The Prince Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

The Prince Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson July 14, 2020

Note: THE PRINCE contains significant male frontal nudity and some female frontal nudity as well. Viewer discretion is advised. This review also drops some spoilers.

The French novelist and playwright Jean Genet incorporated the autobiographical characters of homosexuals, male prostitutes, and thieves into several of his writings, such as Our Lady of the Flower, Querelle, and The Thief's Journal. In 1950 Genet directed the black-and-white short, Un Chant d’amour (1950), a homoerotic tale of two men who try different means to communicate with the other in spite of being separated by prison cell walls. Genet has had several of his plays and writings adapted to the silver screen, including Vic Morrow's Deathwatch (1966), Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle (1982), and Todd Haynes's Poison (1991). While not overtly adapted from a specific work by Genet, Chilean art director Sebastián Muñoz's directorial debut The Prince (El Príncipe) is nonetheless influenced by Genet's characters, themes, and preferred setting (i.e., the prison). A wobbly flashback structure and some ineffective characterizations hold Muñoz's film from succeeding as well as it could have.

The movie opens shockingly with a man's throat slit and a small pool of blood on the barroom floor. Jaime (Juan Carlos Maldonado) has committed a crime of passion seemingly because his slain friend, El Gitano (Cesare Serra), would rather sleep with a woman than with him. Jaime actually feels freer inside the cells of a San Bernando prison that he does in the outside world. Muñoz and his co-scribe Luis Barrales explore (erratically) the sexual identity issues Jaime struggles with prior to his sentencing. Jaime is placed in a cell with four other men, including its patriarch, Potro (Alfredo Castro). The latter is known as "The Stud" and "The Stallion." While he's gruff, demanding, and sadistic, he also has rapturous charisma. Potro tosses El abandonado (Sebastián Ayala) out from the lower bunk so he can sleep with Jaime. This culminates in a rape that's emotionally wrenching for Jaime and yet, the two later form an amorous bond. In the other cell sits the ring leader, Che Pibe (Gaston Pauls), who does not like Potro. Che also has an even younger boyfriend in Dany Rucio (Lucas Balmaceda). I thought this relationship dynamic worked better than the one of Jaime and Potro. The sweet and handsome Dany develops a crush on Jaime, who tries to repress his desire for Dany out of possible retribution if Potro finds out.

The Prince and The Stallion.

Muñoz and Barrales have made some additions to the rare novel by Mario Cruz that the film is based upon, with sociopolitical undertones being one example. The Prince is set against the backdrop of the last days of Salvador Allende when Chileans still had esperanza. While the filmmakers show the sadomasochistic side of the prison guards, they also depict a kind of queer utopia in the prison cells. (It isn't clear if all the inmates are queers, though.) The depiction of such an open homosexual prison culture was unlikely during the 1970s, which lends The Prince with a "presentist" portrayal.

The Prince's central weakness is that Potro is neither sympathetic or likeable, which is the fault of the screenplay and not actor Alfredo Castro. The movie's progressive queer politics work better when it focuses on the romance between Che and Danny. Editor Danielle Fillios's intercutting of flashbacks slows down the rhythm of the present section. There's also a lot of the Freudian mirror stage with Jaime's character, which portends his budding narcissism. The film does a commendable job of demonstrating his maturity and growth into manhood. The Prince was the recipient of the Queer Lion award at the Venice International Film Festival.

The Prince Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Artsploitation presents The Prince in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25. (Fortunately, they didn't press it on a BD-r this time.) It's transferred with a mean video bitrate of 26285 kbps, which is a healthy encode. The picture looks sharp even amidst the grimy prison walls. The inky blacks were immediately apparent to me. The movie is often extremely dark with little to no fill light (see Screenshot #s 12, 13, & 18). Festival prints displayed a veneer of grain and there's some noise reduction applied here. Still, I'll grade the video a 4.25/5.00.

Artsploitation provides ten chapters for the 96-minute feature.

The Prince Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Artsploitation supplies a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (448 kbps) and a downsampled mix, which is rendered as a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (448 kbps). I'll still don't know why the label can't do lossless mixes. I concentrated primarily on the 5.1 mix. I had to turn the volume up when characters mumbled. Composer Ángela Acuña's score receives a good balance across all speakers. Heard in the film is the song, "Ansiedad" (or "Lamento"), which was originally sung by Nat King Cole. The center channel focalizes the music prominently. My audio score is 2.75/5.00.

The white optional English subtitles display in a relatively large font.

The Prince Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (16:07, 1080p) - three excised scenes: "meeting" (8:11), "gypsy" (3:28), and "foal" (4:28). Each is an extended sex scene trimmed from the theatrical release. They can be played individually or accessed with a "play all." In Spanish with English subtitles.

• Interviews (6 mins., 1080p) - EPK interviews with actors Alfredo Castro, Gastón Pauls, Juan Carlos Maldonado, and co-writer Luis Barrales. Cast members deliver self-sketches of their characters; Barrales talks about transitioning into screenwriting and director Sebastián Muñoz's ways of working. In Spanish with English subtitles.

• Bonus Previews - Artsploitation trailers for Animals, Benjamin, Dead Dicks, and Death in Buenos Aires.

The Prince Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Prince's narrative goals are only haphazardly achieved and I found the pacing inconsistent. For Genet-inspired cinematic works, you may want to look at Fassbinder's Querelle, which Svet reviewed here, or check out the very good DVD package that Zeitgeist Films did of Haynes's Poison, which is still not available on HD. You may also consider Artificial Eye's upcoming release of Moffie. Artsploitation presents a very good transfer, average lossy audio, and a few extras on a mediocre Blu-ray. RENT The Prince first before considering any purchase.