We look back at the bt French gay cema.
Contents:
- FRENCH GAY FICTN BOOKS
- THE CONTROVERSIAL GAY AUTHOR WHO WR GAYS COMG OF AGE AMIDST FASCISM
- 10 GREAT FRENCH GAY FILMS
- CLASSIC GAY MALE LERATURE
FRENCH GAY FICTN BOOKS
Books shelved as ench-gay-fictn: Toxique by Françoise Sagan, Derrière le sang huma by Robert Pelchat, La Tour Priape - nte érotique by Françoi... * gay french novels *
(shelved 1 time as ench-gay-fictn). Philippe, the narrator, revels , eventually gog on to live as an openly gay adult.
Photos by John Folley, urty of Farrar, Strs and GirouxThe 24-year-old gay French wrer Édouard Louis scrib most French lerary novelists as "people om the bourgeoisie that wre about the bourgeoisie and don't really qutn the world. His but tobgraphil novel The End of Eddy, published France 2014, picts his childhood as a gay boy growg up an impoverished, Fascist-ridn small town of Hallenurt. (As every bottom knows, 's always the bottom, never the top, who gets the bnt of homophobia workg class towns.
His dad, for stance, may nounce gay sex his hoe, but when he spots men beatg a lol gay man, he attacks the homophob. La Cage x Foll (1978)Tradnally France has been seen as one of the most liberal untri the world, and boasts an enviable rerd on gay rights, spe the ocsnal rantgs om Brigte Bardot.
THE CONTROVERSIAL GAY AUTHOR WHO WR GAYS COMG OF AGE AMIDST FASCISM
Édouard Louis's but novel ed a sensatn his native France for s pictn of what ’s like to be a gay boy an impoverished, Mare Le Pen-lovg village. And now, five days before the French electn, an English translatn is htg... * gay french novels *
But has this homoiendly attu translated to s cema? We’ve kept the list to films that are easily available to watch the UK, but honourable mentn should go to The Ostrich Has Two Eggs (1957), a dated farce that at least has a sympathetic gay son, albe one who never appears on screen, and L Amiés particulièr (1964), set a boys’ boardg school.
Un chant d’amour (1950)French wrer Jean Ge is one of the key figur of gay culture, whose novels (cludg Querelle of Brt), plays and says have been champned by gay and straight rears alike. There’s nothg explicly gay here, but any film that shov Jacqu Perr a sailor su, squeez Gee Chakiris to tight whe troers and rat self wh lavish, lurid sets fely has a queer eye.
La Cage x Foll (1978)“Une édie très gay” smirked the tagle for this box-office smash.
10 GREAT FRENCH GAY FILMS
Blier’s films often foc on two aquate men ung agast women (L Valss, the Osr-wng Get Out Your Handkerchiefs), and unrton of homosexualy have always lgered the air. Here ’s ma explic, albe an ocsnally homophobic ntext – the scen where the hband is forced to don women’s clothg are particularly unfortable.
The arrival of the betiful and charismatic Gill threatens both his thory and his mand on his sexualy, as an unrequed homoerotic attractn tak hold.
Anatomy of Hell (2004)Gay men hate and fear women, even more than straight men. When a woman (Amira Casar) slash her wrists a gay bar, she challeng her homosexual rcuer (Italian porn star Roc Sifedi) to spend four nights wh her to “watch me where I’m unwatchable”.
CLASSIC GAY MALE LERATURE
Fet the cliché of the gay bt iend, this guy n’t stand women. It’s easy to snigger at the portento dialogue (“The elasticy of a boy’s an don’t lie about the tightns of the lower tt”) and the assumptn of misogyny may rile male viewers, gay or straight.
Only the fal third is explicly gay, but homoerotic tensns simmer throughout. Most reviews foc on the showy performance of the equently naked Nilas Cazalé as the rebel whout much of a e the first chapter, but the emotnal heart li the fal third, as Morel explor the plexi of the vulnerable gay youth who mt choose between aternal loyalty and a chance at romantic happs.