The Material Boy

Paris, in a post apocalyptic future. Vampires have taken over political and social power, imposing a fashion anarchy headed by the magnificent Vlad Dracula, a widely acclaimed fashion designer and photographer. From clubs to parties, from photo shoots to fashion shows, the infamous count leads an outwardly self indulgent life with his clique of iconic vampires and pop idols.

Invited by the conductor Premil Petrovic to stage Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, a musical theater work from 1912 based on the poems of Albert Giraud, LaBruce transposed a strange and tragic episode of true crime onto the composition. Complementing the original atonal score is a narrative about a trans man who is outed by his girlfriend’s father and forbidden from seeing the young woman again. Crestfallen, the protagonist decides to prove the fact of his manhood by castrating a taxi driver and then revealing his newly transplanted member to the two of them. This story, which for LaBruce “serves as a kind of allegory for all gender radicals and outcasts driven to extremes by the disapproval and hostility of the dominant order,” is rendered in a visual style that nods to the era of Schoenberg’s melodrama. LaBruce cheekily appropriates the formal vocabulary of silent cinema with black-and-white photography, irises, and intertitles like “A cock, a cock, my kingdom for a cock!”

The performance found its inspiration between two main sources: Buenos Aires' tango at the time when it was danced amongst men, and the representation of the biblical tale of the Brothers Cain and Abel. The movie matches tango's passion and intuitive domination, following gradually the protagonists towards a real violent climax.