S/D: Gay movies of arty qualities

'finding forrester'?

whatshisface from TLA, who literally wrote the book on gay/queer cinema(and it's a fascinating book), always put together really cool bills for the gay film festival in philly every year. there is SO much out there. and yeah, some is horrible, but that is true of everything.

Tho some might say 'not gay enuf,' I would mention Jenni Olson's "The Joy of Life," which has played in far too few cities.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0436457/

Farewell My Concubine
Beau travail (it's not just a "gay film", but the gay theme is very strong, though mostly under the surface)
Half of Almodovar
Gods and Monsters
Lilies
Family Pack
Replay (La Répétition)
Surrender Dorothy
Suddenly (Tan de repente)

Or as teh Scarecrow said to Dorothy, "Some people go both ways."

* Homosexual
* Independent Film
* Gay Interest
* Abandoned Building
* Adolescent
* Art Collector
* Brutality
* Childhood Friend
* Christmas
* Cruising
* Desert
* Domestic Violence
* Drag Queen
* Forest
* Gay Bar
* Gay Bashing
* Gun
* Highway
* Interview
* Kennedy Assassination
* Lake
* Male Nudity
* Memory
* Movie Theater
* New York City
* Prostitution
* Rape
* Same Sex Situation
* Same Sex Union
* Semi Autobiographical
* Small Town
* Truck Driver
* Violence
* Water
* Hitch Hiker
* Non Linear
* Pay For Sex
* Pick Up
* Porno Theater
* Sexual Imagery
* Sun Bathing
* Male Prostitute
* Depression
* Sadomasochism

search..uh.. Midnight Cowboy? The Conformist? Dog Day Afternoon? I guess those are just movies with gay people in them, though haha

I watched most of Latter Days with my last roommate. He didn't seem to find it all to, er, edifying, so.. destroy.

this site is funny:

http://campblood.org/

http://www.tlavideo.com/templates/results_list.cfm?v=0&sn=1&pid=8358

"It all starts when the lead singer of a boy band just doesn't fit into the team anymore. So they do what all good boy bands do, the underwear-clad studs gather round the singer and suck his blood dry. To replace the lead singer the band, and their manager played with calm poise by Adrienne Barbeau (the actress, currently on "Carnavale" on HBO, is known for creating the role of Rizzo in Grease and playing Maude's daughter in the '70s TV show) decide to hold public concerts. Creating a sort of reality TV situation they select three contestants and invite the hunky boys to their private island where they will select the new singer. Immediately, there's friction with a girlfriend, a hero boy with a guitar on his back and lots of 6-pack abs and raised shirts. When the "good" contestant Shawn finds a secret cave with voodoo dolls, tons of candles, a torture rack and mysterious band photos, there's hell to pay."

OMG! That reminds me of a movie whose credentials as arty or gay are on probation, but Sleepaway Camp is the best slasher movie!

First gay fillum per se is Basil Dearden's Victim, starring Dirk Bogarde as a homo barrister in the days before Wolfenden, being scared to shit because bad men were bribing him with cottage photos. It's amazing. It's also on PBS affiliates about once every year, usually in a season with The Servant and other class-based dramas.

Also Paris is Burning seems to speak to/about the years I lived in NYC.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FP2YR2/102-1063953-7028925

still hstencil OTM about Anger, the epitome of gay "artiness"

Parting Glances
The Living End
Wild Reeds
The Opposite of Sex
Gods & Monsters
Bad Education

I want gangster movies where EVERYONE is gay!

oh, i think that a bare-chested henry II whipping himself to a bloody pulp at beckett's tomb is pretty not-subtle if you ask me.

Maaaaaaaybe not arty, really, but had some arty elements.

Alfred, interested in what you disliked about "Sebastian" (2024).

Is it because it portrays sex work as sad and desperate?

I mean, I honestly had a lot of fun when I was an escort, but can see where it could go pear-shaped quite quickly.

(i haven't seen the film).

It treats sex work as a gimmick: The Writer going undercover to learn Deep Truths. “Will I write a better novel as a sex worker?” he asks.

it's also lugubrious as hell

sure, that makes sense.

i was hoping it would be good because uh well Ruaridh Mollica is a smokeshow imho

my date today reminded me, in conversation, that i had never seen this, and now i have, and everyone should. (i collect vintage porn, so this is ultimately very very interesting for me)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Paux2eyki10

(It's William E Jones, "The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography")

not explicitly gay, really, but pretty gay nonetheless, MONSTER was really good, i thought!!

the Charlize Theron movie?

I’m assuming table means Koreeda. In which case I agree: wonderful film.

Agree too.

While we’re at it, a lesbian film, and not especially arty (unless foreign + quiet = arty), but I really liked All Shall Be Well, currently streaming on Criterion.

I am sick, explaining my movie bingeing — I had never seen ‘Happy Together’ until just now. Incredible film. Also Tony Leung is such a smokeshow it almost hurts.

Otm on all counts

Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (on Criterion) is worth the watch

Tony Leung is so hot! He was the co-star of In the Mood for Love (2000) with Maggie Cheung, one of my favorite films ever!!! He also starred in Chungking Express (1994) and Happy Together (1997).

I really liked Kore-eda's Monster, but it seemed very enigmatic

The film by Kore-eda that I loved the most is not gay. It is an early film, Nobody Knows (2004). It stars Yûya Yagira, a teenage boy of an alcoholic, absent mother who is trying to look after his younger siblings without any resources. I think he was the youngest person to ever win the Cannes best actor award.

watched “North Sea, Texas” and “Summer of ‘85.” Both rather beautiful and sad.

Man, I can't believe I still haven't seen Summer of '84, especially since I remember liking the novel (Dance on My Grave, by Aidan Chambers) so much.

I've never heard of the other film!

Félix Lefebvre, the protagonist in the latter, is quite literally my platonic ideal of a young man.

Oh! That’s the novel that gets the boys in trouble in ‘Boy Like Me’!! I should read it.

“North Sea, Texas” does have some of the hallmarks of young queer love stories— neglectful mother, bisexual and capricious love interest, etc. But its beautiful moments are so beautiful, and the relationship ends up being rather beautiful too. Very much about “young love” and a boy coming into himself.

Summer of '85 was a much virtual cum shot in the grim fall of 2020.

*much needed, haha

The scene with them in bed definitely uh got me a little hot

Mädchen in Uniform (1931) is I think one of the earliest films to contain overt (rather than covert) lesbian references and is very much recommended.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4dchen_in_Uniform

Assumed the thread revive would be for ‘Pillion’ which was quite brilliant and surprisingly funny. As if there weren’t enough reasons to live Harry Melling.

I think the reason I haven’t been interested in that one is that I can tell the plot from the trailer, and I don’t find any of the main characters attractive

(I also have very mixed feelings on biker and leather culture in general)

Matt, you should also check the Mexican remake of ‘Mädchen’ from the 50s if you can track it down

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_in_Uniform_(1951_film)

Doesn't seem to be a subtitled version on YT unfortunately but I'll add it to the seek list!

Watched ‘Departure’ starring Alex Lawther. Lovely film, some truly incredible camera moments

Also Lawther is a great actor!

'Heartstone' was good, sort of in the same vein as 'Close' but rather than the Belgian countryside, the setting is rural northern Iceland. Some of the shots were incredible— boys wandering fields next to cows as huge mountains loom in the near distance, desperate local chip shops where the teens gather as the site of fights, kids playing in a spring. Made me want to go to Iceland. (But yeah, fair warning: while the more sensitive/gay of the two boys doesn't die in 'Heartstone,' the ending is rather wrenching)

Watched a few things in the past few weeks, some of which I rather liked:

Fireworks (2024), which is a character-driven but also rather beautiful in its shots of the Italian countryside. Boys fall in love, families disapprove and sabotage their affair. Inspired by true events, apparently, and not happy ones. Won't give more away. The inclusion of extended moped scenes also, of course, recalled <<Les roseaux sauvages>> in a way that I'm sure was intentional.

Beach Rats (2017) is Harris Dickinson's debut, and is a delirious film about a closeted, shiftless young man living near the Coney Island boardwalk. It's crushing and woozy, and Dickinson does a great job both acting and being naked in it. (Honestly, he is insanely hot in this film, the sort of guy I have always lusted after).

\And right now I am in the middle of Plainclothes (2025). I was wary of this film because I thought it might be copaganda, but it proved my skepticism unfounded. The struggles of the protagonist are so intense and anxiety-inducing that I am glad that I often take breaks when watching films at home— I will finish it tomorrow.

Of the first two, I highly recommend Beach Rats. The other is lovely, but nothing that most of us haven't seen before.

The star of Beach Rats would play opposite Nicole Kidman in 2024's Babygirl.