bothner@Navajo.ARPA (06/27/85)
Comments on the movies I've seen at this year's San Francisco
International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
"More and More Love", Japan, 1984, is directly concerned with
homophobia and the AIDS crisis. It tells of a popular singer
who finds love, a journalist who exposes him, the hysterical
reactions of his Christian parents, his fear that he has caught
AIDS and his supportive gay friends. The film is a strong indictment
of the negative effect Christianity has had on Japanese society.
There were a number of long sex scenes (as close to hard-core
as you can get without showing genitals), and this might seem
inappropriate in a serious film to Western audiences.
At the end, there was mixed applause and boos from the audience.
I don't think the boos were deserved, but I agree the film had
some problems, including a rather exaggerated (and perhaps
unfamiliar) style. Directed by Koshi Shimada, and produced by
Japan's (supposedly) most visible gay activist Ken Togoh.
"Naughty Boys", Netherlands, 1983. After the party, six men
in evening dress, having strange telephone conversations
with remote lovers (in different languages), and remembering
earlier dances. A very experimental and slow-moving film.
We left about half-way through.
"The L-Shaped Room", UK, 1962. This was in the "1960's Britsh
Cinema" series, when British films were beginning to treat
homosexual characters in a non-stereotypical manner.
(Watching the trailers for some of these was pretty amusing.)
Jane (Leslie Caron), pregnant and single, moves into a
seady rooming house. She falls in love with Toby (Tom Bell),
but their love is complicated by the baby and by Toby's poverty.
Among the other boarders are Johnny (Brock Peters - black so of
course he plays the trumpet), who is in love with Toby, and
various other off-beat characters.
Best scene (paraphrased from memory):
@begin(MINOR SPOILER)
Another roomer (Cicily Courtneidge) is an aging ex-vaudevillian.
She reminisces about her one true love.
Jane asks a question about "him".
"Him? Who do you mean?"
"Why, your old flame."
"If you want to, there's a picture of my sweetheart."
As Jane looks at the picture (another actress), and does double-take:
"It takes all kinds, dear."
<<Applause>>
Then: "I hope [the baby] is a girl, dear. Boys are so much trouble."
<<Applause>>
@end(MINOR SPOILER)
Maltin gives this 3.5 stars, Scheurer (?) 4 stars. I think 3 stars.
It's long, and (while perhaps brave for the time) a little dated.
It's an interesting look at the period, though, and the characters
are also interesting and well acted.
"Horror Vacui-Die Angst vor der Leere" (Horror Vacui-The Fear of
Emptyness), West Germany, 1984. This tells how a young gay student
falls into the clutches of Madame C and her cult of Optimal
Optimism, and how his more level-headed lover tries to rescue him.
This is filmed in a very minimalist and expressionistic style.
It concerns how people are willing to bow down to an authority
figure who tells them what to do, even at the cost of their own
destruction, and has a post-Nazi sensitivity.
This is a serious, funny and brilliant movie ("worth 5 bucks and
standing in the rain"), directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
"Luminous Procuress", US, 1971. This film by Steven Arnold was
supposedly a major avant-garde success, and got raves even by
mainstream critics. It tells how two young men are shown around
in a very strange brothel. It's a mostly-straight film. It
features the Cockettes, a comedy/drag/musical troupe from then.
Most of the film displays elaborate but rather static set-pieces,
where nude or outrageously dressed people are part of the scenery.
As a futher alienating device, it's all non-verbal: When people
are speaking, you hear a voice-over of someone speaking what
could be Russian or a nonsense language.
There was applause at the end, but I found it mostly boring.
Shorts:
"David Roche Talks to you about Love".
Basically a very funny, very cynical and very painful long
monolog by Roche. Definitely worth going out of your way for,
even if you're straight. Quotes:
"Love is knowledge and acceptance (in spite of the knowledge)".
"A loves B, who loves C, who loves D, who has a vibrator."
"The Steps", an amusing little hommage to Sergei Eisenstein.
"Castro Street", filmed at Halloween. I found it pretty boring,
though many in the audience seemed to like it. Being done in
8mm (at least it looked like it) didn't help. I guess I'm pretty
jaded, having been to too many masquerades at too many science
fiction conventions to be easily impressed.
Earlier I've seen two earlier festival films: "The Times of
Harvey Milk" (of which enough has already been said in this
newsgroup), and "Before Stonewall - The Making of a Lesbian
and Gay Community" (US, 1984). This is a reasonably good
historical overview upto the Stonewall riots. I heard there
are a couple of historical inaccuracies (there \was/ an
American homophile political group before the Mattachine
Society), and sanitizations.
A number of other movies looked interesting, but it's
a long drive to Mecca...
--Per Bothner
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