As a $3 bill: Ten best gay/lesbian movies
Feb 01 '08
The Bottom Line This category is closeted. It should be listed (http://www.epinions.com/mvie_Best_by_Genre) between foreign and gospel, but it isn't. Nonetheless, it holds many terrific lists that reward reading.
_____
Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) says "Send her in" when Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) announces his arrival with a calling card scented with lavender in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Kaspar Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) confesses he has a "fondness" for his armed assistant, whom Spade calls a "gunsel," slang for a young homosexual partner. And when they first meet, Gutman keeps putting his hand on Spade's knee.
Those features might have won the movie a spot on a list of the ten best lesbian and gay movies if the list were being put together in an earlier era. The Maltese Falcon is one of the greatest movies of any kind, but calling it gay would be a stretch dictated by the dearth of other options.
That long-ago list might also include Test Pilot (1938) because of the obvious affection Gunner Morris (Spencer Tracy) has for Jim Lane (Clark Gable) and his jealousy over Lane's love for Ann Barton (Myrna Loy). In Double Indemnity (1944), there is more tenderness between Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) and Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) than there is between Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck). Gilda (1946) could have made the vintage list because of suggestions that Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) had a relationship with his boss (George Macready).
A ten best list of lesbian/gay movies all those years ago would have been shaped by hints, speculation and wishful thinking.
The few movies that made their homosexual content at least a little more than implicit fostered poisonous stereotypes of queers as either doomed misfits or sadistic predators. For lesbian/gay role models one could choose between movies featuring miserable queers who killed themselves (The Children's Hour, 1961; Advise and Consent, 1962) or vicious queers who were killed by others (Suddenly, Last Summer, 1959; The Strange One, 1957).
Gay men in movies were killers who worked alone (Strangers on a Train, 1959; Laura, 1944) or in pairs (Compulsion, 1959; The Big Combo, 1955). There were killers who possibly were gay (Kiss of Death, 1947; Rope, 1948) or others who certainly were (Reflections in a Golden Eye, 1967; Cruising, 1980). For an admirable homosexual character, about the closest you could find was Dirk Bogarde's tormented blackmail target in Victim, 1961. Movies' unrelenting treatment of homosexuals as weak, sick or murderous fed an internalized homophobia reflected in such scenes as one in Midnight Cowboy (1969's Academy Award winner for Best Picture) in which our hero kicks and beats a gay man who says repeatedly that he deserves it.
Compiling a ten best lesbian/gay movies list today is much easier, although one does run into some problems of definition. In retrospect, is Mr. Wrong (1996) a gay movie because it stars Ellen De Generes? Does a movie with Anne Heche count if she made it while she was dating Ellen? What about every movie Rock Hudson made?
The task is complicated not as it once was by surfeit, but by surplus. One could cite ten worthy movies that are primarily concerned with homosexual themes (My Beautiful Laundrette, 1985; Maurice, 1987) or a different ten in which the gay content is in important sub-plots (Les Voleurs, aka Thieves, 1996, with Catherine Deneuve; Go, 1999, with Scott Wolf and Jay Mohr) or in minor ones (The Fully Monty, 1997; American Beauty, 1999).
One could abandon the lesbian/gay category and recommend ten movies about bisexuals (Chasing Amy, 1997; Kissing Jessica Stein, 2001) or about people who are transgendered (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, 1994; Transamerica, 2005).
A contemporary list could concentrate on mainstream dramas that failed at the box office (Making Love and Personal Best, both 1982) or on comedies that were hits (In & Out, 1997; The Birdcage, 1996). A ten best list could be about non-fiction films (1990's Paris is Burning about New York City drag performers; 2000's Paragraph 175 about Nazi Germany) or about films that are not in English (Taxi zum Klo, 1981; Cheun gwong tsa sit, 1997, aka Happy Together).
People who compiled their top ten lists long ago could not have imagined how a wealth of movies showing ways in being gay would enrich the world of film. There are openly gay directors, screenwriters, producers and actors. Some lesbian/gay movies are about people who are defined by their sexuality and others are about people whose orientations are incidental.
Most lesbian/gay movies are about Caucasian characters (more about that below), but otherwise they display diversities that would have been revolutionary in the days when movies showed queers as only sad, sick or sadistic. Queer characters in the movies are Catholic, Methodist, Muslim, Mormon and non-believers; teachers, mathematicians, soldiers, crooks, cowboys and cartoons (Saddam Hussein in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, 1999). The movies have yet to give us a gay president of the United States but they will, just as voters will eventually put one in the real White House.
Where a list made years ago might have had to sneak in movies just because they star Joan Crawford or Judy Garland, one today has to let scores of real lesbian/gay movies fall by the wayside. The pace of queer movie production has picked up so much that one could post many ten best lists. The valuable runners-up cut from this one number more than 30.
But the category calls for only ten and so here is the list of the ten best lesbian/gay movies ever. It is definitive, until you write yours.
1) YOSSI & JAGGER (2002)
writer: Avner Bernheimer; director: Eytan Fox
Suggestion for a double-feature: Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story
Yossi & Jagger's title characters, one a cheerful extrovert and the other an introspective stoic, are proof that opposites can attract. They are two young Israeli soldiers who share a love they must keep secret from their comrades. So when they can find a moment to be alone together, they sneak away from the small fort in which their unit keeps watch over part of Israel's contested borders.
At its end, the short, subtitled movie is wrenching, inspiring and then heartbreaking. Before that, it pulses with energy, life and the thrills of being in love.
2) PARTING GLANCES (1986)
writer/director Bill Sherwood
From the movie: "The penis astonishes me. It can give pain and pleasure, it can give life and now it can give death."
"Pesky little devils, aren't they?"
Possible double-feature: Trick or All Over the Guy
In Parting Glances, two men in Manhattan spend their last few hours together before one leaves for an extended work-related trip to Africa. It turns out that he is leaving because their relationship is getting stale. He expects to come back eventually so they can pick up where they left off because he believes they are meant for each other. But the revelation of his motives comes as an unpleasant surprise to his boyfriend. One of the movie's many graceful touches is that the revelation and the response to it spark laughter, not tears.
Steve Buscemi is excellent as a musician with AIDS. He has affection for his friends and cynicism for the rest of the world. Buscemi infuses the movie with an engaging anarchic energy. Writer/director Bill Sherwood handles Buscemi's part of the plot so deftly that it never becomes maudlin, even if one knows that Sherwood died of AIDS-related illnesses just after finishing this, his only movie. By itself, this delightful blend of comedy and light drama makes Sherwood's film legacy impressive.
3) LIANNA (1983)
writer/director: John Sayles
Reviewed on Epinions by Psychovant: "John Sayles has put forth here an authentic film about one woman's life and the choices, obstacles, fears, and triumphs that come hand in hand with it. He has done it compassionately, intelligently, and tastefully."
From the movie: Lianna's son says, "So, my old lady's a dyke. Big deal."
Double-feature: If These Walls Could Talk 2 or A Question of Love
In Lianna, a woman who is married to a man has an affair with a female college professor and comes to realize she is a lesbian. It sounds simple and it is, if one chooses to see it that way. But for anyone looking deeper, there is a lot going on beneath the unpolished surface of Sayles' low-key masterwork.
Rachel Griffith gives a restrained, memorable performance as the title character. She faces a new, uncertain future with grace and gentle humor that are admirable and affecting.
4) BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005)
writers: Annie Proulx (short story), Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (screenplay); director: Ang Lee
Reviewed on Epinions by trust12345: Lee "turns his sensitive camera and thoughtful gaze to the short story, matching both its raw beauty and haunting but grounded poignancy."
Double-feature: The Wedding Banquet, also directed by Lee
Brokeback Mountain is a triumph of understatement. Ang Lee's quiet, confident direction reflects the nature of the laconic main character. His few words convey powerful but contained emotion. Heath Ledger's haunting performance is rich with suggestion and layers he reveals with quiet mastery as the story unfolds.
It is about two men conflicted about their passions for each other. They revel in each other's company when they are able to retreat together in idyllic isolation. But then they must return to the world in which they have responsibilities to their wives and children and in which men are not allowed to love other men. The tensions they suffer culminate in a heartbreaking moment in which one of them contemplates two shirts, one bloodied, and the loss they reflect.
5) BEAUTIFUL THING (1995)
writer: Jonathan Harvey (adapting his play); director: Hettie Macdonald
Reviewed on Epinions by MrsNormanMaine who observes, after another delightful update on her glittering career as a star of the stage and screen, "The performances, and the crisp dialog, however, carry it along toward its happy conclusion, the infectiously joyous sound of Mama Cass's voice providing a certain delectable buoyancy to the proceedings."
Double-feature: Get Real
Beautiful Thing is a heartwarming story about two boys in a working-class neighborhood in England who are coming to realize they might love each other. There are countless nice touches in this extraordinary movie. One of the many is a scene in which the boys run through a moonlit forest. At first, their romp is the stuff of youthful exuberance. But it yields to tenderness that suggests adult passion.
6) WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING (1995)
writer/director Patricia Rozema
Reviewed on Epinions by malcs: "There is such a well-measured sense of balance to this film that the love scenes are in turn highly erotic, as well as touching and moving."
Double-feature: Desert Hearts
When Night is Falling features spellbinding photography by cinematographer Douglas Koch. Tricks of the light dazzle and panoramas instill wonder. The movie would be engaging even if it were filmed in the dullest black & white. It shows with compelling conviction and quiet grace a woman who is engaged to a man she loves but is drawn to a woman she loves as well.
7) LONGTIME COMPANION (1990)
writer: Craig Lucas (adapting his play); director: Norman Rene
Reviewed on Epinions by kknox0616: "[p]erhaps the best gay flick ever produced . . . . Lucas simply presents situations that are riveting and deeply touching, ably assisted by one of the best ensemble casts since The Big Chill."
Double-feature: As Is
Most of Longtime Companion has a grave intimacy. We are with its several characters as they move from a world full of possibilities and free from health worries to one in which AIDS fundraisers are familiar rituals. We are at the bedside of a dying man whose husband (in all but name, hence the movie's title) talks him tenderly toward the most peaceful death possible in some of the most wrenching circumstances imaginable.
There is laughter in Longtime Companion as well, and joy. Its characters cherish friendships and loves with appreciation for the good fortune that has brought them together. The end is a dreamlike evocation of our resilience even in the face of catastrophe.
8) BIG EDEN (2000)
writer/director: Thomas Bezucha
Reviewed on Epinions by lynus: "Big Eden is a movie filled to the brim with sweetness, warmth, and beauty. From the very first frame to the last; Big Eden creates a surreal world where all that matters in life is love."
Double-feature: All Over the Guy or The Sum of Us
This Big Eden really could be a kind of paradise, if the central character gave it a chance. It is a scenic splendor, a town on a lake in the woods. Good people live there. He doesn't notice because he is intent on ending his visit quickly so he can return to New York City. And he's so focused on his unrequited love for a man he's known since they were boys that he doesn't notice a different man who would be great for him.
The townspeople notice. They do all they can to bring the two together. Bits of will-they-or-won't-they suspense and gentle humor energize Big Eden, but its main power radiates from the townspeople who embody love in all the ways it can touch and surprise us.
9) BENT (1997)
writer: Martin Sherman (adapting his play); director Sean Mathias
Reviewed on Epinions by Psychovant: "It also shows us how much of a difference love can make on your perception of yourself as well as others, on your dignity, and even more so on your own will to survive."
Double-feature: Aimee & Jaguar
Bent focuses on two men who fall in love with each other in a Nazi concentration camp. They are not allowed to touch each other, but the words they exchange and the fantasies they share provide a surprising substitute for sex. Ultimately, the two lovers transcend the oppression and violence they suffer. The ending is a grim triumph of the human spirit.
10) BOUND (1996)
writer/directors: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Reviewed on Epinions by brendan2: "The film is a 1990s film noir full of surprises and twists and turns. . . . Bound is fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat entertainment."
Double-feature: Apartment Zero or Plata quemada (aka Burnt Money)
Bound features a relationship, sexual and more, between a tough ex-con and a bosomy woman with a Betty Boop voice. That woman also has a gangster boyfriend. The women plan to steal money belonging to his boss. Their scheme is audacious and selfish. It will get the boyfriend killed. They don't care. Before long, double-cross has piled atop double-cross and no one can be sure about whether anyone else can be trusted.
This stylish crime thriller is riveting. It makes something as simple as spilled paint both beautiful and unnerving.
_____
NO RAINBOW COALITION
All of the main characters in these ten movies are white. (It might be relevant here that so am I.) I didn't notice that until after I'd compiled the list.
It's a shame because there are good movies about people who are not white. Brother to Brother, for example, would be on the list because of its vibrant flashbacks to the Harlem Renaissance, but it falls short because it features in the present-day scenes an annoying main character. Dona Herlinda y su hijo, aka Dona Herlinda and Her Son, is subversive and sly but I didn't remember it until after I'd made the list and then I couldn't identify the one it might have replaced.
Eventually someone will make a movie about Bayard Rustin and that might make a future list. Or someone will film an Asian Brokeback Mountain, an African Lianna or a Romeo and Julio. That will be welcome, although it will make the "only ten" requirement even more difficult to satisfy.
MORE ABOUT THIS LIST
This replaces one I posted here in 2001. Only three of that list's top ten are on this one, which made the earlier edition obsolete.
My top ten in that simpler time: 1) Parting Glances ; 2) If These Walls Could Talk 2; 3) Beautiful Thing ; 4) Bent ; 5) The Sum of Us; 6) Boys in the Band; 7) Breaking the Code, not yet reviewed on Epinions; 8) Hollow Reed, aka Believe Me also not reviewed here yet; 9) The Opposite of Sex; and 10) Lilies. They are worthwhile still but there's just no room for most of them this time around.
This new list is the first of several intended to spark renewed interest in this category, which has been stagnant for seven years. I plan to post others eventually, including: ten best movies by decade (the 1950s one will be very short); ten best gay sub-plots in otherwise non-gay movies; ten best gay documentaries; ten best gay/lesbian movie failures; ten best bisexual/transgendered movies; and (stretching the boundaries of the category) ten best gay characters on television.
On that last list I hope to include Dr. Gregory House of House, M.D. on Fox, if he comes out before then. Or maybe even if he doesn't. He shares more with Sherlock Holmes than superior deductive skills, scathing wit, a drug addiction, musical ability, a sidekick named Dr. W--son and a last name synonymous with "dwelling."
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
eplovejoy
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Peter William Warn
Location: Buffalo, New York
Reviews written: 351
Trusted by: 304 members
About Me:
Help us compile the definitive list of groundbreaking movies: http://www99.epinions.com/content_5192196228
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.