Virginal Young Blondes
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Virginal Young Blondes is a short film by American director Mark L. Feinsod. It was shot in 2004 on mini-DV, and has a running time of 16 minutes.
[edit] Plot
The movie opens with a shot of George W. Bush delivering the State of the Union address and cross-dissolves into a newspaper headline about the Madrid train bombings of 2004. The audio is composed primarily of a ringing telephone. A young man named John O'Hara (played by Andy Waldschmidt) is shown lying on his bed and looking depressed. The audio segues from the ringing phone to a conversation with his father wherein his father urges him to get a job and then, as if to undercut his son's confidence, offers to mail him a check. John, apparently bored, leaves the apartment, bringing the newspaper along with him.
The next scene takes place in a restaurant, as John enters and sits at the bar. A beautiful blonde sizes him up as he takes the stool next to her. After much glancing back and forth, she begins a conversation with him wherein she flatters him and, apparently mistaking him for being wealthy because he's not working and is reading the stock market section of the newspaper, tries to pick him up. John responds to her questions cautiously. She then hands him her business card, which reads "Sofia's Strip-o-Gram and Massage Service". Sofia (played by Melissa Silver) offers John a massage and a humorous exchange ensues. After he makes her laugh, she invites him to get stoned. John pays for both of their drinks, and the pair leaves.
There is a cross-dissolve to John and Sofia standing in front of a shop window, inside of which is a luxurious display of chocolates. John declares that "it's the most expensive chocolate shop in the world", to which an entranced Sofia replies, "I know". John, attempting to be charming, offers to buy them each a chocolate. Sofia, saying that she needs to check her messages, tells him to go in and pick something out for her. John, surprised, goes inside. The soundtrack then changes to that of people frolicking at the beach as John enters. As he approaches the counter, the audio again changes — this time to both an airport interior and a German voice repeating a phrase again and again. As John reaches the counter, the salesgirl wraps up two lemon-mousse finger sandwiches for him. In super-imposition, the elaborate ritual of preparing the cakes is shown. John pays a whopping $42.50 for the two treats and leaves.
In the last scene, John and Sofia sit on the Brooklyn Bridge after having gotten stoned together. Sofia then opens up to John and tells him that she used to live with her ex-boyfriend and sometimes delivered drugs for him. She describes two trips that she took — one to a college in Vermont and another to Belgium and Prague. She then tells John the story of how her boyfriend was murdered and she was raped repeatedly by the killers. When John is shocked, she insists that she's fine now, as the event took place a year ago. John embraces her awkwardly, retracts his arm hurriedly, and then Sofia tells him to call her before leaving for an appointment. John then eats the cakes.
[edit] Themes
The theme of not fitting into society and being left behind or forgotten is obviously the most prominent in the movie. John, despite seeming to come from a solid middle-class background of some kind, appears to have nothing to do during the day and no contact with anybody other than his father, whose urging of his son to get a job and then offering to send him money in and of itself manages to be both demeaning and helpful at the same time. His character is contrasted with that of Sofia, a drug dealer and sex worker whose background is far more tumultuous. Nevertheless, the two have in common that they seem to have been cast aside by society. Sofia, whose boyfriend was killed by rival drug dealers and who gives erotic massages and works as a dominatrix, appears to be completely alone in the same manner as John. Whereas John gets a call from a family member, Sofia checks her voice-mail messages and then declares that she has an appointment of some kind that she must go to (the inference is that she has to work in her capacity as either a masseuse or a dominatrix). That John's last name is O'Hara (as in the writer John O'Hara) also seems to back this up.
The movie also deals with the idea of duality or doubles. John and Sofia can be said to be flip sides of the same person — John is male and Sofia female; and John comes from a respectable background, whereas Sofia comes from the seedier side of life. John begins the movie by going from one place to another (from his apartment to the bar), while Sofia ends the movie by going from the Brooklyn Bridge to her appointment. Further confirming this is that Sofia, in fact, is played by two actresses — Melissa Silver plays her in a physical sense, while Marie-Line Grinda does her voice.
As in most of Feinsod's other work, 9/11 and its lingering memory is always present in some fashion. In Virginal Young Blondes, the movie opens with a shot of President Bush speaking at a State of the Union address on television, which is then slowly cross-dissolved with a shot of a New York Times headline about the Madrid train bombing of 2004. This then segues into a shot of John opening a letter of rejection from a company that he had applied for a job with, coupled with an audio re-creation of the New York State unemployment phone service line. Also, the last scene of the movie takes place on the Brooklyn Bridge with the Financial District visible in the background. Notable for its absence is, of course, the World Trade Center.
