I find the scene from The Brown Bunny in which Vincent Gallo encounters Cheryl Tiegs at the rest stop is a throwback to the gay cruising scenes.
A newspaper I was reading had a list called “The Top 10 Gay Films” or something and one of them was Celine and Julie Go Boating. I re-watched it the other day to see if there was something I missed and I still don’t think that it’s a gay film. The intimacy between the two women is palpable but to me it seemed like a Boston marriage situation more than a lesbian relationship. It was showing how intimacy between women has a hard time fitting into the heterosexual world. Any thoughts?
@ Liz:
You should just dive in – there’s a lot of crap out there, but a lot of great films as well, and I think a lot of the films mentioned here fall into that latter category. I have the same set of issues – I think much of what you would find in the Gay and Lesbian section of the local indie vid shop tends towards stuff that simply replaces antiquated stereotypes with a more postmodern variety of stereotype, and I think a lot of rather popular things – like Queer As Folk (which I couldn’t stand) or films like Latter Days are very very guilty of. But you will discover a lot of gems and really creative films as well.
Not a fictional feature, but I’d recommend Dangerous Living, which is a documentary which focuses on coming out and activism in non-western nations; various gay and lesbian activists from Egypt, Brazil, Namibia, Jamaica, Guatemala, India, Uganda, Vietnam, Fiji, The Philippines and a few other places I believe discuss mostly personal history; some of those folks have been driven into exile elsewhere in the world. It’s not a creatively innovative documentary (and there’s a bit too much voice-over; I would have preferred seeing more extensive inteviews with the varied individuals, who are all fairly galvanizing figures), but it’s very eye-opening in other ways. There are a lot of perspectives in the interviews that I would like to see more gay and lesbian feature/indie filmmaking tackle.
I met Fassbinder only once at a party thrown by the New York Film Festival when “The Marriage of Maira Braun” premiered. He was there with Hanna Schygulla (they very cutely bowed in unison from the box when the film was over) and obviously on his best behavior. I heard he hit the leather bars later that night — and no surprise there.
I wouldn’t call “Celine at Julie vont en bateau /Phantom Ladies Over Paris” a gay film excatly but it’s defintiely queer.
Some of my favourite films from last year should qualify:
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (Auf der anderen Seite) (2007) – Fatih Akin
CHANSONS D’AMOUR ( Love Songs) (2007) – Christophe Honoré
The already mentioned LES TEMOINS (The Witnesses) (2007)- André Téchiné
I also agree with those who have praised his L’HOMME BLESSE (1983) – It has one of the most erotically charged scenes I’ve probably ever seen on film.
YOSSI & JAGGER (2002) – Eytan Fox – “Romance blooms between two soldiers (Knoller, Levi) stationed in an Israeli outpost on the Lebanese border.”
THE STICKY FINGERS OF TIME (1997) – Hilary Brougher – Best lesbian time-travel movie ever! A hidden gem.
One of the most exuberant, joyful experiences I’ve ever had watching “gay life” onscreen is an unappreciated British TV program(me) entitled “Metrosexuality”. Its glossy surface, attractive cast, edits and score, even the costumes and hair-styling combine mightily to create a world that just about anyone would love to inhabit. It’s the heart, though, the scenario that resonates; gay parenting of straight teenagers that gives all that eye candy a soft, nougat center.
The double-disc DVD could be OOP, I don’t know; but with its bountiful supplements, it’s a rare treasure.
@ David
You know, Fassbinder was always very open and even confrontational about being gay, but at the same time, because of the pre-liberation time when he grew up, I think he also had an inevitable shame about it, which surfaces in his self-destructive relationships and in his attraction to sadomasochism. Or maybe his ambitions to be the Goethe of cinema required of him that he not label himself or not give up on the idea that he could or should conquer women as well as men. And yet, I’ve always felt that this gives a sort of expressive tension to his art that is more fascinating than if everything had been “settled” for him. That sense of people struggling with something, something that they are going to lose. It definitely doesn’t make one feel good all the time to watch his films; characters like Petra von Kant and Fox and Franz Biberkopf and Veronika Voss learn such hard lessons again and again. But I guess I believe the real world is close to his conception of it, in that we usually can’t have it all, or even any of it, and that he honors these characters by taking their struggles seriously. I worry that as society becomes more and more tolerant (and this is really more wishful thinking in some ways, because we certainly aren’t anywhere near being there yet), but let’s say as gay characters become more and more commonplace, they also become sillier somehow, less serious, less like Joan of Arc and more like Joan Rivers. (okay, that was really a bad reach, lol.) But it’s like we always need that institutionalized opposition, that harsh fate, to protest against. I don’t know, what do you or others think?
Un Chant D’Amour by Genet (as many others have already suggested) is definitely worth seeing. Genet is also one of the greatest writers of all time (and i do not like to use superlatives when it comes to art, but wow, the lyricism and narrative prose of his work are astounding).
We have suggested some other Todd Haynes films, but how about Poison, which actually Genet’s Querelle (which Fassbinder made into a film) inspired part of and so that might be worth seeing.
Cocteau might be worth mentioning. EH, anyway let me go and look at my movies…
Mysterious Skin is by far the best ‘gay’ cinema i’ve ever seen
The movies of Todd Haynes (Poison, Velvet Goldmine and Far from heaven)
My summer of love (Pawel Pawlikowski)
Beautiful thing (Hettie Mc Donald)
Beau travail (Claire Denis)
“Lost and Delirious” remains one of the very best films I have ever seen. It was directed by the Swiss-Canadian lady, Lea Pool. Tragically, I’m not gay (my cross to bear) and this film sincerely helped me empathize with and sympathize with and understand young gays – teen lesbians, in this case. Or possibly they don’t want sympathy. Please check this film out. It wasn’t understood by American audiences – that’s Mr. Ebert’s view, not necessarily mine, and it was aired on HBO at 5 a.m. Saturday mornings, and billed as some kind of soft-core porn.
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, along with Fassbinder’s lesser known films, I’ve always enjoyed. It explores the relationship between an arrogant fashion designer and a model she takes under her wing. The drama is pretty heavy-handed, but the exploration of sexual identity and control provides for an interesting case study of a tumultuous and dense relationship, I don’t know if it’s my favorite Fassbinder, but it might be after a few more go-arounds.
Moderated
Forgive me if any of theses have been mentioned already, I have read the entire post, but I’ve also just had a couple glasses of wine. Alfred Hitchcock’s ROPE comes to mind as well as THE CRYING GAME, WONDER BOYS, THE HUNGER and the fantastic WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING.
As for Cronenberg’s CRASH. I don’t think there this one counts. Remember these are people turned on by automobiles. I think they would have got off regardless who they were with. That was kind of the point of the film. Sex and cars. It wasn’t the mechanic, it was the steering wheel.
I see your point Strawdawg about Crash but I think what Cronenberg is saying in that film is that these people have opened a gateway through which they polymorphous-perverse themselves, so to speak. As Vaughn says at one point, it’s not about car crashes at all, it’s about benevolent psychosis or benevolent anarchy. My reservation is still that Cronenberg seems to regard most of the sex as pathological behavior leading to violence — we’ve talked about his puritanism on another thread. It is a kind of horror-Frankenstein film, after all.
I was recently at a film screening covering Queer San Francisco 1970 – 1980. They showed the following:
Dyketactics (Barbara Hammer, 1974) 4 minutes, 16mm
Ronnie (Curt McDowell, 1972) 7 minutes, 16mm screened on video
Holding (Constance Beeson, 1971) 13 minutes, 16mm
The Place Between Our Bodies (Michael Wallin, 1975) 33 minutes, 16mm
Multiple Orgasm (Barbara Hammer, 1977) 10 minutes, 16mm
Loads (Curt McDowell, 1980) 22 minutes, 16mm
This following is what the Film Love website wrote which I’ll quote here as I haven’t really consolidated any thoughts or feeling, observances.
“Ranging from tender to political to obsessed, each of these San Francisco filmmakers represents sex on screen as a revolutionary act. Barbara Hammer’s pioneer 70s films brought explicit lesbian sexuality to audiences, while Curt McDowell’s direct, brutally frank filmmaking style culminates in Loads, a notorious filmed diary of his anonymous sexual encounters, and Ronnie, a humorous and affecting portrait of a straight hustler who will switch teams if the money’s right. Coni Beeson’s Holding documents the intimacy of a young lesbian couple at the beginning of the Women’s Movement, while Michael Wallin’s The Place Between Our Bodies explores the filmmaker’s search for emotional (and sexual) connection in the cruising atmosphere of mid-70s San Francisco. "
There was a second night which focused more explicitly on The Cockettes but unfortunately I couldn’t be there. Looked intriguing though.
Tree, Your Sap Beats Gently Against Mine Brittle Jam (Michael Kalmen, 1969) 19 minutes, super-8mm screened on video
Palace (Syd Dutton and Scott Runyon, 1971) 23 minutes, 16mm screened on video
Tricia’s Wedding (Sebastian, 1971) 33 minutes, 16mm
Elevator Girls in Bondage (Michael Kalmen, 1972) 56 minutes, 16mm screened on video
“Pansexual, psychedelic, and covered in glitter, the fabulous Cockettes were a cross between hippie commune, radical political theater troupe, and the best secondhand costume department in the world. Only 1970 San Francisco could have produced them. Back in the spotlight as the subject of a celebrated 2002 documentary, the Cockettes’ reputation as the anarchic heart of Gay Liberation (and as a fashion influence!) continues to grow.
This program of extremely rare short films (some courtesy the private collection of Cockette archivist Rumi) shows San Francisco’s legendary Cockettes in full anarchic bloom. In Tree, we see the twenty-year-old future Cockettes founder Hibiscus, along with troupe member Rumi Missabu in a naked, comic dance at Land’s End. Palace, the only known film made during an actual Cockettes performance, documents the backstage and onstage goings-on at the group’s only Halloween show, Les Ghouls.
The hilarious and highly politically incorrect Tricia’s Wedding is the Cockettes at their outrageous best. The 1971 White House nuptials of Richard Nixon’s daughter provided perfect satirical fodder for the group. Characters include Mick Jagger, Indira Gandhi, Mamie Eisenhower, and Prince Charles. Disco diva Sylvester portrays both Coretta Scott King and Mahalia Jackson. Eartha Kitt spikes the White House punch with LSD, and the resulting group orgy does not disappoint. Meanwhile, Marxist revolutionaries, along with perverts of various stripes, are skewered with inspired silliness in the political/sexual satire Elevator Girls in Bondage. In her greatest role, Cockette Rumi leads a striking group of hotel workers, “spouting a surreal mix of folk songs and Marxist maxims.”"
I didn’t know that about Sylvester.
All Over the Guy (2001)
Aimee and Jaguar (1999)
Wonder Boys (2000)
Lianna (1983)
Doña Herlinda and Her Son (1986)
Law of Desire (1987)
“Ronnie” is really wonderful. It’s one of my favoirte of Curt’s movies. Just a very sweet hustler talking about (and demonstrating) his work for a few minutes.
What of Madchen in Uniform (1931), Louise Brooks dance scene in Pandora’s Box, and also Looking for Langston?
All quite nice.
“Looking For Langston” is extra-cinematically important as the Hughes estate tried to have it banned. African-American homophobia never sleeps.
Really?- the Hughes estate, not unsleeping homophobia bit i mean. You’re a fountain of information. I thought it was quite a bold striking film, should be better known generally, but i guess homophobia would make it hard to be part of mainstream consciousness.
I’m just surprised no one has mentioned Chantal Akerman’s Je, tu, il, elle.
It would indeed Kenji. Hughes gayness is something black America works night and day to cover up.
Chantal’s quite a character, and “Je Tu Il Eelle” (in which she stars) shows what she’s like in bed.
A very crowded bed.
Brother to Brother is another very good movie.
Hi, you should perhaps also check out the emerging queer films from India – www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/R3GKGEQ8VJS1QI
They offer a glimpse behind the closet of the Indian LGBT community which is still in the closet – due to a legal law that criminalizes homosexuality as well as lack of social acceptance due to the taboos and patriarchal norms.
The Pink Mirror
Yours Emotionally!
68 Pages
Happy Hookers
My Brother Nikhil
This page has been amazing and I’m going to check out some of the films mentioned above.
Off the beaten path:
By Hook or by Crook – Dodge/Howard
Fire – Mehta
Saving Face – Wu
Happy Together – Kar Wai
Finn’s Girl – Cardona/Colbert
I would very much like to see “No Dumb Questions” and its sequel. The first film is an interview with three little girls, sisters, whose uncle is having a sex change. The film explores children’s questions about and interpretation of gender.
The sequel was made a few years later, interviewing the same girls and seeing how their relationship with their “new aunt” developed.
Sorry this doesn’t directly answer the thread question (seeking characters in fiction films), but I just finished watching FALL FROM GRACE from Netflix, and the documentary is a pretty stunning examination of the intensely homophobic Westboro Baptist Church. The whole organization just exhibits a surreal level of hatred, and once you learn that the majority of the congregation is directly related to the pastor, it’s a bit like watching the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.
Justin Biberkopf
It’s true, Fassbinder had very bad luck with men, or they with him perhaps. It’s said that none of his lovers was as intelligent as he, so he got bored with them. Salem probably would not have ended up in prison if Fassbinder hadn’t broken up with him, but then Salem apparently had a problem with getting violent when he drank whisky. Poor Armin. In Germany in Autumn, we see how Fassbinder kind of bullied him. Armin even calls him “bully” as a pet name: “Is Bully upset?” But then, they’re living in this really strange apartment with the walls all painted black! It’s like the perfect setting for a suicidal depression.
I think Fassbinder could stand a lot more negativity than most people. He once claimed he had watched Visconti’s The Damned more than thirty times, as if just for entertainment.
Did you ever meet Fassbinder at a festival or screening? I’ve heard he could seem very strange at times, but also that he has rather shy.