That's right — not every gay movie has to end wh heartbreak.
Contents:
10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
From Victim to Weekend, we remember some of the bt Brish gay films. * british short gay films *
This may e as a surprise om a untry where male homosexualy was illegal until as recently as 1967, and where gay marriage ntu to ffle right-wgers, swivel-eyed or otherwise. We’ve narrowed down the list to films easily available on DVD, although honourable mentn mt go to the über-rare Two Gentlemen Sharg (1969), a swgg slice of the 60s that hted at terracial homosexualy.
10 GREAT GAY ROMANCE FILMS
Celebrate the bt gay movi wh our list of the 50 most sential LGBTQ+ films ever ma * british short gay films *
Sign up to BFI Flare emailsGet the latt #BFIFlare news and ticket release list should really be a Top 11 – the omissn of Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), the first Brish film to feature a gay kiss, is borrle excable. Tom Shkolnik’s betifully observed The Comedian (2012), which a possibly gay, possibly bi thirtysomethg (Edward Hogg) tri to make as a standup the pal, also narrowly missed cln.
Decrimalisatn changed the way homosexualy and gay culture were portrayed on screen. * british short gay films *
A few d homosexuals n be found Aled Hchck’s early work (check out the swishy drsmaker 1925’s The Pleasure Garn), while Ivor Novello’s films play up the flamboyant star’s androgyny, playg very odd, allegedly heterosexual men The Lodger (1926) and The Man whout Dire (1923).
The ma tr may be straight, but the mera’s love of Pl Robon’s torso – the film was directed and produced by gay men – hts at an even more taboo love story.
Victim (1961)Dirk Bogar, an actor who never acknowledged the mours of his homosexualy durg his lifetime, took a real reer risk playg a lawyer who, followg a strg of blackmail attempts agast gay men, begs to realise his own sexualy. Victim was released four years after the publitn of the Wolfenn report, a paper which remend that male homosexualy no longer be regard as a crimal offence. It took another 10 years before partial crimalisatn took effect wh the Sexual Offenc act 1967, which allowed homosexual acts, private, between two men over the age of 21 – many feel Basil Dearn’s film helped liberalise attus and pave the way towards tolerance towards gay people.
* british short gay films *
The Leather Boys (1964)The Brish ‘kchen sk’ dramas, foced around workg-class liv, that prevailed the late 50s and early 60s ocsnally ntaed sympathetic gay characters, such as Murray Melv’s stunt A Taste of Honey (1961) and Cicely Courtneidge’s ageg actor The L-shaped Room (1962). A newlywed (Col Campbell) havg marriage problems fds pe through mararie wh a biker gang – and don’t realise that his dynamic and fatly misogynist bt iend (Dudley Sutton) is gay.
The last scene, set a gay bar, featur a nga le of unlikable stereotyp, but at least Sutton across more sympathetilly than Ra Thgham, playg Campbell’s shrewish wife. Now Nighthawks n be re-evaluated as an valuable time psule of the late 1970s gay scene, the liberated perd between crimalisatn and the outbreak of AIDS.
The urse of gay love rarely ns smooth on screen, but happy endgs are not as rare as they once were. Wh Merchant-Ivory’s Mrice currently back cemas, we celebrate gay films at their most romantic. * british short gay films *
Ken Robertson is very good as the antihero, pecially the film’s bt scene, when the teacher out to his homophobic class and nonts their prejudic. Homosexualy is jt one of the topics vered Hanif Kureishi’s amb, Osr-nomated screenplay, which also tak on racism, culture clash, and the state of Thatcher’s Bra.
Betiful Thg (1996)This favoure remas one of the sweett of all gay films, tellg the story of two troubled boys – one bullied at school, the other at home – who fd love each other’s arms. It’s a super play, but the film jt about tmps , thanks pecially to the performanc – Glen Berry retired om actg, Stt Neal played another gay role The Bill, while the scene-stealg Lda Henry beme a fixture on Bad Girls and EastEnrs. Dirk Bogar’s landmark role the 1961 crime thriller Victim is the touchstone, a film that actually helped change public opn and the law, when the 1967 Sexual Offenc Act partially crimalised male homosexualy.