Xavier Dolan on Film’s Gay Double Standard: ‘We Never Talk About Heterosexual Films’

xavier dolan gay scene

Francis is a young gay man, Marie is a young straight woman and the two of them are bt iends -- until the day the geo Nilas walks to a Montreal ffee shop. The two iends, stantly and equally fatuated, pete for Nilas' termate affectns, a nflict that climax when the tr vis the vatn home of Nilas' mother. The othy edy unfolds through narrative, fantasy sequenc and nfsnal monologu.

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'TWO BOYS SNOGGG WAS REVOLUTNARY': THE GREATT GAY MOMENTS CEMA

The dtry has no problem makg a genre out of gay romanc, and yet you never hear the term "heterosexual romance." * xavier dolan gay scene *

Five years before homosexualy was ostensibly crimalized Canada, when same-sex sexual activy was still punishable by a multi-year prison sentence, Jane Rule published Dert of the Heart. As an adolcent, Tremblay found himself a Québéis a predomantly Anglo untry and a gay teen a largely tolerant society. Shane had a mandg stage prence and routely donned flamboyant getups and elaborate makp, never seekg to nform — even an era when homosexualy was illegal Canada.

Her 1962 sgle “Any Other Way” beme a top 10 h Toronto, s lyrics rife wh double entendr like “Tell her that I’m happy, tell her that I’m gay, tell her I wouldn’t have any other way. Melancholic and mp, Stimson’s exhibns and performanc wield humour and homoeroticism as tools for pg wh the lonial vlence that his practice is ultimately always nontg. Upon watchg his baby boy beg breastfed, Loudon Wawright III penned the tongue--cheek track “Ruf is a T Man” — which assumed an ironic new meang when that boy grew up to be gay.

Wawright has been equally forthg about his homosexualy om the outset of his mil reer, fg his lyrics wh drama, explic queer sire and heartache. Followg the release of his but album, Wawright moved to New York Cy’s Chelsea Hotel to wre his sophomore effort, where he spiralled to a perd plagued by dg addictn.

XAVIER DOLAN ON FILM’S GAY DOUBLE STANDARD: ‘WE NEVER TALK ABOUT HETEROSEXUAL FILMS’

The French-Canadian filmmaker discs his reflective new drama, Matthias and Maxime, and explas why he still feels ashamed of puttg gay sex on… * xavier dolan gay scene *

After gettg treatment, Wawright exprsed the belief that he was pecially sceptible to addictn as a gay man: “Years of sexual secury, the low-gra discrimatn you suffer, the need to belong — speed tak re of all that one send, ” he told the New York Tim. The one-time liberte (he formerly subscribed to the “Wilan school of homosexualy”) eventually settled down and started posg operas — a ftg send act for a peformer who’s built his reer on songs of yearng and thwarted sire.

AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Je Zontal were my mentors, my iends and my gay dads. I moved to Toronto om Vanuver the late ’80s, after graduatg wh a Bachelor of Fe Arts om UBC, and after the ath of my father om liver ncer and many of my gay iends and lovers om AIDS.

XAVIER DOLAN ON SEX, GAY IENDSHIP AND PARIS HILTON

Xavier Dolan has said that films shouldn't be labeled as 'gay' potg out how no one ever talks about watchg a 'heterosexual' film. * xavier dolan gay scene *

Billy Newton-DavisA soulful gay prence Canadian mic. His but gig, back 1973, was as a backg volist to Gloria Gaynor, and 1989 he released “Can’t Live wh You, Can’t Live Whout You, ” a duet wh Céle Dn (herself an unlikely queer in). ” For s, Newton-Davis has been forthright about his inty as a gay man.

His often blatantly homoerotic patgs marry classil nfiguratns of the male body wh ntemporary rendns of viant masculy, pictg everythg om ary ts to skheads. Usg pornographic magaz and his love of nature as reference pots, Lacs’s irreverent and thought-provokg nvas have been wily exhibed across Canada and abroad, drawg attentn for their terrogatn of the vlent bety of the male form ptured through the gaze of a gay man. Conceived at the tail end of a ght perd the cy for queer people, when police regularly raid Montreal’s Gay Village, Mado amassed so much of a followg that she cid to open a club her name — Cabaret Mado — 2002.

His practice extends over large spans of time, too: sce 2014, he has been the curator of the That’s So Gay exhibn at the Gladstone Hotel.

XAVIER DOLAN HS OUT AT FILMS BEG LABELED AS GAY: “WE NEVER TALK ABOUT HETEROSEXUAL FILMS”

A equent cric of his own LGBTQ muny, Gilbert proclaimed a 2009 article that “gay is everywhere and, paradoxilly, gay is also over” rponse to the mastream mercializatn and sanizatn of queer inty; another article he scribed himself as “so hated by the gay muny.

He lled out the crique for beg “offensive, irrponsible and homophobic, ” addg: “To all the ‘fey’ kids/people out there who read that and were ma to qutn whether their ‘feyns’ is servg of cricism, ’s not. Inially prumed to be gay, Levy subverted viewer expectatns by givg David an unfettable g out episo, where he ed his all-clive taste we — “I like the we and not the label” — as a nonchalant metaphor for his pansexualy.

XAVIER DOLAN ON FILM’S GAY DOUBLE STANDARD: ‘WE NEVER TALK ABOUT HETEROSEXUAL FILMS’

Levy has been vol about his tentn to pict a queer character who don’t e up agast judgment or homophobia, cidg early on that David’s sexualy would be a non-issue — and isn’t nice to image a world a ltle more like that small town? It’s hard to image wrg by women, by lbians, by homosexuals, whout thkg about what Nile Brossard’s wrg nveys: the strength and the pri plexy, the margs — and beyond that, the lerary qualy that exprs what is, my opn, lerature’s great strength: exprsg sire.

Treadg the fe le between homoerotic and homosocial female relatnships, Pool's characters have add remarkable pth to the Canadian film non. Highway worked closely wh his brother René, a dancer and choreographer who was also openly gay, before René passed away om AIDS-related 1990; Highway’s 1998 novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen, is a fictnalized acunt of their childhood experienc a rintial school, and the René-spired character Gabriel is gay — a portrayal that Margaret Atwood praised as “pneerg. Jt as the novel, Selvadurai’s fay immigrated to Canada, where he attend universy and dabbled TV wrg before publishg a number of wily read novels and short story llectns that powerfully draw on his Sri Lankan herage and his experienc as a gay man.

“An olr gentleman once asked me, after a show, whether all my plays were ‘gay-themed, ’” reunts Jordan Tannahill, the prolific, sui generis Canadian theatre-maker.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* XAVIER DOLAN GAY SCENE

Xavier Dolan on sex, gay iendship and Paris Hilton - The Face .

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