and giving him a cute point of view (POV)."
The protagonist is an angel in looks, innocent and yet sexually at ease. His greatest desire is to be a true professional, in the tradition of the Renaissance muse. He is a pseudo-intellectual and a sex worker combined. His love of art is so profound it consumes him like a disease, because he does in fact have Stendhal’s. Harris Dickinson is perfect for the role, although despite the filmmakers’ insistence, he cannot be compared to a dark, craggy Caravaggio hero.
Postcards from London is thoughtfully constructed and purposefully stagy. It belies the world of the Soho underbelly in style and message, as if to assuage sex work.
It suggests great art validates prostitution. On face value, this is a liberating, mildly homoerotic film, which celebrates the history of male beauty in art, but it ignores questions of exploitation in the prostitution of youth by sentimentalising the rent-boy (“we don’t like that term”) and giving him a cute point of view (POV).