10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE July 27, 2001

evening'sout

Straight man's coming out makes for delightful farce

The Closet

Directed by Francis Verber

Reviewed by Kaizaad Kotwal

French filmmakers have given us as many great comedies as they have more serious films. From the director of the classic La Cage Aux Folles now comes another film about the funny yet poignant trials and tribulations of being gay in an otherwise very straight world.

Francis Verber's The Closet is a funny yet thoughtful movie that will both tickle your funny bone immensely and will ask you to look deeply at the way in which we perceive people and judge them all at once.

The ancient Greeks believed that comedy's function was not simply to make us guffaw and laugh. Rather, the function of comedy was to ameliorate the social condition by pointing out our faults and exposing us to ridicule. Verber does just that in The Closet, a film which points out the rather ridiculous ways in which we categorize people, judge them and base our entire realities on mere perceptions rather than the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

In this farce, we are told the story of Fracois Pignon, who leads an amazingly dull, monotonous and rather uncomplicated life. He is so exceedingly mundane, so extraordinarily boring that he is persona non grata in most people's lives, including his ex-wife's and son's. His only salvation is his job as an accountant at a condom factory, a perfectly ludicrous yet zany place for Verber to set his comedy.

The mayhem starts when Pignon finds out that he is about to be fired. Totally fed up with his life, he decides to end it. His neighbor Belone, an angel of sorts, saves him and

concocts a plan to help Pignon save his job and help him find a new direction in his life. Belone's scheme is to have Pignon come out of a closet he was never in. Pignon is to come out at work in order to save his job and make things move from there. Because the company may be worried about its image suffering by firing Pignon for being gay, they decide to keep him on till they figure out what to do with him.

Besides, a homophobic image would not do well for the condom business.

Pignon comes out at work and the whole world turns upside down. All of a sudden Pignon becomes very interesting to everyone and all his coworkers are interested in finding out about his secret life. What Verber and the film do so well is to point out how deeply prejudiced we can all be. As soon as Pignon comes out everyone's gaydar suddenly becomes 100% accurate. His coworkers announce they always knew that he was gay. They start to attach gay meanings to the way he walks and talks, none of which has changed since Pignon came out of his faux closet. But it's all about what people want to see in him, and it's all about what they want to believe about him.

No longer is he boring. Instead he becomes sexually interesting. When two of his coworkers spot him outside his son's school, they think that he has become a sexual predator, not knowing that he is trying to make contact with his son. Even his ex-wife and son all of a sudden find him intriguing and fascinating. No one thinks he's dull any

more.

In the midst of this craziness Pignon has a co-worker Felix who is exceptionally homophobic and bigoted.

Some of Felix's other co-workers are tired of his bigotry and decide to tell him that if he

doesn't treat Pignon well, he too will be fired. Felix soon must go through a crash course in trying to ingratiate himself to Pignon. Some of the film's funniest scenes are where Felix must educate himself in order to befriend Pignon and of course Pignon doesn't know that Felix has been set up by the other coworkers trying to give Felix a good lesson in humility and tolerance.

The film's comic timing and zaniness is flawless, and the performances are marvelous as well. Daniel Auteuil, one of Frances' most versatile actors, turns in a brilliantly understated and quietly Daniel Auteuil comedic portrayal as

Pignon. His every nuance,

glance and subtle movement takes you to the very core of a man who is so ordinary and who in an instant is transformed into the center of everyone's attention.

Auteuil is a gem to watch and he has never disappointed his fans in any film. Here he keeps up the record as being one of the most consistent and chameleonic actors around in France or elsewhere.

Gerard Depardieu as Felix is very funny as he bumbles his way to a nervous breakdown in trying to become a model of tolerance. Deaprdieu plays the buffoon very well and in The Closet he turns in one of the best buffoons ever.

Michelle Laroque, who was stunning as the mother in the cult classic Ma Vie En Rose about a young boy who wants to be a girl, turns in another stupendous performance as Pignon's boss and new love interest.

MIRAMAX

Michel Aumont plays the neighbor Belone with a very soft and touching grace. Belone helps Pignon find a new life because Belone's own life was ruined many years ago when he was fired for being gay an era in which such things were rampant and unchallenged. The rest of the cast is marvelous in supporting Verber's crazy cinematic scheme.

The film wraps thing up rather quickly and easily but nevertheless it is a very fun film to watch. It doesn't laugh at gay people at all as some may be wont to believe. In fact, the film in a rather subversive and intelligent way asks us all to re-examine our perceptions so that we may treat people for who they truly are and not what we think they are or what we want them to be. Now that's an idea that should have burst out of the closet a long, long time ago. ✓

PRIDE CARD

ACCEPTED HERE!!

FIRST RUN FEATURES

Serving our Community

with Pride for Over a Decade!

Approved Auto Repair

PROCARE®

Automotive

M-F 7AM-7PM

•

Service Centers

Sat 8AM-6PM

• Tires • Tune Ups • Oil Changes

• Brakes •

Alignments

•

Diagnostics

• Transmission Service Cooling System Service

• 24 Month or 24,000 mile warranty whichever comes last!

PROCARE $20 OFF

Automotive Service Centers

Oil Change $14.95

Regularly $26.95

R

(with coupon not valid with any other offer Expires 8-31-2001)

GPC

Code 00

on any $100 or more invoice.

at

PROCARE

Automotive

Service Centers

(with coupon not valid with any other offer Expires 8-31-2001) GPC Code 00

Your Complete Automotive Service Center!

Lakewood

Lake & Cove at 12027 Lake Ave. (216) 221-4606

Shaker Heights

1 block North of Shaker Sq. at Kemper (216) 231-5551

Cleveland

ASE

CERTIFIED

Rocky River

19400 Hilliard Blvd.

(440) 333-3171

Lorain & Triskett at 15310 Lorain Rd. (216) 476-1700

ASE Certified Technicians

Appointments welcome, but not necessary. Visit us at www.procareauto.com to schedule your appointment online.......

Where wolves?

Gabriel (James Layton) and Seth (Lee Williams) are two young lovers like any others: They like to take romantic walks in the woods, go on picnics, groom their tails... Groom their tails?

Well, yes, that's what they do. They are the title characters in Will Gould's The Wolves of Kromer, an allegory using humanoid wolves in place of gay men to tell the story of hatred and bigotry in a small town in England.

The Wolves of Kromer will play Saturday and Sunday, July 28 and 29, at the Cleveland Cinematheque, 11141 East Boulevard, in University Circle. This Cleveland première will play Saturday at 10:10 pm, and Sunday at 9:20 pm. For more information, call the Cinematheque at 216-421-7450, or log onto www.cia.edu/cinematheque.

Serving the Lesbian & Gay Community for Over a Decade

Edele Passalacqua

Attorney at Law Keep it in the Community!

Free Initial Consultation

Call for Free Consultation. Evenings & Weekend Hours Available

2830 Franklin Blvd., Cleveland, Ohio 44113 216-696-5868

-Anthony Glassman

Primary Areas of Practice Includes

Criminal Defense Commercial and Civil Litigation

Wills/Durable Power of Attorney

Domestic Partnership Agreements

... 4