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Author Topic: Group LGBT June Marathon  (Read 13849 times)

saltine

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Re: Group LGBT June Marathon
« Reply #40 on: June 05, 2016, 01:05:21 PM »
God, that quote is a 100 years old.  (Still feel the same though.)
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Re: Group LGBT June Marathon
« Reply #41 on: June 05, 2016, 02:16:53 PM »
While a number of the films on the list are indeed very good, there are enough that I've seen that make me go "this is the best we've got for LGBT cinema?"

Here's a question, which films would you recommend as LGBT Essentials?
Here's my Top 25 (actually 26) based on the way it handles LGBT issues and not the overall quality of the film itself.

1 (A&B). The Times of Harvey Milk/Milk
2. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
3. The Celluloid Closet
4. The Boys in the Band
5. Paris is Burning
6. Victor/Victoria
7. And the Band Played On
8. Pride
9. A Single Man
10. Boys Don't Cry
11. Longtime Companion
12. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
13. Mysterious Skin
14. XXY
15. Show Me Love
16. Blue is the Warmest Color
17. Poison
18. Brokeback Mountain
19. Velvet Goldmine
20. Cabaret
21. Heavenly Creatures
22. Bound
23. Death in Venice
24. Love is Strange
25. Carol


I think that makes an excellent checklist for anyone looking for a recommendation.
I haven't seen Weekend yet, though I see that on a lot of lists.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2016, 02:38:43 PM by 1SO »

Bondo

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Re: Group LGBT June Marathon
« Reply #42 on: June 05, 2016, 05:22:18 PM »
Well, from the Bondo Collection there is (italics are on the expanded BFI Flare list):
Shortbus
Leave It On The Floor
Show Me Love
Brotherhood
XXY
Water Lillies
Boy Meets Girl
Skallamann
Gun Hill Road
3 (Technically any threesome has LGBT ramifications)
Ma Vie En Rose
Saved! (I think the side-story is sufficient to include this)
Say Uncle
Pariah
The Cherry Orchard
Weekend
Prodigal Sons
No Bikini
Breakfast on Pluto
Rent
Far From Heaven
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Boys Don't Cry
But I'm A Cheerleader
All About My Mother
Chasing Amy
Fire
Priscilla Queen of the Desert
The Crying Game
The Times of Harvey Milk
Victor Victoria
Kinky Boots
C.R.A.Z.Y.
The Ballad of Little Jo
Tangerine

When you incorporate the larger list, it actually looks better. There are another 5 or so that aren't quite Bondo Collection films but I really like that were on the Flare list.

Beavermoose

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Re: Group LGBT June Marathon
« Reply #43 on: June 05, 2016, 10:40:16 PM »
Scorpio Rising anyone?

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Re: Group LGBT June Marathon
« Reply #44 on: June 05, 2016, 10:56:57 PM »
I love Scorpio Rising, but I don't know how well it works as an introduction to LGBT cinema. Like A Song of Love (Un chant d'amour) by Jean Genet, it's a film packed with homosexual iconography, but including them is like including Top Gun.

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Re: Group LGBT June Marathon
« Reply #45 on: June 06, 2016, 11:16:50 PM »

The Killing of Sister George (1968)
"Not all women are raving bloody lesbians, you know."
"That is a misfortune I am perfectly well aware of!"


Quote
While The Boys in the Band is a gay movie made by a gay man (not Friedkin, but Crowley) with gay people and for gay people (it used to be a play on Broadway), Sister George is a straight movie played by straight actors for a straight audience, and pretending to portray the life of lesbians as it is but failing miserably.

I wanted to give this film the benefit of the doubt because director Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?) is usually pretty solid. He was attempting something pretty daring for the time, a portrayal of a lesbian love triangle on screen. He actually goes one step further into dangerous waters. Rather than a positive lesbian relationship, this one is full of abuse, hatred and unhealthy dependency. So it skips past progressive and takes these lesbians into the realm of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I'm very conflicted because portraying the three women in such a negative way by a bunch of straight people and a straight, male director ends up casting an offensive filter on ALL lesbians. There's a scene in a lesbian bar where everyone appears to be having a good time and enjoying each others company, but most of the film is focused on this miserable, mean-spirited trio. I'm not surprised this became an example of the movies getting it wrong, especially with melodramatic, theatrical touches like the clothes and props you see in the image above.

The real reason for my dislike of the film is that it's too boring for me to care about the controversy. Had the dialogue been less dry and the scenes not been so endless, I might be in a position to say it's not as bad as its reputation, just misjudged and a little misguided. The Boys in the Band is also based on a play, but it brims with life and energy. The harsh criticisms are bounced around by flesh and blood people. Maybe that's the real failing here, being lesbian is just another theatrical device.
RATING: * 1/2

pixote

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Re: Group LGBT June Marathon
« Reply #46 on: June 06, 2016, 11:48:25 PM »
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane is the more essential gay film in Aldrich's filmography.

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1SO

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Re: Group LGBT June Marathon
« Reply #47 on: June 07, 2016, 12:15:21 AM »
You bring up an interesting point that supports my theory that Aldrich didn't intend the harm his film caused. With Baby Jane the two female leads are sisters. Without the lesbian label, Aldrich can take his destructively symbiotic female relationship into full blown horror. 6 years later, Aldrich tries some of the same technique, but ends up creating a negative stereotype.

The same year as Sister George, Aldrich released another film along these lines, The Legend of Lylah Clare. (Even the titles are similar.) This stars Kim Novak as an unknown actress driven insane when she's cast in the biopic of a former star. The trailer has a moment of lesbianism that's presented like a horror movie beat, which supports the idea that Aldrich was damaging to the lesbian community.

Bondo

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Re: Group LGBT June Marathon
« Reply #48 on: June 07, 2016, 10:49:37 AM »
Teorema (1968)

So the Catholic Church condemned this film for its sexual content, yet I "condemn" the film for coming off as prudish. Pasolini of the 1970s was one of the rawest directors going, but apparently he had to work up to it. Teorema has all of the sexual themes of the later works with little of the passion. A young, god-like stranger (Terrence Stamp) appears at the estate of a wealthy factory-owning family and through the tool of sex assists each member of the household work through an issue. It is an appealing testament to love in its most visceral form. But the way it is depicted doesn't capture anything revolutionary. The most notable example is when the bored mother decides to strip and lie in wait for the man to happen upon her and see her. Throughout the film scene, the film shoots in such a way to avoid actually showing anything. It isn't just that I find nudity (and there is some in other places) to be often potent, it's just that when the effort to avoid it feels intentional, it is distracting.

This is one of those films that I'd like to see remade, but less toned down and subtle.

C

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Re: Group LGBT June Marathon
« Reply #49 on: June 07, 2016, 02:12:27 PM »
Takashi Miike remade the film. It's called Visitor Q and as you can always count on from Miike, it's quite unsubtle.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2016, 05:10:15 PM by 1SO »