Luca is not about being gay, it's about platonic male friendship, director Enrico Casarosa confirms. It's sad that men aren't allowed to have close, sensitive friendship without a subset of the fans making them gay. This is unhealthy and denormalizes male friendship.

The kids being monsters is a metaphor to feeling different, being outsiders. Anyone can connect with this. If the way you connect with this theme is through being LGBTQ+, it's completely valid, but the film is about male friendship.

On the subject of Luca, this is what director Enrico Casarosa had to say:

The idea for the movie came from Casarosa’s childhood and his own friend Alberto (who he honored by giving Luca’s friend the same name). The two were an unlikely pair who ended up having the best friendship. “My best friend Alberto was a bit of a troublemaker, [while] I was very timid and had a bit of a sheltered life — we couldn’t have been more different,” shared Casarosa. “We were also a bit of ‘outsiders,’ so it felt right to use sea monsters to express the idea that we felt a little different and not cool as kids,” he laughed. “Alberto pushed me out of my comfort zone, and pushed me off many cliffs, metaphorically and not. I probably would not be here if I didn’t learn to chase my dreams from him,” he said. “It’s these types of deep friendships that I wanted to talk about in Luca, and that is what’s at the heart of this film.” Other influences on the movie include old Italian myths and folklore, including tales of dragons and the story of a bell-ringing octopus that saved a village from a band of pirates. “Some of these tales were actually made up by fishermen. They’d find a great fishing spot and they didn’t want anyone to take it over,” explained Casarosa.

The movie's message is about acceptance and openness with one self. Anyone can identify with these themes, that's why the movie's message is so wonderful (just saw it today, it's beautiful).

In addition to friendship, this movie’s message about acceptance — for yourself, as well as others — is a valuable one, particularly in current times. Producer Andrea Warren, who was drawn to the movie right away after learning the storyline, expanded: “We always liked the idea that the metaphor of being a sea monster can apply to so many different things. There is a theme of openness, showing oneself and self-acceptance, as well as community acceptance. Confronting the idea that there's more to sea monsters than they realized. You know that they've only seen it through one perspective, one lens, and so I think that that's a wonderful theme in the film, which is that those ideas weren't right and that there's more to learn.” Casarosa agreed: “We hope that ‘sea monster’ could be a metaphor for all [manners] of feeling different — like being a teen or even pre-teen — any moment where you feel odd. It felt like a wonderful way to talk about that and having to accept ourselves first, whatever way we feel different.”

Gay people especially can identify with these themes so at a thematic level it's all there. There's no need to change the actual platonic, close male friendship depicted on-screen. Luca and Alberto are not gay, and are not meant to be gay, they're close friends.

I think it's unhealthy that every time two men are boys are shown to have a close, sensitive friendship, a subset of the fans will immediately make them gay. This tells men that they can't have emotional connection to other men unless they're gay and feeds into the stereotype that all gay men are sensitive and emotional. It's harmful to both sides.

In a Yahoo interview, upon being asked if Luca and Alberto are gay and if he was inspired by Call Me By Your Name, the director said pretty clear:

“I love Luca’s movies and he’s such a talent but it truly goes without saying that we really willfully went for a pre-pubescent story,” Casarosa laughs. “This is all about platonic friendships.”

Submitted June 19, 2021 at 01:56AM by gloopygarb https://ift.tt/3gNGsfT