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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE March 11, 2005
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New DVD releases make it easy to stock up on classics
by Anthony Glassman
With the coming of spring, the season of rebirth, the perennials and a bunch of annuals will soon be in bloom.
In the same spirit, a number of queer classics are out on DVD in recent re-release, making it easier to add some of the most notable LGBT films to a home library.
A great way to get three thrilling films is First Run Features' "From the Heart: Passionate Gay Classics" three-DVD boxed set. Two films set in London, To Die For and Bedrooms and Hallways, fulfill the passionate part of the title of the set, while Parting Glances is a classic on so many levels, it's difficult to enumerate them.
Bedrooms, directed by Go Fish and The L Word's Rose Troche, follows the sexual and romantic adventures of two gay male roommates in London, while Peter MacKenzie Litten's To Die For follows Simon as he tries to schtup his way through his grief after the death of his lover.
However, Parting Glances is truly the most enticing part of the set. The film features Steve Buscemi in his first major role, back when he was young and cute. It is perhaps the most human depiction of HIV in a film from the 1980s, transcending the label of "gay film" as a classic of independent filmmaking.
Richard Ganoung plays Michael, whose partner Robert is going to Africa for work. However, the true love of Michael's life is Nick, his ailing ex-rock star ex-boyfriend, portrayed by Buscemi. At a drugged-out party thrown by Kathy Kinney (Mimi from The Drew Carey Show), Nick and Michael reflect on their past together, leading to a cinematic climax that is so loving, yet so completely not erotic, that it completely disproves the stereotype of gay men as being only interested in
sex.
New Line Home Entertainment has also jumped into the arena, re-releasing the film version of Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion!
As eight friends (two of them, interestingly enough, played by John Glover-identical twins!) spend a summer living in the age of AIDS, they come to know each other more deeply and intimately than they ever thought possible, all the good and bad in them exposed.
Notable for perhaps the least attractive cast in the history of gay cinema, LVC was a tremendous breath of fresh air when it came out in 1997, right in the midst of a slew of completely interchangeable "Why can't the pretty boy get another pretty boy to love him?" films. At this point, just about every reviewer mentions that Jason Alexander from Seinfeld plays gay in this film, but this reviewer is above that.
For comedies based on successful plays, however, Torch Song Trilogy is tops. With
Harvey Fierstein, Anne Bancroft, Matthew Broderick and Brian Kerwin, the film is as funny and relevant now as it was when it was first released in 1988.
Bancroft's wit is every bit as acerbic 17 years later, Broderick is as boyish and lovable, Kerwin as indecisive, and Fierstein as hilarious, hysterical and hoarse as when this film first played on screens across America.
It follows Arnold Beckoff throughout much of his adult life as he finds love, loses love, finds love, loses love, gets a kid, finds love, and lives happily ever after. All the way through, whether his star is ascending or descending, he's arguing with his mother.
One may wonder how a goyishe kopf like Anne Bancroft played a Jewish mother so well, but the answer is simple. Having been married to Mel Brooks for about a hundred years, she is, in her own words, “Jewish by injection."
For a more serious film, Rupert Everett's early film Another Country is some of the best of British filmmaking.
Everett plays Guy Bennett, based on real life gay Brit-turned-Soviet spy Guy Burgess, who betrayed his nation in the 1930s for what he thought was a better world offered by Communism. Later he learned that Stalin was no more fond of gay men than were his peers back in England.
The film is told in flashback, as Bennett is being interviewed by a reporter in his apartment in Moscow in the 1980s. A tale of young love, betrayal and idealism unfolds, creating one of queer cinema's most colorful stories.
The 20th anniversary special edition includes director commentary, a discussion of the play upon which the movie is based with Kenneth Branagh, Everett and writer Julian Mitchell, and other added bonuses.
Finally, under the "saving the best for last" category, there is Maria Maggenti's The Incredibly True Adventures of 2 Girls in Love, who are now celebrating their tenth anniver-
sary.
Laurel Holloman, still making women's hearts melt today in The L Word, plays Randy, who meets the lovely Evie (Nicole Parker, Boogie Nights) when the latter brings her Range Rover into the garage where Randy works after school.
The two feel an immediate bond and Evie provides Randy a way out of her dysfunctional relationship with her married girlfriend.
However, when Evie's mother finds out what her daughter is doing, and Randy's lesbian aunt discovers that her grades have gone to hell in a handbasket, the proverbial poo-poo hits the fan.
Perhaps the original analogy comparing films being released on DVD to flowers blooming, however, is not quite apt. After all, flowers die after days or weeks, but a good DVD, like a diamond, is forever—as long as it doesn't get scratched up too much.
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