Favorite feature films about lesbigay peopleJun 29 '01 (Updated May 17 '02) Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Blu-ray and DVD Players
The Bottom Line More about that by lesbigay people...
Although this was my originally announced topic for the recent gay/lesbian resistance and culture writeoff that I nominally cohosted with Ed Grover (who did most of the work), until I decided to list documentaries, I found it difficult to see what I had to add to the lists already posted by eplovejoy, hashal, and psychovant (all of whom also contributed to the writeoff) and now supplemented by janesbit's. Plus, I'm not sure what a "gay film" is. Most(all?) of the documentaries are gay and lesbian in that they were made by lesbians and gay men as well as being about them. Feature films about lesbians and gay men seem to be made mostly by straight directors, and gay directors mostly don't make films about gay topics (John Schleisinger is the mainstream exception), so I'm less sure what "gay film" means in regard to feature films. I tend to agree with Hasan's friend that the only title that needs to be on the list is "All About Eve," though I'd expand the list of indispensable films for gay references to include "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane," gay director George Cukor's version of "A Star Is Born," and "The Wizard of Oz": two Bette Davis vehicles, two Judy Garland ones. (Because George Sanders is already represented, including "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" is optional.) Having concocted a list of documentaries, a genre other list-makers eschewed, seems to have unblocked me from listing "feature films": What I think are the best films about lesbians (in alphabetical order) are: Boys Don't Cry (although more properly a transgender film) But I'm a Cheerleader Chasing Amy Desert Hearts Fried Green Tomatoes (though considerably desexualized from the book) Go Fish High Art Lianne Maedchen in Uniform Personal Best I think that my favorite gay male movie is the Mexican "Doņa Herlinda y su hijo," a hilarious fantasy (fairy tale?). The Japanese film "Okoge" is very moving and illuminates two aspects about which I have written extensively: (1) the difficulty of securing a space for gay relationships, and (2) the will not to know, particularly that one's child is gay. It helps that both these films show some very attractive men. Ang Lee's "The Wedding Banquet" (1993) is also quite funny, and is similar to "Doņa Herlinda" in showing family acceptance that seems too good to be true (in contrast to the wistful ending of "Okoge"). The 1994 Australian play adapted to the screen "Sum of Us" (directed by Kevin Dowling) with Russell Crowe as a gay son of a father who amusingly overshoots acceptance is quite good and deserves a wider audience. "My beautiful laundrette" (1985 ), directed by Stephen Frears (who also directed the excellent "Prick Up Your Ears") from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi (author of "My Son, the Fanatic" and "The Buddha of the Suburbs") also has a happy ending after much familial (a Pakistani emigrant family's) opposition to Omar (the sleekly gorgeous Gordon Warnecke) partnering Johnny (a punkish young Daniel Day-Lewis) in business and bed (or on a table). The laundrette they fashion is also a fantasy facility, but is an amusing one. The two lead characters sizzle amidst racial/economic resentments of a decaying London. (I have lifted this description with permission from hashal's list) Jon Shears' edgy and at times hallucinogenic "Urbania" (2000) is carried by Dan Futterman's wounded and dangerous Charlie, superb performances from all its cast. Shears adapted his stage play to film on less than a shoestring budget. It is a very dark and anguished film in which catharsis does not come easily, but does come eventually. I seem to be one of the few people who remembers or who liked "Making Love" (directed by Arthur HIller), the 1982 "first mainstream Hollywood movie about gay men." Having Wendy Hiller play a neighbor would probably have sufficed to make me like it, but I thought that Harry Hamlin as the out gay man, Michael Ontkean as the married man who falls in love with him, and Kate Jackson as the hurt and perplexed wife were all convincing. (I identified with Kate Jackson.) Another (pinkish?) "triangle" movie that seemed to me honestly to portray the frustrations of loving a bisexual man was John Schleisinger's (1971) "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" with Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson both in love with a lithe sculptor played by Murray Head. Plus Peggy Ashcroft is on hand. Head was not as accomplished an actor as the others and/or was playing something of a cipher. (Schleisinger also made "Midnight Cowboy" which I loathe, and "The Lost Language of Cranes," which I like.) I think that the Merchant-Ivory film of E. M. Forster's long-suppressed novel Maurice, is quite good. The happy ending seems to me to work better on screen than on the page, and the doltish James Wilby breaking loose from social expectations is fascinating to watch (as is the smarter character played by Hugh Grant locking himself up in a sham marriage). There are very, very few films about adult gay men for whom coming out is not a problem. Family is a problem for Martin Donovan's character in "The Opposite of Sex" (1998, directed by Don Roos), though it is a member of a younger generation (Christine Ricci) not siblings or parents who poses the problems. This is the funniest film about the depredations of straight people on gay people of which I know. What is most memorable about "Parting Glances"(1986) is not the gay couple whose relationship is in trouble, but their friend with AIDS, played by Steve Buscemi. All too memorable is that writer-director Bill Sherwood dies of AIDS soon after making this superb film. The couple who are supposed to be the focus (John Bolger and Richard Ganoung) are less memorable than Buscemi and Kathy Kinney. Although somewhat desexualized, I think that Julian Schnabel's film of Reinaldo Arenas's memoir Before Night Falls is brilliant and compelling cinema. See my epinion on the book at http://www.epinions.com/book-review-5124-2A23DBBF-3996D164-prod5 and the film at http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-2F38-316A3E8F-3A57AA80-prod2 His homosexuality was a problem for the Cuban government, and he faced considerable persecution, but family acceptance did not preoccupy him as it does many of the characters of most of the films on this list. Honorable mentions: Gods and Monsters (1998), especially Ian McKellan Breaking the Code (1995), especially Derek Jacobi Law of Desire (1987) in Spanish Tortured Love (1986) in Thai (see Hashal's epinion on the latter two; epovejoy's list reminded me of "Breaking the Code") &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Other Stuff: For the interesting contributions to the g/l culture and resistance writeoff, see http://mynook.com/writeoff/?WID=1 The other postings on best g/l film are all interesting, but I want to plug my list of documentaries about g/l people at: http://www.epinions.com/content_1754701956 and, while I'm at it, my list of the best anti-epic films: http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-283D-E0FE49F-398B6FFF-prod1  |
| Read all comments (10)|Write your own comment |
|
Ads by Google
|
