Jam Ivory and Jam Wilby look back at the makg of 'Mrice,' a time when gay happy endgs were rare - Los Angel Tim

MRICE AT 30: THE GAY PERD DRAMA THE WORLD WASN'T READY FOR
TO BE A GAY MAN BY WILL YOUNG – OUT AND PROUD
RUPERT GRAV GAY RUMORS?ONLE POLL SHOWS 88 PERCENT DON’T BELIEVE HE’S GAY
JAM IVORY AND THE MAKG OF A HISTORIC GAY LOVE STORY
JAM IVORY AND JAM WILBY LOOK BACK AT THE MAKG OF ‘MRICE,’ A TIME WHEN GAY HAPPY ENDGS WERE RARE

MRICE AT 30: THE GAY PERD DRAMA THE WORLD WASN'T READY FOR

* is rupert graves gay *

Rupert Grav’s elst son got a nasty shock recently when he went on a school trip to see the 1987 Merchant Ivory adaptatn of EM Forster’s gay love story Mrice. Many of their greatt films evoke a sense of unspoken sire, of any persuasn, simmerg beneath a placid surface of m – a reprsn wh which many a gay person, unable always to eely articulate their romantic self, has been able to empathise.

Mrice, a sense, was the duo’s cematic g-out: the story of a young man growg to his homosexualy polely hostile English society, ’s a film that exquisely queers the stiff-upper-lip emotns so central to the Merchant Ivory ’s a slight aloofns to Mrice that is part of s bety.

The film only breath when he fally do, first via a tratg romantic affair wh fellow stunt and social climber Clive Durham (Grant, perfectly his floppy charm years before Four Weddgs and a Funeral) – but ’s heartbreak that giv the film s red-blood there, as a send romantic chapter wh gamekeeper Alec Scudr (Rupert Grav, pletg perhaps the prettit posh-boy triangle screen history) begs, Mrice gas both emotnal sweep and timate psychologil tail: a tame entry may be the LGBT non, but few films have exprsed que so sweetly and nakedly the challeng of simply beg a gay man, partnered or otherwise – how difficult n be to n wh human is not emotnally universal terra, and was a rare subject for prtige herage cema to take on: the film’s rpectful but dispassnate receptn 1987, not an era rich wh queer art the mastream, is no surprise retrospect. Cocintally, hs screens aga the same year that Ivory is baskg the glory of a very different LGBT triumph: now 88, he’s a -wrer on Lu Guadagno’s queer g-of-age rhapsody Call Me By Your Name, a Sundance sensatn that realis the first sh of gay love wh all the woozy sensual excs that Mrice, te to s perd, chews. "Well, I did Mrice and I did a uple of gay plays and I thk was bee when I was young I was pretty and I was a p-up for a lot of gay people.

TO BE A GAY MAN BY WILL YOUNG – OUT AND PROUD

'"And homosexualy is not his thg? "I've swung between two per cent and 38 per cent gayns, I thk, somethg like that, my life. "Has he ever had a gay relatnship?

I realised I wasn't gay bee the only way I uld really enjoy was to close my ey and image a woman.

I thk I wanted to be gay bee I thought was arty and tertg. On a Saturday night Febary 2002, 14 ln people watched a 23-year-old gay man w a TV pop ntt. It had already n a piece suggtg he’d soon be “whoopg up… at one of Elton John and his lover David Furnish’s timate ltle all-star soire”, addg a “lourful mour” about Young’s school iends beg volved the “homosexual timidatn of younger boys”.

RUPERT GRAV GAY RUMORS?ONLE POLL SHOWS 88 PERCENT DON’T BELIEVE HE’S GAY

It was a landmark revelatn at the time, g only six months after the openly gay Brian Dowlg had won Big Brother; pop culture was val changg attus to homosexualy the early 2000s. “His beg gay was not always the ma topic of nversatn. This allowed me to see that a gay man uld be accepted as a person; not some kd of monster.

JAM IVORY AND THE MAKG OF A HISTORIC GAY LOVE STORY

”To Be a Gay Man is a book about gay shame, Young explas, his chatty troductn, and his journey to try and rid himself of .