August 22, 2003
GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
Stalking good films
Seven classics are a whisker away
by Anthony Glassman
March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, as the old adage holds. The same, unfortunately, is true of films.
A great hoopla accompanies the release of a movie to the theaters. A similar one often arises when it comes out on video or DVD. Unfortunately, after a while, the movie is almost impossible to find, perhaps having been put on moratorium because it didn't sell enough copies.
That is always a big problem with LGBTthemed films, whose audience is what Hollywood considers a "niche market." Now, seven very good gay films are now back on shelves thanks to another lion: the one that roars at the beginning of an MGM film.
MGM just released seven films on remastered DVDs, including Wigstock, Bent, It's My Party, Ine Sum of Us, The Hanging Garden, My Beautiful Laundrette and Jeffrey.
Perhaps a brief introduction, or re-introduction, is in order for these films, since some are less well known than others.
The third film is the 1996 movie It's My Party, starring Eric Roberts as a gay man who learns that he has a terminal AIDS-
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Wigstock (1995) is a dizzying documentary about the now-defunct drag festival that was held annually in New York City. The film follows the Lady Bunny through organizing the event, and shows performance by some of drag's most famous divas, including RuPaul and Lypsinka, in addition to concert footage of Dee-Lite and Crystal Waters— you know, the one who did "Gyspy Woman." The final two re-releases could certainly put on a great battle were they ever to fight for "Best Gay Boy Film."
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related condition. He decides to throw himself a big going-away party and then kill himself. Yes, it's kind of depressing at times, but so is life. Unfortunately, life doesn't usually have an ensemble cast composed of Margaret Cho, Oscar nominee Bruce Davison, Oscar winner Marlee Matlin, and a slew of others.
Martin Sherman's play Bent, about gay prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp, was shopped around Hollywood for years, with
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The 1995 hit Jeffrey, written by Paul Rudnick based on his play, deals with a gay man (Wings' Steven Weber) who decides to live a life of complete abstinence out of fear of the AIDS epidemic. Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard, Professor X) plays his friend Sterling, who tries to talk him out of it, while Pretender's Michael T. Weiss plays the HIVpositive hunk that he can't stop thinking about.
The film is so filled with laughter and tears, every single gay man on the planet should own two copies.
The final film, a true classic, came out a decade before Jeffrey but is every bit as good 18 years after its original release.
The Hanging Garden (1997) is an intimate family drama set in Nova Scotia. A gay man returns for a wedding to find his family falling apart around him. To make matters worse, the man marrying his sister is the same one he was in love with in school.
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the play's star Richard Gere jockeying for the same role in the film. It was finally made in England in 1997 with a British cast that included openly gay Sir Ian McKellen, along with Mick Jagger, Clive Owen and Rupert Graves.
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Steven Frears' My Beautiful Laundrette tells of a young Asian Briton and his white friend and occasional lover, played by Daniel Day Lewis back when he was young and incredibly cute.
Hanif Kureishi's wonderful screenplay hints at the full past that the two young men share, but never spoon-feeds it to the audience, providing a much more satisfying viewing experience than would be had with most American films.
The best part is, this lion's share of great film is pretty reasonably priced. They should all be available for $20 or less from a friendly neighborhood gay video store, an LGBT online service or some faceless, heartless retail mega-giant.
The Sum of Us (1994) is an amusing look at the life of a gay man in Australia whose meddling heterosexual father keeps trying to fix him up with guys. Many people find this film worthwhile solely because it stars Russell Crowe in one of his earliest noteworthy roles, a year before his first "breakthrough role" in Virtuosity. He's had three breakthrough roles, really. It's kind of weird.
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