Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Other gay-themed movies
Impish:
I just watched "Longtime Companion" last night. I hadn't seen it since it's initial theatrical release in 1990. Longtime Companion was historically important because it put human faces on the AIDS epidemic for mainstream America.
This is a top-notch film in terms of production values and performances. It's an in-depth examination of the AIDS epidemic and its effect on a group of friends. It's sad, but the end has a big pay-off that's cathartic. It feels really good to cry in the last scene.
When I first saw it 16 years ago, I knew only one actor in the large ensemble cast, Bruce Davison (who turns in one of his best performances ever). It's really neat to discover that the I now recognized the other "unknowns," who had gone on to successful careers:
Campbell Scott
Mary Louise Parker
Patrick Cassidy (mostly TV)
Dermot Mulroney (who will appear in the upcoming "Zodiac" with Jake G.)
Stephen Caffrey (mostly TV)
and several other character actors ... I recognized their faces but couldn't name them.
This is a truly fine film.
Brown Eyes:
OK, I'll help out in the lesbian film department. I'll keep adding to it as I think of things...
Aimee and Jaguar (about a lesbian culture and a tortured romance in Germany during WWII... based on a true story)
Better Than Chocolate (classic but not very good, in my opinion)
Bound (awesome, awesome, awesome)
But I'm a Cheerleader (silly ... but fun and features Ru Paul out of drag!)
Chasing Amy
Claire of the Moon (classic, from the '80s and so dated that I can hardly stand to watch it)
Desert Hearts (not my favorite)
Gia (Angelina Jolie anyone?)
Girl Play
Go Fish (not my favorite, but very famous)
Fire (a film from India, which is beautiful and amazing... and was incredibly controversial, as one might imagine, when it was released in India)
High Art (lovely and based on the biography of a real artist)
The Hours
The Hunger (not the most *positive* depiction of lesbians... but *hot* nonetheless... plus it has David Bowie in it... always a plus for me)
Imagine Me and You (very recently in theaters)
The Incredibly True Story of Two Girls in Love (silly, fun, a bit teeny-bopper and really like Sixteen Candles or Pretty in Pink for lesbians)
Lost and Delirious (good and sad)
Monster
Saving Face (about Chinese American lesbians, very recent)
My Summer of Love (very recently in theaters)
***
Not really films but BRILLIANT
The BBC has been making Sarah Waters' wonderful lesbian novels (they truly are wonderful) into very high quality mini-series. I truly recommend checking these out... they're on DVD of course.
Tipping the Velvet (awesome, awesome, awesome)
Fingersmith (awesome, awesome, awesome)
Impish:
Wow, I knew about only a few of these. Thanks!
I recently watched the only lesbian film in my collection, "The Children's Hour" with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, from (openly-gay) Lillian Hellman's play.
Written in the 50's, the play is very dated and it's maddening how the sterotypes are presented. Of course, the lesbian must die in the end... such a bummer.
On the one hand, it does show the evil of homophobia, because it's about how lives are ruined by just the accusation of homosexuality. On the other hand, the homophobia is presented as "normal" and I doubt viewers in the 50's and 60's would "get it."
I own it because it was historically important in gay cinema, and because it was a movie I would watch on TV as a child, an example of the kind of thing gay youth were exposed to in those days.
Brown Eyes:
Heya Impish,
Good call on The Children's Hour. I forgot to mention that one. Also The Haunting (the original good version) has a lesbian character and in many, subtle ways is about lesbianism (also not probably the most *positive* depiction).
Impish:
Yes, I own the 1965 version of The Haunting and also the book it's based on, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House.
In the book, Theo's sexuality is a teensy-weensy bit more overt than in the movie.
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