June 2012
132 posts
3 tags
Simply Streisand #11
I suspect that Larry Kramer’s persistent acting up about Barbra Streisand has little to do with spreading the good word about AIDS and everything to do with his dream of getting one more crack at an Adapted Screenplay Oscar (he had been nominated for 1970’s Women In Love, but lost to Ring Lardner, Jr. who wrote the screenplay for MASH).
[[MORE]]He knows that without Barbra, the film may...
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Beauty and the Maciste
The first Maciste (Italian, loosely, for “man carved out of rock”) appeared in the silent Italian classic of 1914, Cabiria. In that movie, Maciste was played by Bartolomeo Pagano, an Italian stevedore who Roger Ebert has called ‘the first movie star’.
From the docks of Genoa to worldwide movie fame, Pagano changed his name to Maciste and starred in over a dozen spank-bank filling movies...
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Gay Scene: Prick Up Your Ears (1987)
People believe that Maggie Smith gives the best cut-glass diction but they’re wrong. This scene from Prick Up Your Ears demonstrates that Vanessa Redgrave delivers the English language most perfectly:
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More magnificence:
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Good trip
THE TRIP USA, 2002 Director: Miles Swain Stars: Larry Sullivan, Steve Braun Available on DVD - order here
Review by Gary Morris
After enduring the banality of Big Eden and the ineptitude of Circuit the past two years at Phoenix’s annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, I wasn’t expecting too much from the highlighted festival finale. But I was entertained by Miles Swain’s...
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Hotty of the day: Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise’s bulletproof narcissism and over-earnest manner is a turn off for some, but it’s never really bothered me.
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Belly Laughs
Where the Bears Are is a comedy/mystery web series launching August 1st. According to the press kit, it’s a cross between The Golden Girls and Murder, She Wrote with big, hairy, gay men. Bigger even, in some cases, than Bea Arthur.
[[MORE]]”The fur begins to fly August 1”, and the trailer below looks fun and funny, at least for the length of the trailer:
...
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Adds up
THE SUM OF US
Australia, 1994 Director: Geoff Dowling Stars: Russell Crowe, Jack Thompson, John Polson
The Sum Of Us is the finest Australian gay-themed film.
Russell Crowe stars as the burly rugby playing Jeff Mitchell who’s gay and lives with his father Harry, played by the Aussie screen veteran Jack Thompson. John Polson plays Crowe’s smitten (well who wouldn’t be) love interest, Greg.
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Gay Scene: Rock Hudson kisses Linda Evans,...
“DON’T! MOVE!”
Few other artifacts from 1980s pop culture compare to this momentous moment, told over two thrilling episodes of Dynasty, but vaulting into eternity several months later:
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Miss Davis Says (#3):
“If I don’t get out of here I’ll die.”
Not nearly dramatic enough. Try instead:
[[MORE]]”If I don’t get out of here I hope I die - and burn!”
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Love Song
UN CHANT D’AMOUR
France, 1950 Director: Jean Genet
Available on DVD - order here
Review by Mark Simpson
I had already wondered what would become of the meeting of a handsome young guard and a handsome young criminal,” wrote Jean Genet in his 1943 debut prison novel, Our Lady of the Flowers, penned while he was himself serving a life sentence as a persistent petty...
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Desperate Housewife
TRANSAMERICA USA, 2005 Director: Chris Colombus Stars: Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Graham Greene Available on DVD - order here
Review by Matthew Rettenmund
For some time now, Bree (Felicity Huffman)—nee Stanley Osbourne—has relied on more than just the kindness of strangers—she’s relied on their tacit acceptance of her as a woman despite telltale signs (an Adam’s apple, falsies, a...
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Quotables: Cher
“All the guys in my Vegas show thought they were getting it because they did poppers. They’re all dead now. All of them are dead.”
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Hotty of the day: Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges is aging really well. 62 this year, he’s got the urbane family man vibe down to a T (he’s been married to Susan Geston since 1977) and so it’s easy to forget just how absolutely fucking beautiful he was as a younger man:
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Gay Monopoly
Released in 1983, Gay Monopoly - A Celebration of Gay Life! - gave players the option of using tokens such as a blow drier, leather cap, handcuffs or a stiletto heel. Properties included Fire Island and Castro Street, and instead of buying houses and hotels, players bought bars and bathhouses:
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Try your luck on the Family Pride cards: When landing on the appropriate space, the...
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Happy Birthday John Inman
The immortal John Inman was born on this day (June 28), 77 years ago:
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Star Crossed: Andy Warhol and Tennessee Williams
Oh, to be a fly on the wall:
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Mysteriously beautiful
BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY (KYOKON DENSETSU: UTSUKUSHII NAZO)
Japan, 1983 Director: Genji Nakamura Stars: Tatsuya Nagatmo, Masayoshi Nogami Available on DVD - order here
In Beautiful Mystery, a band of young Japanese men prepare to fight and die for their country in a viciously strict military camp. In their free time, the cadets shop in record stores and throw frisbees and, oh, tie each other up...
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Clothes Whores: Elizabeth Taylor's Boom! (and...
By Glenn Belverio
One remnant of Rome’s recent past are the couture shows held in the Eternal City that seek to channel the ‘la dolce vita’ era of the ’50s and ’60s. In 2009 I attended a show by Lorenzo Riva (who opened his first couture house at age eighteen) which harkened back to those days. The rest of the shows held during Alta Moda were staged by younger...
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Quentin Crisp reviews The Hunger (1983)
The incomparable Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) shared a birthday with Jesus and was played by John Hurt in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp’s memoir of the same name.
The Queen of interwar Old Compton Street, he starred with Helen Mirren, among others, on the London stage before moving to the United States where his dinner parties became legendary. He played Queen Elizabeth I...
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Fluffy
THE FLUFFER USA, 2001 Director: Richard Glatzer Stars: Scott Gurney, Michael Cunio Available on DVD - order here
Review by Gary Morris
Fluffing, like that other impolite f-word felching, was once an obscure term, the exclusive province of pornhounds and industry insiders. But with a slew of recent successful sex star documentaries (Sex: The Annabel Chong Story, Wadd, Porn Star), it’s become...
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Simply Streisand #10
There’s Barbra porn like The Prince Of Tides. And then there’s Barbra porn like this:
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Gods and Goddesses: Jon-Erik Hexum and Joan...
Spoiler alert: you may feel like you’re falling in love from 3:51 - 3:56 of this closing sequence to Making Of A Male Model:
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Blue movie
HUSTLER WHITE Canada, 1996 Director: Bruce LaBruce Stars: Tony Ward, Bruce LaBruce, Ron Athey Review by Jaap Kooijman
Canadian filmmaker Bruce LaBruce has described himself as the reluctant pornographer. It’s a fitting title, as most of his films, including No Skin Off My Ass, Skin Flick, and Hustler White, mimic the look and feel of gay porn films, but always stop short of becoming hardcore....
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New Hollywood
BILLY’S HOLLYWOOD SCREEN KISS
USA, 1998 Director: Tommy O’Haver Stars: Sean Hayes, Brad Rowe
Available on DVD - order here
Review by Gary Morris
In the past few years, two distinct trends have dominated gay (male) cinema. First, and inevitably easier for mainstream audiences to handle, is the frothy, formulaic queer comedy a la In & Out or Kiss Me Guido. Then there are the...
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Quotables: Luchino Visconti
“When I was young, homosexuality was a forbidden fruit, something special, a fruit to be gathered with care, not what it is today - hundreds of homosexuals showing off, dancing together in a gay bar.” - Luchino Visconti
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Get over it
YOU’LL GET OVER IT (Á CAUSE DE GARÇON)
France, 2002 Director: Fabrice Cazeneuve Stars: Julien Baumgartner, Julia Maraval, François Comar, Jérémie Elkaïm
Available on DVD - order here
Yet another troubled-gay-teen dragged through the wringer of high-school-hell film. This time it’s Vincent (Julien Baumgartner), a hero of the school swimming team, who openly dates Noémie (Julia Maraval) but...
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Unconditional hate
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
USA, 2002 Director: P.J. Hogan Stars: Rupert Everett, Kathy Bates, Stephanie Beacham
Available on DVD - order here
Stephanie Beacham shines in this film as Harriet Fox-Smith, the black sheep of a hoity English family. The ex-Dynasty star is still very beautiful and her Monte Carlo mystique and smoked-honey diction are eternal joys to behold. Beacham was born in...
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Well Bent
HellBent’s boast of being the ‘first ever gay slasher flick’ is a little contentious, considering the existence of films like Cruising (1980), Dahmer (2003) or even The Silence of The Lambs (1991), not to mention the generally horrific atmosphere of gay circuit parties and coffee shops, where HellBent is mostly set.
[[MORE]]In HellBent, Eddie (Dylan Fergus), his bisexual...
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Love Letters: Short films of John Douglas
John Douglas won the 2010 Outrate Online Short Film Festival (RIP) with his short film Ward 9, an innerscape of life inside “Ward 9” - an HIV/oncology ward in Sydney. Film, music, direction and editing by John Douglas.
The judges (who included Steve Hayes, Nathan Evans and Glenn Belverio) described Ward 9 as:
stark, bleak, lonely and terrifying
visually stunning and hypnotic
...
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Quentin Crisp reviews Paris Is Burning (1990)
The incomparable Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) shared a birthday with Jesus and was played by John Hurt in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp’s memoir of the same name.
The Queen of interwar Old Compton Street, he starred with Helen Mirren, among others, on the London stage before moving to the United States where his dinner parties became legendary. He played Queen Elizabeth I...
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Miss Davis Says (#2):
“There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.”
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Trailer Park: How To Survive A Plague (2012)
Variety praises How To Survive A Plague’s “epic narrative shape” and says the new documentary, due for release in September this year, is “as engrossing in human terms as it is historically informative”.
It looks terrific, and not just because it may help to remind those negatives who need reminding that “meds” did not simply fall from the sky, and were...
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Book Of The Day: Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections...
Unlimited Intimacy is Tim Dean’s riveting investigation into barebacking - gay men deliberately abandoning condoms and embracing erotic risk - and the distinctive subculture that has grown around it.
Audacious and provocative, Dean’s profoundly reflective account is neither a manifesto nor an apology; instead, it is an extensively researched analysis with much to tell everyone - gay...
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Postcards from the altar
DOUBT
USA, 2008 Director: John Patrick Shanley Stars: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Available on DVD - order here
Have no Doubt: as the lemon-sucking, bonnet-shackled Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the godly dragon lady of St Nicholas Catholic school in the Bronx, Meryl Streep delivers the worst performance of her career. Carving the ham thick, America’s pre-eminent screen...
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Just beautiful
BEAUTIFUL THING
UK, 1996 Director: Hettie MacDonald Stars: Glen Berry, Scott Neal, Linda Henry
Available on DVD - order here
Jamie (Glen Berry) is a peaceful kid who lives with his brassy mum, Sandra (Linda Henry - channeling Brenda Blethyn and Julie Walters to great effect) in a crowded and depressing housing estate. Next door on one side is Leah (Tameka Empson) who has a taste for...
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Joking Around #1
Cesar Romero, as the Joker in TV’s Batman, was always - always - good for a laugh:
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Throwing up
EATING OUT
USA, 2005 Director: Q Allan Brocka Stars: Scott Lunsford, Jim Verraros, Ryan Carnes, Emily Stiles
Eating Out has a plot that might sustain a half-hour episode of a Z-grade sitcom, so its running time of 84 minutes stretches the material way beyond breaking point.
Caleb (Scott Lunsford) likes dominant women. He has the hots for Gwen (Emily Stiles) but she wants to watch him to do...
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Warm blooded
“Two worlds collided on that day. One is the quiet conservative world of this family – the other is the violent world of these two men…the dark underbelly of society.” - Truman Capote
Capote opens in the bleak, desolate flat farmlands of a place in Kansas even most Kansans had never heard of. Within minutes, the scene shifts to the smoke-filled alcoves of a Manhattan social event where Capote...
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Colour Me Fabulous
In the year of the pious and hyper-masculine gay cowboys, it was great to see good old-fashioned effete, wicked old queens holding court at the art house. First was Capote, an excellent film about the grand old Manhattan lit-fag who was happy to bluff a couple of dopey Midwestern blue-collars to the gallows just so he could write a career-making book about them. Now, there’s Colour Me Kubrick, a...
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Simply Streisand #9
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The coalface
Silverlake Life began as a film diary by Tom Joslin, a man dying of AIDS along with his partner, Mark Massi. A student of Joslin’s, Peter Friedman, agreed to complete the project if Joslin became too ill to work, or died. The result is a compelling (and rare) cinema verite study of what life with AIDS in the early 1990s was sometimes like.
Mindblowing...
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Full marks
Zero Patience, an absurd musical comedy, is a gem amidst the gravel of New Queer Cinema. Though it contains some of the contrived gimmickry of its dreary contemporaries, it’s also - unlike them - a very funny, smart and moving film.
Sir Richard Francis Burton (John Robinson) is a Victorian explorer who, having drank from the Fountain of Youth, is alive and well in 1993, working as a taxidermist...
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Gay Scene: Deliverance (1972)
The famous dueling banjos scene!
More on Deliverance.
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Interview With Paul Burston
Paul Burston is the author of several books, including the critically-acclaimed novels Shameless, Star People, and Lover & Losers, which was shortlisted or the Stonewall Award. His essay collection, What Are You looking At, explored gay cinephilia.
A journalist and broadcaster, his work has appeared in The Times, The Guardian, Time Out and on Channel 4. He is a frequent contributor to TV and...
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Soapy heaven
LATIN BOYS GO TO HELL
USA, 1997 Director: Ela Troyano Stars: Irwin Ossa, Alexis Artiles, John Bryant Davila, Mike Ruiz Available on DVD - order here
Review by Jaap Kooijman
Watching Latin Boys Go To Hell is just like watching soap. It is difficult to decide whether the actors are very bad, or instead very skilled ones who succeed in imitating the amateurish acting style of the average soap....
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Hotty of the day: Chris Hemsworth #2
Phwoar - it’s Thor, defying the frigid Sydney weather to take in some rays and waves at Maroubra beach yesterday.
Gallery of pre-fame Chris Hemsworth
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Memories:
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Music Theatre: Boy George "The Crying Game" (1996)
Boy George performs the title song of The Crying Game (his version was played over the closing credits) with much more panache than both Kate Robbins and Jaye Davidson - who mimed to Robbins’ version of the song during the movie - put together.
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Happy Birthday Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael, the greatest film critic, was born on this day in 1919 (she passed away at her home in Massachusetts aged 82 in September, 2001).
Far be it from me to attempt a tribute that would do Pauline Kael and her film writing justice so instead, here are excerpts from her typically excellent book, The Age of Movies: Selected Writings of Pauline Kael.
On Marilyn Monroe
Her mixture of...
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Hotty of the day: Marcel Schlutt
A TV presenter and a porn star, multi-talented Marcel Schlutt also models, sings, and acts. He’s been on a number of gay for pay sites such as Men At Play and played the lead in the hard core/soft core Locked Up (Gefangen).
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Here’s the trailer for Claude Pérès Unfaithful, starring Marcel Schlutt:
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Gay Scene: Beautiful Thing (1996)
Perhaps no other film is so appropriately titled:
