Gay Cinema

[killersmom]

I saw two films this weekend, one of which I believe has been mentioned here before.
I saw GAYBY and A BIG GAY MUSICAL.  They both had their positives and I enjoyed watching
them both.

I've seen A BIG GAY MUSICAL. but have not seen GAYBY, yet. I liked MUSICAL and like the looks of GAYBY.

[Uli]

I also read and watched For a lost soldier - and can say that in my opinion book and movie are two very different things.
I would like to know what the author thought of the movie.

Again hiding possible spoilers...

The main difference is how the relationship between Jeroen (the boy) and the soldier is portrayed. In my opinion in the book it is clearly child abuse, with the child being confused - in love and scared and disgusted at the same time. In the movie the relationship seems much more like a loving one.

I really liked the book, because I think the boys feelings - about the abuse, but also about his situation with being sent away from home for the last year of the war and about coming back to Amsterdam and feeling completely out of place there are very well described and moving.

With the background of the book I found the movie slightly disturbing - although I think in the movie the boy was supposed to be a bit older than in the book.
I don't regret watching the movie, but I liked the book much much better and I am glad I read the book first.
I also think the movie was not able to transport Jeroen's feelings as well as the book.

The moment that really broke my heart was when Jeroen finds that his mother washed his shirt with the hidden photo of Walt and that the photo is destroyed. As problematic as - for me - his relationship with Walt was, I could very well imagine how he must have felt with this only keepsake he had of Walt being gone forever. 

[Cally]

I did some serious Eytan Fox movie shopping lately... The Bubble, Yossy & Jagger and Yossi. The DVD of Yossi & Jagger contained also his short Time Off.

The movies gave an interesting insight into the life in Israel. I know, they are "just" movies, but I guess there must be some truth to what was shown. It was especially scary how natural it seems to be for soldiers walking around town fully and openly armed.

I liked all three movies, but by far my favorite was Yossi! I wanted to hug Yossi the whole movie.
The movie was so melancholic - seeing how lonely and sad Yossi was. I guess it was rather coincidental - and unfortunate for Ohad Knoller - how much the actor had changed and how much weight he had gained between the two movies, but it was very fitting for the story I think.

Some thoughts - to be safe spoiler wise I am hiding them.


Regarding The Bubble - Damn, I didn't expect this ending! 

Trying to quote without seeing the spoilers! Fairly successful.... I want to buy Yossi, but will wait for the price to come down hopefully. I really want to see it.

Yes, I feel Fox's films have given me more insight too (I include Walk on Water, hjich was rather different, but also interesting).

I'm sorry about Ohad's weight gain - he was so adorable in The Bubble. Perhaps it was especially for the film? (and as for the ending of The Bubble ....  well, even a smiley is a spoiler, I suppose!)

[gattaca]

Yes, I feel Fox's films have given me more insight too (I include Walk on Water, hjich was rather different, but also interesting)

Agree.  WoW, YaJ were two very early films which made me a fan of Fox's work.  Most recently, I saw "The Bubble" based on the many recommendations here and I was also caught off-guard by the ending.   All of three of these films have presented the subject matter in a mature, sometimes subtle, way which makes me really sit up and admire the directors even more. Subtle is hard to do and do well.   Yossi is on my must watch list too.  I have been watching if Netflix adds it to the streaming listing but so far - no go.   Cheers, V. 

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Not specifically a gay film, but one with gay themes and characters is PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER.
There was something about it that drew me in, but kept me away at the same time. I don't know what to
say about it. I know a lot of people who really liked it and a few who were "meh."

[canmark]

Not specifically a gay film, but one with gay themes and characters is PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER.
There was something about it that drew me in, but kept me away at the same time. I don't know what to
say about it. I know a lot of people who really liked it and a few who were "meh."

I really liked the first 3/4 of Perks, but SPOILER, that repressed memory and mental breakdown in the latter part of the film just seem to bring it all down (and seemed unnecessary, too). Ezra Miller gets a lot of acclaim for the gay character, Patrick, but I really liked Logan Lerman as Charlie. I have not seen those Percy Jackson movies, so I was not aware of him before.

[canmark]

Bridegroom. Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN1F49l8DDc

http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2013/04/26/gay-films-2013-tribeca-film-festival?page=0,1
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/bridegroom-tribeca-review-446494

When Shane Bitney Crone released a devastating Youtube video last year, chronicling his relationship with Tom, his fiance who died tragically, the video was a viral sensation. Now a year later, the story has been turned into a documentary directed and co-produced by Linda Bloodworth Thomason, the creator of Designing Women, whom the young couple had met when attending a wedding years earlier. The result is an affecting documentary about true love, and how to deal with the aftermath of a devastating loss.

Former President Bill Clinton introduced Bridegroom at the film's premiere, saying, "This is really on one level a wonderful, sad, heartbreaking, yet exhilirating and life-affirming story, and on another level, it's a story about our nation's struggle to make one more step in forming a more perfect union, for which marriage is both the symbol and the substance. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did."

[Vlad]

Bridegroom trailer really has left big impresion on me, its so fulfiled with emotions and love, this movie is in a must watch category. Story looks really touching, lovely... :-)

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I watched the documentary MAKING THE BOYS yesterday.  It is about the play and subsequent film version
of THE BOYS IN THE BAND and how it came to be, what it means in terms of GLBT history and how it's been
viewed over the decades.

There is a ton of archival footage related to the author, Mart Crowley, and the show itself, filled with tons of
Hollywood anecdotes and gay history and the like. It's fascinating even if one has never seen or heard of that
play/film.

Highly recommend it.

[andy]

^^^^^^

I happened to come across this on utube recently and would thoroughly recommend it.

[janjo]

Mr Janjo and I watched "When I'm Sixty Four" on Youtube yesterday, (as recommended by Linda).
Luckily, we can play Youtube through our TV.
We loved it.
Really excellent, with a wonderful cast.
Thank you Linda.
Good one.

[killersmom]

I am so glad you both liked it, Jess!
It is one I revisit, because the story is just so good, and I too, loved the cast!

When I'm Sixty Four link again.

http://youtu.be/l5Sj7LgTHx8 (complete film)

[canmark]

Saw Continental, Malcolm Ingram's documentary about the legendary Continental Baths in NYC. In many ways, the story is so fantastical it has to be true. A lavish gay bathhouse located in the Ansonia Hotel, a grand and historic Upper West Side residential hotel (albeit in decline in the late 60's-early 70's that was the Continental heyday), that opened pre-Stonewall and featured legendary entertainment from Bette Midler and Barry Manilow, Labelle, Peter Allen, DJ Frankie Knuckles... even Sarah Vaughan performed there! Celebrities and high society could be found in the audience (Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, Mick Jagger, and others) alongside men in towels, while just upstairs hundreds of men were cruising or participating in wild sex orgies. The owner, Steve Ostrow, had a wife and children, although seems ultimately to be gay (his wife became a nun, although she also helped with the bathhouse business). In his youth he aspired to be an opera singer--and after his bathhouse-owning days actually became an opera singer in Australia, where he now resides. A phoenix that was a precursor to Studio 54 and which flamed out before the AIDS era, it's a shining moment of gay freedom and liberation and decadence in the face of homophobia (gay sex was still illegal then, and raids were not uncommon--yet men were lining up to get in even as others were being marched into paddy wagons). It's hard to believe it could happen, but it's so crazy it must be true.

http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/title/continental

[gattaca]

When I'm Sixty Four link again.

http://youtu.be/l5Sj7LgTHx8 (complete film)

64 is NEXT on my watch list!  BTW, stumbled across this short.  Forgive me if already posted here or another thread.. forget where I saw it.. actually very good.  While nothing fully explicit but implied, it's probably NSFW.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFu_VSr7b1I

V.