Uranian Dreams: Two Homosexual Films by Eloy de la Iglesia - Altered Innocence (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Dates: Spain, 1977 (Hidden Pleasures), Spain, 1978 (Confessions of a Congressman)
Director: Eloy de la Iglesia (Both Films)
Cast: Simón Andreu, Tony Fuentes, Beatriz Rossat, Germán Cobos, Antonio Corencia, Ángel Pardo, Charo López (Hidden Pleasures), José Sacristán, María Luisa San José, José Luis Alonso, Enrique Vivó, Agustín González, Queta Claver, Ángel Pardo, Juan Antonio Bardem (Confessions of a Congressman)

Release Date: July 25th, 2023
Approximate Running Times: 93 Minutes 50 Seconds (Hidden Pleasures), 106 Minutes 33 Seconds (Confessions of a Congressman)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (Hidden Pleasures), 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (Confessions of a Congressman)
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Spanish (Both Films)
Subtitles: English (Both Films)
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $39.98

"A highly controversial film upon its release in Spain as the first feature narrative with homosexuality openly discussed, Hidden Pleasures follows Eduardo, a wealthy banker who has a pastime for hiring young street hustlers to keep his bed warm, yet ignores requests from a friend to join the social gay movements. One day while cruising around town he spots Miguel, an extremely handsome teen who has a penchant for women and motorcycles. Eduardo offers Miguel a job and eventually gets closer and closer with him. Eduardo’s building lust and the jealousy of others in their lives creates havoc for all.

Fighting for liberty, love, and your secret teenage lover are the themes of Confessions of a Congressman and our protagonist Roberto Orbea is a leader and follower of the ideals of his radical leftist opposition party, but he’s hiding a secret from the party and his wife Carmen: he can’t resist the cheap beautiful street teenagers that bad-boy Nes throws his way for various pleasures. Eventually the fascists find out about his proclivities and hire the blonde and angelic-looking Juanito to infiltrate Roberto’s life. But after a while Juanito starts to find his place with Roberto, with politics, and even with Carmen. With the elections fast approaching all three members of this strange throuple will have to decide how much they’re willing to lose to avoid revealing the truth." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3.75/5 (Hidden Pleasures), 3.5/5 (Confessions of a Congressman)

Hidden Pleasures and Confessions of a Congressman come on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 45.8 GB

Feature: 19.8 GB (Hidden Pleasures), 22.5 GB (Confessions of a Congressman)

No information is provided about the sources used for these two film transfers. That said, the source is in good shape, and any source imperfections are minimal. The source used for Hidden Pleasures is the stronger of the two transfers; flesh tones and colors look correct, the image looks crisp, black levels are serviceable, and compression is very good. Though the source used for Confessions of a Congressman has many of the same qualities that Hidden Pleasures Transfer has, there are a few moments where the quality noticeably drops. Also, there appears to be some digital filtering of the image.

Audio: 4/5 (DTS-HD Mono Spanish - Hidden Pleasures, DTS-HD Mono Spanish - Confessions of a Congressman)

Hidden Pleasures comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in Spanish and removable English subtitles. Confessions of a Congressman comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in Spanish and removable English subtitles. Both audio tracks sound clean, clear, and balanced. Range-wise, they do a great job with ambient sounds, and scores are well-represented.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer for Confessions of a Congressman (3 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Spanish with removable English subtitles), a video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas titled Smiling at the Door: Eloy de la Iglesia's Hidden Pleasures (14 minutes 35 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with non-removable English subtitles for Spanish language film clips), a video essay by Lee Gambin titled Sex Post-Franco: The Queer Sensibility of Eloy de la Iglesia (11 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with non-removable English subtitles for Spanish language film clips),  and a slipcover limited to 1,000 units.

Other extras are trailers for Pals (Colegas), Altered Innocence Volume 2, Dressed in Blue, and The Hole in the Fence.

Summary:

Hidden Pleasures and Confessions of a Congressman were both directed by Eloy de la Iglesia, whose other notable films are The Glass Ceiling, The Cannibal Man, No One Heard the Scream, and Murder in a Blue World. He is also known for his work in the Quinqui film genre.

Hidden Pleasures: An affluent bank manager attempts to seduce a straight teenage boy, and he fears that his secret sexual life will be exposed when things go awry.

Confessions of a Congressman: A closeted gay congressman who is married to a woman is targeted by fascists who threaten to expose his secret affair and derail his political ambitions.

It is not surprising that Altered Innocence paired these two films; they both share the main theme of a homosexual man whose fear of his sexual life will be made public. Also, both protagonists are older men who seek out sexual encounters with much younger boys. And both protagonists have a strong female influence in their lives: Hidden Pleasures’ protagonist Eduardo’s ultra-religious Catholic mother and Confessions of a Congressman’s protagonist Roberto Orbea’s wife, who is aware of his secret life and even at one point embraces it.

Hidden Pleasures and Confessions of a Congressman are obviously personal films about director Eloy de la Iglesia, a gay man who most likely faced some of the things that happened to the protagonists in these two films. Though some of his earlier films, notably The Cannibal Man, have a hint of homosexuality in them, it was not until the passing of dictator Francisco Franco that Spanish cinema was very conservative, and topics like those explored in Hidden Pleasures and Confessions of a Congressman would have been forbidden.

From a production standpoint, Hidden Pleasures and Confessions of a Congressman are both well-made films. Their premises are superbly realized, and well-executed narratives do a great job building momentum. Also, both films feature unforgettable endings that linger in your mind. In the case of The Hidden Pleasures’ ending, a freeze frame finale sees a protagonist overcome with joy, while Confessions of a Congressman’s bittersweet finale is on the other end of the spectrum.

The most surprising aspect of Hidden Pleasures and Confessions of a Congressman are the performances, especially the actors who portray the protagonist in each film. Hidden Pleasures’ protagonist Eduardo is portrayed by Simón Andreu (The Blood Spattered Bride), and Confessions of a Congressman’s protagonist Roberto Orbea is portrayed by José Sacristán (Navajeros).

Great cinema is about films that hold your attention and make you want to return to them again and again. With Hidden Pleasures and Confessions of a Congressman, Eloy de la Iglesia has made two phenomenal films whose powerful stories transcend any audience boundaries.

Uranian Dreams: Two Homosexual Films is a first-rate release from Altered Innocence that comes with strong audio/video presentations and a pair of insightful extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer