My favorite gay movies

[Front-Ranger]

I don't think anyone has mentioned Billy Elliott yet but that is one of my favorite movies. Would it be at home here?

[JCinNYC2006]

Kerry your list is great, I'm stealing some!  I love a bunch of movies that everyone's mentioned, but on top of the ones you mentioned, I love these flicks too:

* Brideshead Revisited - first gay themed movie I ever saw, I was glued to the TV even after the focus shifted the lead character's other relationships.

* Maurice - Another early film, I loved Merchant Ivory's Forster trilogy but this one resonated in a different way for me (Scudder Scudder Scudder Scudder Scudder Scudder Scudder Scudder)

* The Boys In The Band - I saw this way after it was in theaters. Some people find it dated, but I think it's still pretty relevant.

* Priest - Really well done exploration of sexuality and priesthood, and the first time I'd ever seen the heavenly Linus Roach!

* Mambo Italiano - Very charming, a bit like Big Fat Greek Wedding but quirky and with a nice voice of its own.

* Tales of the City - the first chapter of the series was the best for me, made me love San Fran even more than I already do.

* Beautiful Thing - incredibly sweet coming of age story, and looove those sexy South London accents. I saw an off-Broadway version of the play, very fun too.

* Victim - excellent movie from the 60s starring Dirk Bogarde as a married lawyer who fights back against blackmailers.  Very ahead of its time.

* Torch Song Trilogy - I saw the play first, it changed my view of what being gay could be. Great adaptation.

* Urbania - very dark, not a typical happy-go-lucky gay film.

* Come Undone - also a dark coming of age story, tres French

* Hedwig and the Angry Inch - really innovative movie musical with a twisted, moving story

* The Mudge Boy - another moody coming of age film, what can I say, I love em.

* In The Blood - saw this in a film festival, nice psychological thriller with a gay twist...coming to Logo soon!

* Parting Glances - another overlooked groundbreaker from 86, Steve Buscemi is in it!

* Brokeback Mountain - little known film about some gay cowpokes

* Notes On A Scandal - Judi Dench vs. Cate Blanchett...to the death!!

I'm sure there are tons of others I can't think of right now, my brain hurts....

Juan

[David In Indy]

Most of my favorites have already been mentioned. Here's one more....

The Unknown Cyclist  It's a wonderful mixture of comedy and drama and I could watch the ending over and over again. It has a good cast too. I have had a serious crush on Danny Nucci for years. Well, he's in it, along with Lea Thompson, Vincent Spano and Stephen Spinella. If you've never seen it, you should watch it. 

[Brown Eyes]

This is in no particular order (except BBM is no. 1 )

- BBM (of course)
-Bound
-The Hours
-Maurice
-Tipping the Velvet (mini-series)
-Fingersmith (mini-series)
-Mrs. Dalloway
-Hedwig and the Angry Inch
-Trick
-Aimee and Jaguar
-Velvet Goldmine
-Gia
-But I'm a Cheerleader (very silly, but fun)
-All Over Me
-My Summer of Love
-L Word (TV show)

[Kerry]

* Brideshead Revisited - first gay themed movie I ever saw, I was glued to the TV even after the focus shifted the lead character's other relationships.

I too was absolutely captivated by "Brideshead Revisited." The breathtakingly beautiful setting of Castle Howard in Yorkshire and that unforgettable musical score. Who could ever forget it?

I had already fallen in love with the book by Evelyn Waugh, long before the television series appeared in the 70s. I love this description by Charles (Jeremy Irons), of his first sighting of Sebastian (Anthony Andrews) at Oxford:

I knew Sebastian by sight long before I met him. This was unavoidable for, from his first week, he was the most conspicuous man of his year by reason of his beauty, which was arresting, and his eccentricities of behaviour, which seemed to know no bounds. My first sight of him was in the door of Germer's, and, on that occasion, I was struck less by his looks than by the fact that he was carrying a large teddy-bear.

"That," said the barber, as I took his chair, "was Lord Sebastian Flyte. A most amusing young gentleman."

"Apparently," I said coldly.

"The Marquis of Marchmain's second boy. His brother, the Earl of Brideshead, went down last term. Now he was very different. A very quiet gentleman, quite like an old man. What do you suppose Lord Sebastian wanted? A hair brush for his teddy-bear; it had to have very stiff bristles, not, Lord Sebastian said, to brush him with, but to threaten him with a spanking when he was sulky. He bought a very nice one with an ivory handle and he's having 'Aloysius' engraved on it - that's the bear's name."

The man, who, in his time, had had ample chance to tire of undergraduate fantasy, was plainly captivated.

Evelyn Waugh at his best. 

* Maurice - Another early film, I loved Merchant Ivory's Forster trilogy but this one resonated in a different way for me (Scudder Scudder Scudder Scudder Scudder Scudder Scudder Scudder)

Ah, yes, the gorgeous Alec Scudder (Rupert Graves) waiting for Maurice (James Wilby) at the boathouse! Unforgettable! Sigh! 

* The Boys In The Band - I saw this way after it was in theaters. Some people find it dated, but I think it's still pretty relevant.

I don't believe I forgot "The Boys in the Band"!    The play had a very long run in Sydney in the late 60s/early 70s and I saw it many times (lost count how many). And I love the film with the original Broadway cast. I can still quote entire sections of TBITB verbatim and even started a TBITB thread here at BetterMost several months ago, primarily to memorialise Mart Crowley's wonderful play.   

* Priest - Really well done exploration of sexuality and priesthood, and the first time I'd ever seen the heavenly Linus Roach!

Sigh! Linus Roach! Double sigh! 

[moremojo]

In no particular order (and I'm including lesbian and bisexual themes under the rubric of 'gay'):

Brokeback Mountain (2005), directed by Ang Lee

Un chant d'amour (1950), directed by Jean Genet

Der Tod der Maria Malibran (1972), directed by Werner Schroeter

The Scenic Route (1978), directed by Mark Rappaport

Beau travail (1999), directed by Claire Denis

Céline et Julie vont en bateau (1974), directed by Jacques Rivette

Loads (1985), directed by Curt McDowell

Eclipse of the Sun Virgin (1967), directed by George Kuchar

Love and Death on Long Island (1997), directed by Richard Kwietniowski

Performance (1970), directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), directed by Peter Weir

Fellini-Satyricon (1969), directed by Federico Fellini

[moremojo]

I don't think anyone has mentioned Billy Elliott yet but that is one of my favorite movies. Would it be at home here?

I think it merits inclusion here.

[Front-Ranger]

I think it merits inclusion here.

Thank you. I was thinking maybe I had interpreted the movie all wrong.

[Kd5000]

Did anyone ever see TOTAL ECLIPSE with Leonardo DiCaprio.  It's about the gay poet RIMBAUD.   The movie was terrible and it should have made a great story.  I don't think Leo is going to be playing gay anytime soon as he been taking all these tough guy roles. Something to prove, I say.  Still, TOTAL ECLIPSE is a missed opportunity.  I hope somebody makes a better movie about the French poet Arthur Rimbaud.

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114702/

I could start a listing of worse gay movies ever made, but the list is pretty long. 

[moremojo]

Yeah, I caught most of Total Eclipse on cable TV many moons ago. I agree that the film wasn't very successful, though Leo does physically resemble Rimbaud, and David Thewlis (as Verlaine) is always an interesting actor.

Very few of my very favorite movies are gay in theme (Brokeback Mountain being one of the major exceptions to this). Many have struck me as mediocre at best, and I'm not quite sure why this has been the case. Most of the titles in my list (which all are included among my favorite movies, gay or otherwise) were not and would not be considered mainstream offerings--so much of mainstream gay cinema strikes me as distinctly middlebrow and not having a lot of enduring value.