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GAY PEOPle's ChroNICLE DECEMBER 25, 1998

EVENINGS OUT

Path to the screen was intricate for Whale biopic

by Mark J. Huisman

"You don't want to say that gay people are more sensitive than straight people, but we are," says director Bill Condon. "We have that period outside the world, outside ourselves, that makes us more open to other people."

Condon's new movie Gods and Monsters stars Ian McKellen as openly gay director James Whale, creator of movies as disparate as Frankenstein and the original screen version of Showboat, which starred Paul Robeson. It also has a stellar supporting cast, including Lynn Redgrave as

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infinitely more complex than they appear, something Condon compares to Whale's Bride of Frankenstein.

"There's a scene where the monster, on the lam from this angry mob, enters the home of a blind man. Because he can't see, the blind man offers the monster a chance at friendship he's never really known. My whole film is a meditation on that scene, about how two people who are in some way. burdened by a handicap can open up to one another. Whale has everything [Fraser's character] Clay wants-an ability to tell stories, this house, wealth, a certain amount of fame. But Clay has things Whale wants,

Ian McKellen as Frankenstein director James Whale.

Whale's housekeeper and a surprisingly effective Brendan Fraser as Whale's gardener.

The film has played to critical acclaim from Sundance to San Sebastian-but Condon is still a little concerned about the audience's reaction.

"There are so many cheery gay lifestyle movies out now," he says. "They're so affirmative. They're so annoying." His brow wrinkles and he quickly shakes his head, as if throwing off a bad vibe. "I get the warm fuzzies from films that tell the dark truth, because they connect with my experience and my sense of the world as a gay person. The darkest movie can make you feel really good."

While Gods and Monsters hardly falls into that vein, it contains elements that are

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most of all a future. Initially, it's about their mutual resentment, how they punish one another for being different. But in the end, it's about forgiveness and friendship."

Condon thinks it wasn't just Whale's grisly end-he committed suicide in his backyard swimming pool--that scared potential backers and distributors.

"That whole positive image thing was a big issue," Condon says. "It may not be a cheery gay lifestyle movie, but it's a story of immense personal triumph. Some of the people who one would think would be favorably disposed to gay material did not want me to talk about Whale's decline. That became the entire movie for them. But it's really about how a man in the midst of decline is able to revisit his success in a way he never has before."

Condon's first feature-the 1987 Sister, Sister, with Jennifer Jason Leigh-was less than successful.

"I was promptly sent to movie jail," Condon says, waving one index finger with mock severity. "No more

movies for you!"

He then turned to cable TV, an atmosphere where far less money and lower-level talent often means directors have far more creative control than their Hollywood counterparts. He made a series of films including Murder 101, which won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

In 1994, two seemingly unrelated events occurred that would shape the creation of Gods and Monsters.

A newly polished Condon returned to Tinsletown to direct Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, and met its author, openly gay Clive Barker. Almost simultaneously, Barker was approached by a filmmaker to narrate a BBC documentary about Whale. Novelist Christopher Bram (who shares a mutual friend with Condon) had been hired

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Whale's gardener Clay (Brendan Fraser) is oblivious to the alling director's attraction to him.

to write the script, but the filmmakers could only find one actual film clip in which Whale appeared, making the documentary

moot.

"Chris asked if he could dramatize the material they did find,” says Condon. “That became his book Father of Frankenstein. My producing partner Gregg Fienberg optioned it, and I mentioned it to Clive, who had been looking to be a sort of patron, or godfather, to other gay filmmakers. And that's the role he played."

"Clive was always there with the important gesture or phone call," Condon continues. "During one particularly delicate period, he offered to personally finance a week of pre-production because the banks were still shaky. Thank god he didn't have to do that, but he made the offer. He's become sort of a mentor, even though he's not that much older than I am. His immense support of this kind of storytelling has been a real gift.”

An early display of generosity occurred when McKellen flew to Los Angeles to meet Condon: "Clive gave me his big, fat Beverly Hills house so I wouldn't embarrass myself in my little Silverlake hut."

At that meeting, Condon was thrilled to learn that McKellen had read Bram's book and thought Whale would be a great part.

"Any and all semblance of intimidation melted away," says Condon, his voice an awed whisper. "Ian was so generous and so open. You just fall in love with him in five minutes."

But even having a critically acclaimed Knight Commander of the British Empire on board didn't open up the money coffers.

"That didn't really happen until we attached Brendan and Lolita [Davidovitch, who plays Fraser's girlfriend.] "It tells you something about how movies are financed and made."

Condon was baffled all over again when the very same companies that had rejected the script rejected the finished film.

"We had two screenings at Sundance and the critics immediately began raving. And there was a screening in Salt Lake City that was probably all Mormons, and they loved the film more than the Sundance crowd. I can see having trouble with the script, which was very visually fragmented and textually dense. But after seeing the film, with lan?

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All these Miramax types said, 'Oh, no. We can't do anything with that.' What's going on there?"

Thus began a gut-wrenching four-month period in which Gods and Monsters floated in the horrible no-man's-land between production and distribution that has been the kiss of death for many deserving films. But despite the fact Condon had spent nearly three years on the project already, he dug in his heels, something that has caused McKellen to call the director "terrier-like." . "Having such a sense of idealism about independent filmmaking, it was immensely horrific," Condon says. "I really believe that the top six 'independent' companies are nowhere near independent. They looked at this, got scared, said 'We can't make a hundred million,' and passed."

(In fact, the four companies that bid on the movie, including its distributor, Lion's Gate Films, did not exist a year ago.)

Condon's hard work has been validated by everything from its stellar reviews to the fact two other truly independent queer visions-John Maybury's Love is the Devil and Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine-are also now in theaters.

"There's safety in numbers," Condon quips.

While he's working on a number of new projects, Condon is most excited by another Barker collaboration.

"We're working on a really low-budget, art house compilation of three of his short stories-Pig Blood Blues, Dread and Human Remains. He wrote them when he was still in the closet. So we're bringing the gay subtext up to the surface."

Condon chuckles. "We're outing these horror stories. We want to make it really raw and scary again. You know, toss in a bit of Mapplethorpe. Make everybody run for the exits."

Gods and Monsters opened December 18 at the Esquire Theatre in Cincinnati, and opens December 25 the Cedar-Lee Theatre in Cleveland. It opens at the New Neon Theatre in Dayton and the Little Art Theatre in Yellow Springs on January 29.

Mark J. Huisman is a freelance writer in New York City.

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