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As a bisexual, I rarely see myself represented in cinema -- at least, not certain parts of myself. As a young filmmaker, I want that to change. The Celluloid Close is, as such, a complicated film for me to watch. Presently, I'm a little choked up and teary over it, because this is the most homosexuality I've seen in a given two hours, and as an overview of the history of queer love in film in the 20th century, it reminds me too much of what it's like in the 21st. I can't think of a big budget picture about male homosexuality since Brokeback Mountain, and I can only think of two big budget pictures about lesbians -- Imagine Me and You, and Blue is the Warmest Color. There are no movies, not even like that, in genre film, which is the kind of film I want to make. In my lifetime, I only get to see pictures where this part of me is either a joke or a death sentence in cinema, and they're never movies I would watch if they were about heterosexuals, because I'm not interested in the romance genre, I'm not into slice of life or drama -- I like action, I like thrillers and superhero flicks and sci-fi and fantasy epics.
But those genres don't want me. I know that all too well, and watching the Celluloid Closet is a poignant reinforcement of that knowledge, because I'd never heard of 90% of the movies featured in this documentary, and I only knew about the gays and lesbians in maybe five of them -- Rope, The Color Purple, and Thelma and Louise, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Philadelphia.
These movies happen, and then they get forgotten. Or I don't want to watch them, because who wants to see a reflection of themselves only to watch that reflection killed for being a reflection? Not me. I want heroes, I want happy endings.
And I've realized that I'm going to have to make them happen myself, which is daunting. If I'm honest, I'm terrified. I don't want to be responsible for giving kids like me heroes, but if nobody else is doing it, then I've got to. I've got to give kids like me something more than allegory. Something more than subtext and villainy and death and allegory and violence, because growing up with only that makes you angry inside, if it doesn't shame you half to death. If it doesn't scare you into the closet, even subliminally.
The closest I've ever come to seeing genre film about people like me is the allegory present in the X-Men movies. The 'you didn't ask, so I didn't tell' in X-Men: First Class, the coming out scene in X2 that ends in fire and destruction and what seems like a permanent splintering of a family, the slow fall of John Allerdyce into villainy in part because he looks at Bobby Drake like that, and is willing to burn the world to protect him. It's in the knowledge that in the comic books, Mystique has a long-term partner, a woman named Destiny, and wanting badly to see that happen in the movies, only to be perpetually disappointed. It's snatches of subtext between Xavier and Magneto, six minutes of touch and communication between Havok and Darwin, and it's not enough. It won't ever be enough, because the first thing it does is scare me, because I've always seen myself more in those villains than I ever do in the heroes. It's the flinch at every reference, every obvious allegory, because when I was seventeen, watching the movies for the first time, I wasn't out and I was scared that somehow, if I reacted in the way I wanted to, my father would know what I am, and that was terrifying then.
This movie, this documentary, brings all that back in full force. It kept me close to tears because I still feel invisible, and I think, at least, it deserves 5 stars for being able to engender that in me.
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The Celluloid Closet
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Ah, what if it had been made in 2007?
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2007
But then, people in 2015 would say, "Ah, if only it had been made this year!" (Would they have mentioned, in the waning days of 2007, the two outstanding TV shows, "Queer as Folk," which ran on Showtime for 5 years? "Angels in America," the magnificent production from HBO in 2003, which swept all the Emmys ("Did you know Streep played three parts?" "THREE?" "Yeah--she was the old rabbi, too..."); what would they have said about "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)? "Mysterious Skin" (2004) (it's director makes several brief appearances in the film, but before he really got down to work, as far as I'm concerned...In spite of what got missed (I think "The Crying Game" and "The Wedding Banquet" are the latest films mentioned--and very briefly), this is a marvellous film. Most touching is the hunger expressed by gay commentators who for so many years longed to see thremselves presented, in any at least partially realistic way, on the screen. I was so glad that the film left Hollywood (one of its brief trips away) to give Britain's "Victim," (1961!) and its star, Dirk Bogarde, a lot of credit. "Parting Glances" got a good deal of play, too. How apologetic Crowley was for writing "The Boys in the Band," (1970--the film) with so much bitterness, self-rexcrimination and self-hatred in it. That's the way, he said, the world seemed to me, at the time. And yet, there were people who say "The Boys in the Band" who rejoiced that there were places in this favored land where gay men could get togither for a party, and dance.It's a long story, full of humor, tragedy, and triumph, 1895-1995. And after it was O.K. to have gay people as primary characters in films in this country, there were--so many GHASTLY films! The homosexual either committed suicide, got justifiably killed, or killed someone else. After these films (many of which gave a new and lovely [yurg!] meaning to the phrase "A closeted gay man walks into a gay bar...") reality began slowly to assert itself. Homosexuals began to appear as real people, with the sorrows and joys of real people, and sometimes, even without any killings, suicides--or even hysterics. Ghastly: Freebie and the bean, The detective--and much later (1980) Cruising. Reality seeking: The Boys in the Band, That Certain Summer, Dog Day Afternoon...many others. Russo's book and film are excellent references for films you might want to see--up to about 1987. OH! a great plus to the film is Vito Russo, on voiceover (an extra with the disk), giving a talk at the Castro to a very appreciative audience!A scene that knocked my socks off (obviously--I posted six stills from it), was the tender exchange between David and Jack in "Wings," (1927). The men were straight, the characters they played were straight, and the plot was straight--and David was dying! Yet, somehow, in those days before the Hayes Code, the tenderness between these two World War 1 flyers became--the hottest scene in the whole film (the film makers--the makers of "The Celluloid Closet"-- seem to have thoght so too, because they etched it on the disc itself).The film is a must for any film buff, gay, straight, or plaid (There's a 1947 joke about Jackie Robinson which ends "I don't care if he's plaid if he can't hit!)Oh..there's one little problem. This DVD only costs 15 1/2 dollars--not bad! But if the subject matter interests you, you may, as I did, buy $200 or more worth of additional films, suggested by this one. "Tough knobs!" as my friend Richard Pollack used to say when I was 5. Enjoy...them all.
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2007
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 28, 2015
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 1, 2007
In spite of what got missed (I think "The Crying Game" and "The Wedding Banquet" are the latest films mentioned--and very briefly), this is a marvellous film. Most touching is the hunger expressed by gay commentators who for so many years longed to see thremselves presented, in any at least partially realistic way, on the screen. I was so glad that the film left Hollywood (one of its brief trips away) to give Britain's "Victim," (1961!) and its star, Dirk Bogarde, a lot of credit. "Parting Glances" got a good deal of play, too. How apologetic Crowley was for writing "The Boys in the Band," (1970--the film) with so much bitterness, self-rexcrimination and self-hatred in it. That's the way, he said, the world seemed to me, at the time. And yet, there were people who say "The Boys in the Band" who rejoiced that there were places in this favored land where gay men could get togither for a party, and dance.
It's a long story, full of humor, tragedy, and triumph, 1895-1995. And after it was O.K. to have gay people as primary characters in films in this country, there were--so many GHASTLY films! The homosexual either committed suicide, got justifiably killed, or killed someone else. After these films (many of which gave a new and lovely [yurg!] meaning to the phrase "A closeted gay man walks into a gay bar...") reality began slowly to assert itself. Homosexuals began to appear as real people, with the sorrows and joys of real people, and sometimes, even without any killings, suicides--or even hysterics. Ghastly: Freebie and the bean, The detective--and much later (1980) Cruising. Reality seeking: The Boys in the Band, That Certain Summer, Dog Day Afternoon...many others. Russo's book and film are excellent references for films you might want to see--up to about 1987. OH! a great plus to the film is Vito Russo, on voiceover (an extra with the disk), giving a talk at the Castro to a very appreciative audience!
A scene that knocked my socks off (obviously--I posted six stills from it), was the tender exchange between David and Jack in "Wings," (1927). The men were straight, the characters they played were straight, and the plot was straight--and David was dying! Yet, somehow, in those days before the Hayes Code, the tenderness between these two World War 1 flyers became--the hottest scene in the whole film (the film makers--the makers of "The Celluloid Closet"-- seem to have thoght so too, because they etched it on the disc itself).
The film is a must for any film buff, gay, straight, or plaid (There's a 1947 joke about Jackie Robinson which ends "I don't care if he's plaid if he can't hit!)
Oh..there's one little problem. This DVD only costs 15 1/2 dollars--not bad! But if the subject matter interests you, you may, as I did, buy $200 or more worth of additional films, suggested by this one. "Tough knobs!" as my friend Richard Pollack used to say when I was 5. Enjoy...them all.
Ah, what if it had been made in 2007?
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 1, 2007
But then, people in 2015 would say, "Ah, if only it had been made this year!" (Would they have mentioned, in the waning days of 2007, the two outstanding TV shows, "Queer as Folk," which ran on Showtime for 5 years? "Angels in America," the magnificent production from HBO in 2003, which swept all the Emmys ("Did you know Streep played three parts?" "THREE?" "Yeah--she was the old rabbi, too..."); what would they have said about "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)? "Mysterious Skin" (2004) (it's director makes several brief appearances in the film, but before he really got down to work, as far as I'm concerned...Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 1, 2007
In spite of what got missed (I think "The Crying Game" and "The Wedding Banquet" are the latest films mentioned--and very briefly), this is a marvellous film. Most touching is the hunger expressed by gay commentators who for so many years longed to see thremselves presented, in any at least partially realistic way, on the screen. I was so glad that the film left Hollywood (one of its brief trips away) to give Britain's "Victim," (1961!) and its star, Dirk Bogarde, a lot of credit. "Parting Glances" got a good deal of play, too. How apologetic Crowley was for writing "The Boys in the Band," (1970--the film) with so much bitterness, self-rexcrimination and self-hatred in it. That's the way, he said, the world seemed to me, at the time. And yet, there were people who say "The Boys in the Band" who rejoiced that there were places in this favored land where gay men could get togither for a party, and dance.
It's a long story, full of humor, tragedy, and triumph, 1895-1995. And after it was O.K. to have gay people as primary characters in films in this country, there were--so many GHASTLY films! The homosexual either committed suicide, got justifiably killed, or killed someone else. After these films (many of which gave a new and lovely [yurg!] meaning to the phrase "A closeted gay man walks into a gay bar...") reality began slowly to assert itself. Homosexuals began to appear as real people, with the sorrows and joys of real people, and sometimes, even without any killings, suicides--or even hysterics. Ghastly: Freebie and the bean, The detective--and much later (1980) Cruising. Reality seeking: The Boys in the Band, That Certain Summer, Dog Day Afternoon...many others. Russo's book and film are excellent references for films you might want to see--up to about 1987. OH! a great plus to the film is Vito Russo, on voiceover (an extra with the disk), giving a talk at the Castro to a very appreciative audience!
A scene that knocked my socks off (obviously--I posted six stills from it), was the tender exchange between David and Jack in "Wings," (1927). The men were straight, the characters they played were straight, and the plot was straight--and David was dying! Yet, somehow, in those days before the Hayes Code, the tenderness between these two World War 1 flyers became--the hottest scene in the whole film (the film makers--the makers of "The Celluloid Closet"-- seem to have thoght so too, because they etched it on the disc itself).
The film is a must for any film buff, gay, straight, or plaid (There's a 1947 joke about Jackie Robinson which ends "I don't care if he's plaid if he can't hit!)
Oh..there's one little problem. This DVD only costs 15 1/2 dollars--not bad! But if the subject matter interests you, you may, as I did, buy $200 or more worth of additional films, suggested by this one. "Tough knobs!" as my friend Richard Pollack used to say when I was 5. Enjoy...them all.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 1, 2017
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