I recommend films to students all the time, among them queer kids who seem to have little sense of history (perhaps after the demolition of the closet this doesn't matter so much) and who have what I take to be much too high a regard for the relentlessly transparent freshly scrubbed bourgeois romantic comedies and issue films that comprise so much "gay cinema" today. That stuff is fine as far as it goes, I suppose, and I enjoy a little cheer mixed with soft porn and a "serious examination of issues of the day" in an after-school special kinda sorta way as much as the next homo after a long tiring work week and so on. But these films offer something more -- and, sometimes, something indispensably less.
For students who are looking, whether they quite realize it or not, for a queer sensibility that attests to something more tragically aspirational, something more promisingly subversive, something more perversely beautiful it seems to me that there is still plenty to value in the queer screen articulated by the paradoxical dynamisms of the closet's open secrets, radical ironies, and testaments to suffering and joy.
The stratification of the scene of consent by the antinomies of equity-in-diversity and the demands of history and luck provide dilemmas to which queerness still vibrantly attests in culture in my view, and you better believe that while the ongoing demolition of the closet and the ongoing struggle to include queer folks in normative institutions is indeed a work of democratization, there are far more radical democratizing demands and struggles afoot which queerness might still differently feed if we let it make its play. Well, that's what I think, anyway.
And so, here are many of the films that I do recommend to folks as queer in some sense or other (also there are a few, a very few, television series I simply couldn't resist), whether in what they say for themselves or in what we like to say of them.
Some are documentary, some are camp, some are underground, some are just gorgeous or gorgeously awful or gorgeously awe-inspiring. I can't explain why I include all of these, I can't explain why I forgot some you would include (remind me what I have missed, or make a case for inclusions of your own, by all means, I admit that I have omitted many B-movie sword and sandals and space opera films that feel to me to deserve inclusion but it opened a can of worms that seemed too exhausting, especially given how quickly the list became how sprawling), and I admit that the list is very much my own, so sometimes my exclusions are matters of taste I feel I am perfectly entitled (no, I didn't forget "Queer As Folk" or "Jeffrey" or "Trick," I excluded them, and cheerfully so).
I am neither a film scholar nor a queer ethnographer -- well, I dabble -- so I have no pretensions of providing a canon here. The list goes by decade, and I begin with the thirties, because that seems to be more or less where my sense of these things begins as well. The 1895 Edison experimental clip "The Gay Brothers" is the place where scholars begin such canonical lists, but for me the story begins with Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo and that hardly seems like something one has to apologize for…
The Thirties
1930 Morocco
1931 Maedchen in Uniform
1932 Grand Hotel
1932 Blond Venus
1932 Freaks
1932 Trouble in Paradise
1933 Our Betters
1933 Queen Christina
1933 Christopher Strong
1934 The Gay Divorcee
1934 The Scarlet Empress
1935 Top Hat
1936 Craig's Wife
1937 Stage Door
1938 Bringing Up Baby
1939 The Wizard of Oz
1939 The Women
The Forties
1940 The Philadelphia Story
1940 Rebecca
1941 The Shanghai Gesture
1941 The Maltese Falcon
1942 Casablanca
1942 Arabian Nights
1943 Shadow of a Doubt
1944 Lifeboat
1944 Cobra Woman
1945 Brief Encounter
1945 Picture of Dorian Gray
1945 Rome, Open City
1946 Humoresque
1946 Gilda
1947 Black Narcissus
1948 The Red Shoes
1948 Rope
1949 Puce Moment
1949 Siren of Atlantis
The Fifties
1950 All About Eve
1950 Sunset Boulevard
1950 Un Chant d'Amour
1950 La Ronde
1950 Rabbit's Moon
1951 A Streetcar Named Desire
1951 Quo Vadis
1951 The Browning Version
1952 The Importance of Being Earnest
1953 The Earrings of Madame de…
1953 Calamity Jane
1953 All I Desire
1953 How to Marry A Millionaire
1953 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
1954 Johnny Guitar
1954 Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome
1955 Lola Montez
1955 Summertime
1955 All That Heaven Allows
1955 Rebel Without A Cause
1955 To Catch a Thief
1955 The Trouble With Harry
1955 Queen Bee
1956 The Man Who Knew Too Much
1956 Giant
1956 Written on the Wind
1957 Funny Face
1958 Auntie Mame
1958 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1959 The Best of Everything
1959 Pillow Talk
1959 North By Northwest
1959 Some Like It Hot
1959 Imitation of Life
1959 Suddenly, Last Summer
1959 Ben Hur
The Sixties
1960 The Fugitive Kind
1960 Peeping Tom
1960 Rocco and His Brothers
1960 The Flower Thief
1960 Spartacus
1961 Splendor in the Grass
1961 Viridiana
1961 The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
1961 Victim
1961 The Children's Hour
1961 Lover Come Back
1962 Sweet Bird of Youth
1962 Dr. No
1962 Jules et Jim
1962 Gypsy
1962 Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
1962 Mamma Roma
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
1963 Flaming Creatures
1963 Normal Love
1963 Blow Job
1963 Cleopatra
1963 The VIPs
1964 Scorpio Rising
1964 Straight-Jacket
1964 The Yellow Rolls Royce
1964 Marnie
1964 The Night of the Iguana
1964 Goldfinger
1964 Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
1964-1972 Bewitched
1965 Sins of the Fleshapoids
1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1966 This Property Is Condemned
1966 Hold Me While I'm Naked
1966 Seconds
1966 Chelsea Girls
1967 Valley of the Dolls
1967 Belle du Jour
1967 I, A Man
1967 Bike Boy
1968 The Lion in Winter
1968 The Bride Wore Black
1968 Teorema
1968 The Killing of Sister George
1968 Funny Girl
1968 Barbarella
1968 Lonesome Cowboys
1968 Flesh
1969 Sweet Charity
1969 Satyricon
1969 The Damned
1969 Midnight Cowboy
1969 Hello, Dolly!
1969 The Milky Way
The Seventies
1970 The Boys in the Band
1970 Entertaining Mr. Sloane
1970 Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
1970 The Music Lovers
1970 Trash
1970 Multiple Maniacs
1971 Pink Narcissus
1971 Death in Venice
1971 Decameron
1971 Sunday, Bloody Sunday
1971 Diamonds Are Forever
1971 Women in Revolt
1971 The Devils
1971 Harold and Maude
1972 Cabaret
1972 Pink Flamingos
1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
1972 The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
1972 X Y & Zee
1972 The Poseidon Adventure
1972 Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?
1972 Heat
1972 Loot
1973 Andy Warhol's Frankenstein
1973 The Last of Sheila
1974 Female Trouble
1974 The Night Porter
1974 Andy Warhol's Dracula
1974 Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
1975 Mahogany
1975 Fox and His Friends
1975 Grey Gardens
1975 A Boy and His Dog
1975 Salo
1975 The Naked Civil Servant
1976 The Ritz
1976 Carrie
1976 Sebastiane
1977 Outrageous!
1977 I, An Actress
1977 Nasty Habits
1977 That Obscure Object of Desire
1978 In a Year With 13 Moons
1979 La Cage Aux Folles
1979 Moonraker
The Eighties
1980 Xanadu
1980 Flash Gordon
1980 Can't Stop the Music
1981 Mommie Dearest
1981 Clash of the Titans
1981 Diva
1981 Lola
1982 Victor Victoria
1982 Veronika Voss
1982 Tootsie
1983 The Hunger
1983 The Dresser
1983 Yentl
1984 Dune
1984 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
1984 Another Country
1984 Dark Habits
1985 Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
1985 Legend
1985 Kiss of the Spider Woman
1985 The Color Purple
1985 My Beautiful Laundrette
1986 Mala Noche
1986 Parting Glances
1986 Desert Hearts
1986 Matador
1986 Caravaggio
1986 Labyrinth
1987 Maurice
1987 The Princess Bride
1987 Bagdad Cafe
1987 Prick Up Your Ears
1987 I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
1987 The Witches of Eastwick
1987 Law of Desire
1988 Hairspray
1988 Heathers
1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
1988 Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
1988 Big Business
1989 Looking for Langston
1989 Steel Magnolias
1989 Slaves of New York
The Nineties
1990 Without You I'm Nothing
1990 Postcards from the Edge
1990 Paris Is Burning
1990 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
1991 Poison
1991 Thelma and Louise
1991 Young Soul Rebels
1991 High Heels
1991 My Own Private Idaho
1991 Thanksgiving Prayer
1991 Edward II
1991 Madonna: Truth Or Dare
1991 Salmonberries
1992 The Living End
1992 Medusa: Dare To Be Truthful
1992 Death Becomes Her
1992 The Crying Game
1992 Orlando
1992-2004 Absolutely Fabulous
1993 Wittgenstein
1993 Blue
1993 Kika
1994 Super 8 ½
1994 Wild Reeds
1994 The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert
1994 Hudsucker Proxy
1995 Welcome to the Dollhouse
1995 Safe
1995 The City of Lost Children
1995 Showgirls
1995 Clueless
1995 Carrington
1995 Cold Comfort Farm
1995 When Night Is Falling
1995 The Flower of My Secret
1995 To Die For
1996 Irma Vep
1996 Lilies
1996 Crash
1996 Bound
1996 I Shot Andy Warhol
1997 Boogie Nights
1997 Happy Together
1997 Bent
1997 The House of Yes
1997 Wilde
1998 Velvet Goldmine
1998 Torch Song Trilogy
1998 Gods and Monsters
1998 Welcome to Pleasantville
1999 All About My Mother
1999 South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
1999 Fight Club
1999 Beau Travail
1999 An Ideal Husband
1999 Skin Flick
1999 Mansfield Park
1999-2000 Strangers With Candy
The Naughts
2000 Bring It On
2000 Best in Show
2001 Hedwig and the Angry Inch
2001 Gosford Park
2001 Mulholland Drive
2001 Burnt Money
2001 The Royal Tenenbaums
2001 Pearl Harbor
2001 Wet Hot American Summer
2002 Gerry
2002 Talk to Her
2003 Angels in America
2003 Bright Young Things
2003 The Dreamers
2003 A Mighty Wind
2003 Elephant
2004 Bad Education
2004 Kinsey
2004 Mysterious Skin
2004 Raspberry Reich
2005 Brokeback Mountain
2006 The Devil Wears Prada
2006 Marie Antoinette
2006 Volver
2006 V for Vendetta
2006 Shortbus
2006 Le Marais
2007 Starbooty
2008 Milk
2008 Otto; or, Up With Dead People
2009 An Englishman in New York
2009- Glee
2010 Howl
Quite a list!
ReplyDeleteHere are a few more off the top of my head:
1961 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children%27s_Hour_%28film%29
1961 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Honey_%28film%29
1977 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Special_Day
1981 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brideshead_Revisited_%28TV_serial%29 (TV miniseries)
1982 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Back_to_the_Five_and_Dime,_Jimmy_Dean,_Jimmy_Dean_%28film%29
1982 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Love
1987 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witches_of_Eastwick_%28film%29
1992 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker%27s_Dracula
1992 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doing_Time_on_Maple_Drive (TV movie)
1994 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_So-Called_Life (TV series)
1996 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celluloid_Closet
Single TV episodes
1963 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bellero_Shield
(lesbian overtones, see http://wearecontrollingtransmission.blogspot.com/2011/02/spotlight-on-bellero-shield.html )
1963 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forms_of_Things_Unknown
(lesbian overtones)
"The network was like, `Are these women lesbians? Is that what you're trying to say?' I said, `I have no idea!'"
-- Joseph Stefano ( http://www.davidmccallumfansonline.com/Outer%20Limits.htm )
2004 http://www.tv.com/jack-and-bobby/lost-boys/episode/371800/summary.html
2006 http://www.tv.com/cold-case/forever-blue/episode/901342/summary.html
2008 http://www.tv.com/greys-anatomy/the-becoming/episode/1197086/summary.html
A few more TV episodes (another Outer Limits, and
ReplyDeleteStar Trek's struggles with homosexuality)
1963 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisibles_%28The_Outer_Limits%29
(male homosexual overtones)
1967 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphosis_%28Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series%29
1991 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Host_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29
1992 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outcast_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29
Some of these I already pondered including, and I'll think on them again. I think Harry Hamlin is queerer in Clash of the Titans than in Making Love -- which I pondered only because of Wendy Hiller, then rejected. You're definitely on the money with the Witches of Eastwick, tho. I'm adding that one right away. I feared adding Brideshead, even tho' I do have a Vile Bodies adaptation on here already, because once you open the door to British Television... well, all British men are gay, all British men are gay! I am interested in your choice of My So Called Life, which I like a lot, but hadn't considered for this list (tho' I did hesitate over Daria, probably for the same reasons that drew you to MSCL).
ReplyDeleteOh, good heavens, you left out:
ReplyDelete1936 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula%27s_Daughter
> I feared adding Brideshead. . . because
ReplyDelete> once you open the door to British Television...
> well, all British men are gay, all British
> men are gay!
M-m-my dear!
N-n-no one c-compares to Anthony Blanche!
Or to Cara, for that matter.
"I think you are very fond of Sebastian. . .
How good it is to sit in the shade and talk of love!"
> [S]ometimes my exclusions are matters of
ReplyDelete> taste I feel I am perfectly entitled (no,
> I didn't forget "Queer As Folk" or "Jeffrey"
> or "Trick," I excluded them, and cheerfully so).
Hm. What about
1993 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Doubtfire
(which does have Robin Williams in drag, and Harvey Fierstein)
1997 http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Code-VHS-Derek-Jacobi/dp/6304361092/
(for all our computer friends)
I don't suppose either True Blood or Torchwood is quite worthy of
the list, though.
Ah, this definitely deserves to make the cut:
2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_Wide_Open_%28film%29
and there are the Sandi Simcha Dubowski's documentaries:
2001 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trembling_Before_G-d
2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad_for_Love
and possibly this movie, in either its Swedish or American
incarnations:
2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_the_Right_One_In_%28film%29
Two propaganda films, and a more recent documentary:
ReplyDelete1961 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_Beware
1965 Perversion for Profit
http://www.dangerousminds.net/tag/Charles-Keating
2005 The Great Pink Scare
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/greatpinkscare/
No "Roger and Me" for the 80's?
ReplyDeleteOf all the boring sappy self-absorbed histrionic bourgeois relational dramas that dominated mainstream hollywood in the 70's & 80's (e.g., kramer vs. kramer, ordinary people), your 70's/80's lists are surprisingly long & decent. You present some of the rare gems from these otherwise drab decades.
Other than this, I won't state the obvious and list all the great pre-1970 gems you missed.
> No "Roger and Me". . . kramer vs. kramer, ordinary people. . .
ReplyDeleteI think the idea behind Dale's list (I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong) is that these are films that have some kind of **queer** connection -- sometimes very explicit in subject matter or plot (as in, say, Victim or The Boys in the Band or The Naked Civil Servant or Maurice or Victor Victoria), sometimes more-or-less disguised (as in the Tennessee Williams-based films), sometimes tangential (as in The Witches of Eastwick), sometimes so subtle that only those "in the know" can see what's going on (as in Ben-Hur [Chuck Heston sure didn't know what was going on!]), and some just camp classics or classics involving divas that were or are worshipped (and frequently imitated) by gay men (Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Katharine Hepburn, Liz Taylor, Barbra Streisand; as in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane or Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf? or Funny Girl).
The films you mentioned may be decent movies, but I don't think they quite go along with the rest of the list. Not, of course, that LGBT folks wouldn't want to see them, but they're not part of the traditional "canon" the way, say, The Women or The Lion in Winter are. (Though I admit that some of the movies on the list I certainly didn't know were in any kind of queer canon, like Dune or Legend.)
See, e.g., Peterson Toscano's video "Movies in an Ex-Gay Program"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hV5shr2u9M
;->
> I admit that some of the movies on the list
ReplyDelete> I certainly didn't know were in any kind
> of queer canon, like Dune or Legend.
OK, I take it back, for those two. Legend has Tim Curry as the devil, which is sufficient. (I knew there had to be more than fairies and Tom Cruise running around naked in the snow.)
As for Dune, it has Sting on the Halfshell, with Baron Harkonnen lusting after him ("Feyd. . . My lovely Feyd!"). And a few other moments -- Linda Hunt whispering "I am the Shadout Mapes. The **housekeeper**." not to mention "And how can this be? For he **is** the Kwisatz Haderach!" And the gorgeous design, and the general over-the-topness.
Sting, though, never did much for me. Now the guy who played Feyd Rautha in the Sci-Fi Channel version -- he was **hot**!
im not sure i understood, but it seems you forgot movies by Lukas Moodyson ???????
ReplyDelete