JANUARY 26, 1996 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

EVENINGS OUT

From sissies to serial killers, in 100 years of movies

The Celluloid Closet Directed by Rob Epstein

Reviewed by Steve Warren

I don't think Vito Russo believed in heaven, but wherever he is, I hope he can arrange a screening of The Celluloid Closet, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's landmark film version of his groundbreaking book about homosexuality in the movies.

Until AIDS activism diverted him in his final years (he died in 1990), Russo devoted his adult life to investigating why he never saw himself portrayed in the movies that had enchanted and obsessed him since childhood. From "one of nature's mistakes" in 1927, through "some kind of nasty secret" in 1962, to the increased use of the word faggot in recent films, those of us who have relied on Hollywood for our self-image have helped therapists to prosper.

Russo's well-researched tome is dominated by his own, in-your-face opinions, which those of us who knew him learned to love or overlook as the occasion warranted-hey, he was a New Yorker. The film covers much of the same material and lets the facts speak for themselves, but allows a range of people to comment. Early on, writer Arthur Laurents decries the stereotypical “sissies” of old movies: "They were disgusting, unfunny...I never understood why people laughed,” while Harvey Fierstein admits, “I like the sissy... My view has always been visibility at any cost. I'd rather have the negative than nothing... also 'cause I am a sissy." (I don't want to take sides, but I doubt even Laurents is PC enough to get through some of the sissy clips without laughing today.)

More such confrontations, direct or indirect, would have been interesting. Shirley MacLaine tells us that lesbianism wasn't even discussed offscreen (“Audrey and I nevertalked about this"), let alone-God forbid!— onscreen, when she was making The Children's Hour in 1962. However, she doesn't respond to Laurents' charge in Russo's book that she and director Herbert Ross fought to keep the mention of homosexuality out of The Turning Point.

The history of (mostly) Hollywood's portrayal of gay men and lesbians is presented in roughly sequential fashion, from two men dancing in one of the first images ever captured on film in 1895, through Philadelphia, and a brief clip from Boys in the Side. There are excerpts from well over a hundred films, many extremely familiar, but some you may never have thought of in this context.

Sissies were the dominant gay image in the early part of the century. When the movies got bolder and threatened to take queers seriously (Laurents on Dietrich in male drag, kissing a woman in the nightclub scene in Morocco: "She was doing it to turn on both the woman and the man, which appealed to everybodyas it should”), the government and the Catholic church ganged up and forced the industry to

censor itself.

Jay Presson Allen, screenwriter of Cabaret, notes, "The guys who ran that [Production] Code weren't rocket scientists. They missed a lot of stuff."

Unfortunately they also caught a lot. Lily Tomlin, reading the narration written by Armistead Maupin, tells how gay elements were scrapped in adapting The Lost Weekend and Crossfire from page to screen, historical fact was reduced to suggestion in Queen Christina, and what was hinted at about Peter Lorre's character in The Maltese Falcon was spelled out in the book: "This guy is queer.” Gore Vidal speaks of trimming objectionable material from Suddenly Last Summer until what was left "made no sense at all."

The Montgomery Clift-John Ireland "You show me yours, I'll show you mine" scene (they're talking about guns) from Red River and the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes number where a gym full of body builders ignores Jane Russell are cited as examples of how "Hollywood had learned to write movies between the lines and some members of the audience had learned to watch them that way." So is a scene from Calamity Jane that suggests a new interpretation of the song "Secret Love," which is reprised by k.d.lang in a beautiful new version behind the credits.

When the barriers came down in the '60s, Hollywood was free to show gay and lesbian characters, but only in a negative light. A montage of death scenes takes the place of the necrology in Russo's book, to show that "people of questionable sexuality" had to die in the end, usually by murder or suicide.

Russo was never as rough as some activists were on The Boys in the Band, which told at least part of our story more honestly than Hollywood had to that point; and as Tomlin points out, "In a refreshing twist, [the characters] all survived."

Many of the talking heads comment on films they were involved in, such as Whoopi Goldberg on The Color Purple, Tony Curtis on Some Like It Hot and Spartacus, Susan Sarandon on Thelma and Louise and The Hunger. Some have even more instructive notes on other films, as when Tom Hanks, before getting to Philadelphia-he notes that he was cast as a gay hero because "my screen persona is pretty much non-threatening"-recalls the first gay image he was aware of in a movie, a negative one in Vanishing Point. Ron Nyswaner, the gay writer of Philadelphia, recalls how the pleasant experience of watching Freebie and the Bean turned nasty when a transvestite went down in a hail of bullets and the audience cheered.

As the gay movement took hold in the '70s, things continued to loosen up, with more screen queers surviving, but none being heroes or having serious love relationships. Antonio Fargas, who played stereotypical but relatively positive gay characters in Next Stop Greenwich Village and Car Wash, says, “I think it was easier for the powers-that-be to show a black as a homosexual rather than a white character as a homosexual."

As we grew stronger we became villains

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Jeffery Friedman, Lily Tomlin, and Rob Epstein.

instead of victims. The early '80s brought Cruising and Windows, giving lesbians parity in homicide. Making Love shocked audiences by having Michael Ontkean and Harry Hamlin against the advice of their agents, producer Daniel Melnick notes-fall in love, kiss and have sex like real people. With Melnick and gay screenwriter Barry Sandler discussing it, the film's failure at the box office isn't mentioned; nor is Russo's explanation: “It's dull."

The Celluloid Closet could be accused of the same sin as Making Love, Philadelphia and To Wong Foo: it's not made for a strictly gay audience. It isn't, however, as Russo described Making Love and other films of the period, "too straight for gay audiences and much too gay for conservative straights.” Oh, the latter is true, of course, but I don't think

gays will find the subject matter watered down, unless you expect Lily Tomlin to talk about queers in the first person.

The Celluloid Closet is a thoroughly entertaining history lesson in which Hollywood product is appraised with New York attitude filtered through several, mostly adoptive Californians. It makes its point less stridently than the Basic Instinct protests, and should stimulate equally lively discussion in the media.

Video stores had better brace for some obscure requests, as Celluloid Closet viewers get a hankering to see some of these clips in their original context. Few of the source films, however, are to be treasured as much as the current one. ♡ The Celluloid Closet airs Tuesday, January 30 at 10:00 pm on HBO and opens in theaters in March.

kdlang

Tickets are going fast!

所有隨你吃

all you can eat tour

Tuesday, February 6 Ohio Theatre 8 pm

For tickets call (614) 431-3600 or (614) 469-0939

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