bothner@Navajo.ARPA (08/22/85)
[This minor interchange about the new movie "Bride" was posted to the GAY bulletin board here at Stanford. It's been suggested the net.motss might find it interesting, so (with permission) here it is. I'd be interested to see the reactions of other people (especially straights and/or people with inside information). The bboard's address is gay@SU-SUSHI.ARPA or ...decwrl!glacier!gay@sushi. It is on four DEC-20 machines here, including the standard instructional machines available to all students. Recently, net.motss is also being forwarded (read-only) to the same machines. Both bboards have a large readership. The number of people who post (to "gay") is (as to be expected) usually fairly small, and the traffic varies: Now during break, things are rather quiet, but now and then we get some controversy and suddenly there is a lot of traffic, sometimes also on the regular bboards. This is helped by the fact that the campus organization Gay and Lesbian Alliance at Stanford (GLAS) is very active, visible and attracts people from all over the Peninsula.] ------- Date: Mon 19 Aug 85 19:08:31-PDT From: Per Bothner <BOTHNER@SU-SUSHI.ARPA> Subject: "Bride" I saw "Bride" the other day (the remake of the cult classic "The Bride of Frankenstein"). I don't know how much sense it makes to say that a movie registers on "radar", but this one certainly did. I haven't seen anything to confirm it, but I would be very surprised unless a lot of the people involved (including the director) were gay. Among the factors which supported this growing conviction: Quentin Crisp (author of "The Naked Civil Servant") has a minor role as Frankenstein's co-worker. There a lot of naked male torsos. The casting is also suggestive: While Sting (as Frankenstein) is married, he sure is one hell of a charismatic guy (which I've thought since I first saw him in "The Secret Policeman's (Other) Ball"); the cavalry officer is very pretty (and causes an extra "blip"). Also, the relationship between the Monster and the midget. I'd be interested if other people share my opinion - or have facts. Of course, this is irrelevant in an artistic sense... I found "Bride" worth seeing, but flawed; particularly the direction and acting were weak. But it's an interesting twist on the Frankenstein myth. Not only the people(!), but also the scenery and photography are pretty and colorful. Jennifer Beals plays the Bride; you'll also recognize the midget from "Star Trek" (though I've forgotten his name). (Ooops! Is "midget" the Politically Correct term?) --Per ------- Date: Tue 20 Aug 85 08:06:09-PDT From: John Reuling <R.Reuling@LOTS-B> Subject: Re: "Bride" All true, but you missed the most "obviously" gay pair in the movie: the circus manager and his "assistant." Didn't you notice that they were always together, even at night? In fact, when the assistant (I forget his name) got killed, and all of the cute little muscular blond circus-boys got SO upset, I wondered what we were supposed to think of that. In general an interesting movie, but a little predictable, I thought. -J ------- Date: Tue 20 Aug 85 11:45:25-PDT From: Per Bothner <BOTHNER@SU-SUSHI.ARPA> Subject: Re: "Bride" I did notice the circus manager and assistant, at least at the level of my growing awareness of something "funny". I don't think that the predictability of the movie is necessarily a flaw, since it deals with mythic themes - after all we are all very familiar with the Frankenstein story at some level or other. Cumulatively the "gayness" of "Bride" seems pretty un-subtle, but I'd be interested in to what extent straights noticed it. (I went to see it with a straight friend - who by the way I've mentioned various things to that should make him suspect my orientation. Neither of us mentioned anything, but (now to come to the point of this digression) he was somewhat more negative about the movie than I was, describing it as "two stars" to another friend.) --Per
rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (08/23/85)
I haven't seen "Bride" but if Per's guess is right, that the movie's the creation of a largely gay production team, then it would be a continuation of a venerable tradition. Director James Whale, who made the original "Frankenstein" & "Bride of Frankenstein", was openly gay & artistically uncompromising. I'm told he was in effect forced out of Hollywood because of that, even though he was one of Tinseltown's better & more original directors. Kenneth Anger's lurid "Hollywood Babylon" books has I believe an extended description of Whale & his career. A cineaste (?) friend of mine pointed out the scene in "Frankenstein" between the Monster, the flower & the little girl as an example of the film's unusual sensitivity. The "Frankenstein" made a few years ago as a faithful transcription of Mary Shelley's novel and shown on PBS, had strong homoerotic overtones in it, not too surprising when you discover that Christopher Isherwood wrote the screenplay. Finally, deeply in debt & wanting to make a fast bundle, Andy Warhol picked "Frankenstein" and "Dracula" as the subjects for two glossy commercial films he made in the (late?) 70s. Regards, Ron Rizzo Monster to the Doctor after seeing the Bride for the first time: "My dear, you gave me such a fright!"
reuling@Navajo.ARPA (08/23/85)
In article <178@Navajo.ARPA> bothner@Navajo.ARPA (Per Bothner) writes: >[This minor interchange about the new movie "Bride" was posted to >the GAY bulletin board here at Stanford.... > >The bboard's address is gay@SU-SUSHI.ARPA or >...decwrl!glacier!gay@sushi. It is on four DEC-20 machines here, >including the standard instructional machines available to all >students. If you post to this bboard, please DON'T send your message over ARPANET; use the address "...decwrl!glacier!gay@sushi" instead. Although no one seems to complain about using the ARPANET for non-DARPA communications (e.g. SF-LOVERS digest), some people get quite upset when it is used for certain "immoral" or "offensive" purposes. There was a big stink earlier this year when a notice about Stanford's GALA (Gay And Lesbian Awareness) Week was posted via ARPANET to several bboards at UC Berkeley. Don't misunderstand; I think this is all a very silly business. But our GAY bboard is enjoyed by many members of the "Stanford Community," and I don't want to risk losing it, so as one of its two maintainers, I'm willing to put up with a little silliness. -J -- John Reuling ARPANET: REULING@SU-SCORE Stanford University BITNET: FC.JAR@STANFORD Computer Science Dept USENET: decwrl!glacier!navajo!reuling