GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December 31, 2004

evening'sout

A gang and a disappearing boyfriend open the new year

by Anthony Glassman

Want to go to exotic locales in the new year, see beautiful and interesting people, have sex with them and either kill or kidnap them?

The question isn't quite as strange as it seems, given that two queer independent films set in far-off lands open the year at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.

The first, playing on Friday and Sunday, January 7 and 9 at 9:55 and 8:50 pm respectively, is Raspberry Reich, Canadian underground director Bruce LaBruce's latest subversive, smutty opus.

Set in Germany, the film follows the exploits of a group of young lefties modeling themselves after the 1970 radical Red Army Faction, better known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, who terrorized the running-dog imperialist bourgeois pigs before being arrested. sent to prison and later dying.

Led by the almost-charismatic Gudrun. the Raspberry Reich kidnaps the son of Germany's wealthiest industrialist, intending to hold him for ransom.

Unknown to most of the "activists," as they prefer to call themselves, the industrialist's son was cut off by his father when he came out as gay.

Meanwhile, Gudrun tells the predominantly "heterosexual" members of her group that heterosexuality is counter-revolutionary, so to truly commit themselves to the "homosexual intifada" they must all have sex with each other.

Being a Bruce LaBruce film, they do. Graphically. Explicitly. And, notably, safely. LaBruce made major waves in the independent film community with his first fea-

ture, No Skin Off My Ass, and continued to make his name on Super 81⁄2 and Hustler White. However, he would put full, explicit, non-simulated sex in his films if the script called for it, drawing criticism that they were, nothing more than pornography.

So LaBruce gave his critics a hearty "Bite me!" and made his last film, Skin Gang, an actual porn film.

Raspberry Reich, however, is neither one nor the other, not as good as his earlier films, but not a full-on smut flick. It's close, but it really winds up being caught in this strange limbo, too sex-laden to be held as a "real film," but not enough sex to be porn. It is, however, a fun film, with occasional moments of true wit.

It will also play at the film theater at the Wexner Center in Columbus on Friday and Saturday, February 25 and 26.

On Thursday and Sunday, January 13 and 16.9:10 and 8:55 pm. the Cinematheque takes audiences to sunny Argentina with the film Testosterone, based on a novel by the late James Robert Baker.

When graphic novelist Dean Seagrave's boyfriend Pablo suddenly disappears, the protagonist is understandably distraught. Running into Pablo's mother at a gallery opening, however, she tells him that Pablo has left him and is now completely out of his reach.

Since proving her wrong was the only way to make a novel instead of a short story, Dean heads off to Buenos Aires to hunt down the object of his desire and find out why he was left in the lurch.

Along the way, he encounters a hot little bellhop, a brother and sister who have many secrets and an agenda that Dean can only

begin to guess, a couple of police officers and a lot of thugs hired by Pablo's mother. An eventual trip to the hardware store to buy some decapitating supplies and one wedding later, Dean is faced with a choice: How far will he go to exorcise himself of his demons?

Directed by David Moreton, best known for directing the Sandusky comingof-age flick Edge of Seventeen, Testosterone features a beautiful city, beautiful men and women, and more twists and turns than King Minos' playground. The one thing it lacks is the manic energy that infused Baker's novels before his suicide.

Admission to the Cinematheque is $8, $5 for members and CIA students or staff. The Cinematheque is located at 11141 East Blvd, in the Univer-

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sity Circle area of Cleveland. For more information, call 216-421-7450 or log onto www.cia.edu/cinematheque.

STRAND RELEASING

A wealthy industrialist's son (Andreas Rupprecht) and his kidnapper (Anton Z. Risan) blur the line between romance and Stockholm syndrome in Bruce LaBruce's Raspberry Reich.

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Prism awards

Continued from page 9

Joel Schumaker's film.

The winner is Laura Linney (Kinsey) as Clara McMillen, Kinsey's student and longtime wife. She is a marvel to watch with every role she does and here, her startling transformation from young woman to older crone is just breathtaking.

Best Director

The nominees are: Out filmmaker Joel Schumaker (Phantom of the Opera), who has made mostly action films. This time out, in a classic musical theater film, he shows a different side and has created a great adaptation from stage to screen.

Gay filmmaker John Greyson (Proteus) has given us some of the edgiest pieces of queer cinema in his short yet productive career. Here he outdoes himself in an old tale about homophobia that is as relevant today as it will be in the near future, given the global climate against GLBT people.

Pedro Almodovar (Bad Education) has always made quirky, colorful films with great humanity in them and this is among his best.

The winner is Bill Condon (Kinsey), who has redefined the biopic with one of the most interesting men in history. He has created an intimate, moving and astute film about a man who was ahead of his time and ours as well.

Best Film

The nominees are: Bad Education, a masterful and timely indictment of the church's inability to deal with child abuse by it own. But the film is also about the power of cinema to heal and change personal and societal wounds.

Stage Beauty, a wonderful film about Elizabethan theater and about the conventions of male performers impersonating women. It is a film that is both funny and tragic, with a great pair of romances between Kynaston and his male lover and between Kynaston and his female dresser. Bisexuality has never been so sexy on film.

A Home at the End of the World, based on Michael Cunningham's novel, is a warm yet edgy tale of two childhood buddies who grow up and fall in love with each other and the woman who ends up with them, challenging what we think of as family.

Proteus, shot digitally, is a mesmerizing film about an interracial gay relationship in South Africa in the 1800s. The taboos then are the taboos today and the film resonates wonderfully in America in 2004, given the passing of Issue 1 and the continued onslaught against the equal rights and legitimacy of GLBT citizens.

The winner is Kinsey by a small edge over Bad Education and Proteus. This is not just one of the year's best GLBT films, but it is among the best of all films in 2004. It honestly and pointedly shows us that sexual variations are simply normal-a truth so maligned and mismanaged even today.

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