Gay People's Chroniclo Pride Guido 2003 Section C

pride 2003

Proud to be on the silver screen

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Like all the other arts, when cinema is done well, it holds up a mirror to reflect society, warts, scars, blemishes and all. Movies, when done truthfully, are also able to celebrate society's glories, achievements and victories.

Queer cinema has come a long, long way, baby! GLBT characters are not as often relegated today to being the onedimensional jokes of Hollywood's hypocritical homophobia. There are fully developed queer characters who are central to mainstream movies these days (The Hours, Frida)—maybe not as many as we'd like to see, but certainly more than ever before.

More and more out actors (Ian McKellan, Cherie Jones) are taking center screen and making big box-office bucks for the studios. Yet more actors need to come out of the closet to quell celluloid-based homophobia.

Behind the scenes as well, queer folk are making great strides. At this year's Oscars, three of the nominations for Best Director were gay: Pedro Almodovar, Stephen Daldry and Rob Marshall.

So, in celebration of this year's Pride season and in homage to the all those who have opened the cinema to LGBT people, here is a list (alphabetically organized) of the 20 most pride-filled movies.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: Directed and written by Stephen Elliott, this 1994 Aussie com-

Get Real

edy is about a road trip across the Outback where two drag queens and a transsexual are on their way to Alice Springs to put on a show. Along the way they encounter hostility, hilarity and, ultimately, acceptance.

Beautiful Thing: Written by Jonathon Harvey, based on his play of the same name and directed by Hettie MacDonald, this tender story of gay teenage angst and romance combines delicious comedy with palpable pain in breathtakingly simple ways. The two boys at the center of the love story here are Jamie, a young lad who hates sports and is constantly bullied at school, and Ste, a lad good at sports and who is battered at home. When Jamie's mom takes in Ste, the boys are forced to share a room and a bed. This complicates life for Jamie who is already struggling with his burgeoning gayness.

Bent: Based on gay activist Martin Sherman's play of the same name, this film was a long time in the making and it was well worth the wait. Directed by Sean Mathias, the film powerfully tells of how in the Nazi concentration camps a pink triangle was worse than a yellow star.

Max, a hedonistic gay man, is shipped off to a concentration camp in the midst of the Holocaust. He struggles to stay

Fires

alive while finding love with another prisoner, Horst.

The love scene between the two, consummating their passion solely with words while the duo stand apart on work detail, is one of the most erotic sequences captured on film.

The Birdcage: Based on the 1978 French classic La Cage Aux Folles, this 1996 film, written by Elaine May and directed by Mike Nichols, is a riot from start to finish. When Val decides that he is marrying the daughter of an ultraconservative U.S. senator, Armand and Albert, his gay male parents, find their lives thrown into chaos as they must put on a straight face to woo the in-laws.

Boys Don't Cry: Kimberly Pierce's 1999 directorial debut about the Teena Brandon story is one of the most powerful queer films ever made. Bran-

don fell in love with Lana, who returns the affection with delight. When Brandon's identity as biologically female is revealed, a group of local men vent their homophobia in devastatingly brutal and fatal ways.

The Celluloid Closet: Based on the book of the same name by the late Vitto Russo, this documentary explores the history of the representation of gays and lesbians on the silver screen. Narrated by out actress Lily Tomlin and written by Armistead Maupin, this film with great insight and surprising wit examines both how gays have been marginalized in cinema and also how they have been integral to it.

Fire: Indo-Canadian director Deepa Mehta created a blazing controversy in India with her film about a traditional Indian housewife who falls in love with her rather modern sister-in-law. As they both question their roles, not only as women but as sexual beings, they embark on a journey of unbelievable pain coupled with hitherto unexplored bliss. Frida: The winner of Best Make-Up and Best Score Oscars this year, this colorful film about one of the most intriguing figures in modern painting is moving and relevant. Frida Kahlo, a cross-dressing open bisexual, broke through so many boundaries, personal and cultural, that she is truly iconic. It took Latina superstar Salma Hayek about eight years to make this film come to fruition, and it was worth the wait.

Get Real: This entertaining and sweet film tells the story of Steven Carter, a gay British teen who isn't quite the jock and whose IQ threatens all the others around him. Steven falls in love with John, a dreamboat of an athlete who at first can't quite come to grips with his own queerness.

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