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Contents:

• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• MY TRODUCTN TO GAY LONDON
• CEMA LISTGS FOR GAY FILMS LONDON AND THE UK
• GAY LONDON, LGBTQ+ CLUBS AND EVENTS
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• TOP 10 GAY FILMS ON THE BFI PLAYER
• IT'S A S IS AN EMOTNAL TALE OF GAY '80S LONDON: REVIEW
• GAY MEN LONDON, OM PERSECUTN TO PRI
• PRI: A HEARTBREAKG BRISH COMEDY ABOUT THE TIME GAYS AND MERS WORKED TOGETHER

10 GREAT BRISH 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. 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).

MY TRODUCTN TO GAY LONDON

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. 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. 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).

CEMA LISTGS FOR GAY FILMS LONDON AND THE UK

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.

GAY LONDON, LGBTQ+ CLUBS AND EVENTS

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. In the wake of this first step towards equaly, we were treated to unpleasant stereotyp galore  The Killg of Sister Gee (1968) and Stairse (1969), but the 1970s saw progrs wh the sophistited bisexual love triangle of John Schlger’s Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Derek Jarman’s homoerotic Sebastiane (1976) and Ron Peck and Pl Hallam’s Nighthawks (1978), the first explicly gay Brish feature set the gay muny. Dream A40 (1965)Wh mastream cema still reluctant to tackle gay characters and plots the mid-60s, Jamain actor-director Lloyd Reckord took matters to his own hands wh this extraordary unrground short that terrogat the psychologil impact of persecutn.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

Four were among the first natns to legalise gay marriage (Fland took a ltle longer, fally jog the club 2017), and Iceland beme the first untry to have an openly gay head of ernment (Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, 2009).

Daddy and the Mcle Amy (1991)The erotic gay drawgs of Too Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Fland, are one of the Sndavian pensula’s most famo queer exports, and this documentary, the only film to feature the man himself, is a handy entry to his work and reer.

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

Dirk Bogar’s extremely brave performance as a closeted barrister drawn to a gay blackmail se directly fluenced public opn, and played a part changg the law Bra when the Sexual Offenc Act was fally passed  1967. Culled om a longlist of hundreds, movi nsired for the list promently feature gay, lbian, trans, or queer characters; ncern self centrally wh LGBTQ+ them; prent s LGBTQ+ characters a fair and realistic light; and/or be seen as a touchpot the evolutn of queer cema. And we regnize that some of the films the list will re-igne healthy bat that have been fixtur of discsn around LGBTQ+ films — straight actors playg gay characters, cis actors playg trans characters, and the historil domance of whe male perspectiv.

For our most recent update to the list, we’ve add mastream edi Fire Island and Bros, thriller Knock at the Cab (featurg two pairs of hbands whose vatn is terpted by the potential apolypse), Disney feature Strange World (wh the stud’s first openly gay lead character), Blue Jean (a Brish drama set durg the Thatcher premiership), the extremely well-reviewed Girl Picture), France’s magil realist The Five Devils, and Cann 2023 buts Monster and Strange Way of Life. While the film certaly touch on the stggl of beg gay and closeted—the tular Simon (Nick Robson) isn’t yet out to his iends or fay— is fundamentally a sweet, earnt high school rom where the guy gets the guy.

The film clus a number of ntroversial scen that uld be triggerg — so, watch at your own Now Advertisement - Contue Readg Below8 'The Bter Tears of Petra Von Kant' (1972) Courty Everett CollectnThe Bter Tears of Petra Von Kant is a sapphic classic that has bee a key entry the largely gay male-domated non of high mp. In I Killed My Mother, Dolan documents the ght relatnship between a gay teenager and his sgle mother dreamy, heart-wrenchg NowAdvertisement - Contue Readg Below13 'Cisg' (1980) ©Uned Artists/Courty Everett CollectnA crime thriller set agast the backdrop of the 1970s leather scene, Cisg is a polarizg film wh a plited legacy. ) In recent years, though, the film—which featur Al Paco as a New York p who go unrver the cy’s S&M scene to vtigate a serial killer targetg gay men—has been reevaluated and is now nsired by many as a classic.

TOP 10 GAY FILMS ON THE BFI PLAYER

Set the world of the New York ballroom scene, Port Authory—which was executive produced by Mart Srse—tells of the love story between a whe man who has jt arrived New York whout a penny to his name (Fnn Whehead) and a Black transgenr woman wh ep ti to the cy’s ball culture (Leyna Bloom, the first Black trans actrs to star a film at Cann) Now Advertisement - Contue Readg Below15 'Young Soul Rebels' (1991) Courty EverettDcribed as a “part-thriller, part-gay love story, ” Young Soul Rebels—a film not often clud U. The first Hollywood movie to center on Che-Amerins sce The Joy Luck Club some 11 years before , Savg Face tells the story of a closeted Che-Amerin woman fallg love for the first time and stgglg to rencile the relatnship wh her and her girliend’s tradnal (read: homophobic), close-kn New York Cy muny. A perfect addn to any Baby Gay™’s g-of-age non, The Half Of It tells the tenr story of Elie, a bookish high schooler who fds herself an unlikely love triangle when a jock recs her help urtg Aster, her own csh.

IT'S A S IS AN EMOTNAL TALE OF GAY '80S LONDON: REVIEW

A gay man (Jse Plemons) returns home to his nservative fay to be wh his ncer-stricken mom (Molly Shannon) this sweetly ic semi-tobgraphil film wrten and directed by Chris Now20 The Death and Life of Marsha P.

GAY MEN LONDON, OM PERSECUTN TO PRI

When the Brish parliament passed the Sexual Offenc Act of 1967 – which stated that: “a homosexual act private shall not be an offence provid that the parti nsent thereto and have attaed the age of 21 years” – sought to legimate gay inty Bra, at least partially. However, lbians do feature throughout the urse of this 50-year history and should be clud wh the bat around creased visibily – even if, when pared wh films about gay male experience, they are unrreprented.

As Andy Medhurst explas his entertag and thoughtful search for “nebulo nanci” Brish films ma between the 1940s and 1960s, the aim of the queer spectator was to pick up on visual and verbal clu which would give away a character’s or actor’s “gayns”.

Extra-textual elements about Bogar’s own private life as a gay man lend the film and his performance addnal meang and an thenticy which flects his performanc later films such as Joseph Losey’s The Servant (1963) and Darlg (1965). Canadian-Amerin soclogist Ervg Goffman, wrg 1968 (a year after the Sexual Offenc Act was passed England and Wal), clus homosexualy as a social stigma – that is, a marker which disqualifi an dividual om full social acceptance.

PRI: A HEARTBREAKG BRISH COMEDY ABOUT THE TIME GAYS AND MERS WORKED TOGETHER

For the gay man, the uld range om (self-evint) sexual relatns wh someone of the same sex to ls obv symbols which have veloped society and culture over time – for example drag queens, effemate behavur and particular ways of drsg or actg. Stairse (Stanley Donen, 1969), featurg Richard Burton and Rex Harrison as a uple of “flamg queen” hairdrsers, drew the cril ire of Roger Ebert (and, one imag, some of the gay muny) for their portrayal of Harry and Charlie as a parodic “sishow attractn”. Whether one is Lookg for Langston (1989) – the tle of Julien’s 1989 film about gay black Amerin poet Langston Hugh – or Cght Lookg (1991) – Constante Giannaris’ 1991 film about risque fantasi – the sire to see and be seen has been ccial the advancement of gay rights.

Meanwhile, Terence Davi would tackle elements of his own homosexual awakeng wh a reprsive Catholic upbrgg and a dysfunctnal fay un his films The Terence Davi Trilogy (1983), Distant Voic, Still Liv (1988) and The Long Day Clos (1992). Dyer propos that the signifince of the “look” of the films, and perhaps why so much vigoratg queer film-makg was beg done penntly and shown unrground venu (as well as for mercial reasons), was a reflectn of the “surface” homosexuals had to manage orr to pass for heterosexual.

Caravagg (1986), Edward II (1991) and Wtgenste (1993) n be terpreted as a “queerg” of history, to emphasise the sexualy of their rpective central figur orr to rve a space for gay visibily wh the largely heterosexual (not to mentn, whe and male) amy.

Playwright Joe Orton (very much the theatril scendant of Wil’s risqué high society satire) is memorably portrayed by Gary Oldman Prick Up Your Ears (1987), Ian McKellen plays Frankenste director Jam Whale Gods and Monsters (1998) and, The Imatn Game (2014), Benedict Cumberbatch’s Alan Turg rac to crack the enigma durg World War II as he wrtl wh his homosexualy. In films such as The Bt Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and Philomena (2013), queers occupy sub-plots, but Pri (2014) puts s subject matter (equal rights for lbians, gay men and Welsh mers 1984’s strik) ont and centre.