Other gay-themed movies

[Impish]

Openly gay? She was partner of (married to?) Dashiel Hammett. I never heard a hint she wasn't devoted to him, and he to her. And he was strait enough, wasn't he?

Strange.  I don't know where I got the idea that she was lesbian, but I just googled the issue and I can't find any evidence to back me up.

She never married Hammett formally, don't know why.

I've believed she was lesbian for years and years now.  To learn she may have been straight all along comes as quite a shock!   

[Brown Eyes]

Lots of gay/ lesbian people get married (see Jack and Ennis  ) and even sometimes get along quite well with their "marriage of convenience" spouses.  Virginia Woolf was married, obviously to Leonard Woolf, and they had a very interesting (if fraught relationship).  But she considered herself a lesbian (she used the word "Sapphist").  I think this (the dilemma of being a closeted lesbian married to a man) is a very subtle subtext to the book Mrs. Dalloway.  Virginia's most well-known girlfriend, Vita Sackville-West was also married to a man (he was gay too).  And Vita was really, really a lesbian, but I also think she quite liked her husband as a friend, etc.

People can be kooky. 

[Lumière]

I loved Priest.  I liked that the younger priest's sexuality wasn't the sole focus, but one of the conflicts within the Church.  The very last scene always gets me welled up.
Juan

Agreed!  Priest was not solely focussed on Father Greg's sexuality or his battle with accepting his homosexuality - it questioned alot of issues in the Catholic Church in a very evocative manner.  I just loved everything about this film - I could see the young priest tearing himself inside because of his attraction to men, his questioning of his faith in God and his responsibilities as a priest.   Awesome film, others who haven't seen it should definitely check it out! 

I just recently bought "Mysterious Skin" and saw it for the first time last night.  Great film, very disturbing in many ways - but very well-done!

[starboardlight]

Anyone seen "Bostal Boys"? It's a beautiful little film about Irish writer, Brendan Behan, and the time he spent as a teen in reform prison. I'm not sure how much of it is fictionalized and how much is biographical. I believe that in his writing the homosexuality is more overt than in the film.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006SFL3/103-0988545-5373422?v=glance&n=130

[TJ]

A historically "fact" based movie which was presented as a "heterosexual" movie was "The Grey Fox," with Richard Farnsworth playing the main true life character, Bill Miner, who was called a "Gentleman Bandit." Miner was a real person who robbed stagecoaches and after he got out of prison, he robbed trains instead.

His biographers, two newspaper men, would only claim that Miner was only "homosexual in prison," but their own research actually shows his sexual orientation as homosexual. I say that because no matter where he went, Miner always ended up with a male companion. One time, he was supposed to have married the daughter of a man who was trying to be a social climber by having her marry Miner, whom he thought owned a gold mine in California. Just before the wedding was to have taken place, Miner suddenly left town with another man.

The movie gave him female love interest in Kamloops, up in Canada; but, she never existed in the findings of the researchers.

[Impish]

I watched "My Beautiful Laundrette" recently, and I must confess I've never understood why this film became so popular.

The script is unfocused:  what's the movie about?  The romance?  Race relations in England?  Father-son relationships?    There are other possibilities, as every story-line componenet is given equal weight, leaving the viewer floundering. 

The script wanders and can never make up its mind about the point it's trying to make.  Why was this movie such a big hit?

[Shuggy]

I watched "My Beautiful Laundrette" recently, and I must confess I've never understood why this film became so popular.

The script is unfocused:  what's the movie about?  The romance?  Race relations in England?  Father-son relationships?    There are other possibilities, as every story-line componenet is given equal weight, leaving the viewer floundering. 

The script wanders and can never make up its mind about the point it's trying to make.  Why was this movie such a big hit?

Well I haven't seen it for a while, but you need to know a little about not only race relations in England, but that it was Thatcher's Britian, which put a lot of pressure on working people. The opening scene of someone getting tipped out of their flat sets the scene. Some of your comments could be made about BBM - and have - and the answers are the same. Watch it carefully, reading between the lines. I'm not saying it's as good as BBM or anything like it, but like BBM it deserves careful attention.

[starboardlight]

I watched "My Beautiful Laundrette" recently, and I must confess I've never understood why this film became so popular.

The script is unfocused:  what's the movie about?  The romance?  Race relations in England?  Father-son relationships?    There are other possibilities, as every story-line componenet is given equal weight, leaving the viewer floundering. 

The script wanders and can never make up its mind about the point it's trying to make.  Why was this movie such a big hit?

i guess i might agree with you. i remember barely anything from that film. the only vivid image is a scene where the two men meet on the street. they hug and Daniel's character licks the other guy on the neck. that was sexy and flirty. other than that, i don't remember anything about it.

[kudzudaddy]

Impish --

great thread.  Much fodder for thought.

I haven't seen mentioned "Total Eclipse"  and "Before Night Falls."

Total - is a pretty good take on the Rimbaud/Verlaine romance and Before is a true story also about aCuban poet.  It's brutal and heart rending with a devastating performance from Javier Bardem ( I think).  Also a cameo from Johnny Depp which will blow your mind.

Re:  The La Cage films.  Only the first is watchable.  The second is just a rehash and the third is UNWATCHABLE.

There's also a Dutch film...  called, I believe, "For the love of a Soldier" or something like that.  A modern day artist remembers his affair with a canadian flyer during the war when he was 12.  Certainly the only pederastic film I know and, aside from some "arty" touches, extremely well done.

Two others, NOT gay films but with strong homophile subtexts, are "Birdy" and "Gallipoli."  Both well worth watching on their merits.

Just my 2 cents...

--Kudz

[moremojo]

Two others, NOT gay films but with strong homophile subtexts, are "Birdy" and "Gallipoli."  Both well worth watching on their merits.

Another film which is not homosexually themed per se (though in this case lesbian-themed per se would be more accurate), but which nonetheless evokes a strong sense of love and desire among females, is the 1975 Australian classic Picnic at Hanging Rock, directed by Peter Weir and based on the novel by Joan Lindsay. A haunting fantasy set in the rural Victoria of 1900, this lovely film engenders a strong sense of melancholy yearning and wonder.