16 Mt-See Classic Gay Movi From Before You Were Born

Contents:

• 16 MT-SEE CLASSIC GAY MOVI FROM BEFORE YOU WERE BORN
• 10 GREAT FRENCH GAY FILMS
• ‘COULDN’T BELIEVE I WAS SEEG ’: HOME MOVI OFFER RARE GLIMPSE OF GAY LIFE ST. LOUIS 1945
• RULTS FOR : GAY VTAGE

16 MT-SEE CLASSIC GAY MOVI FROM BEFORE YOU WERE BORN

Even though a movie about a gay man is up for multiple Amy Awards on Sunday, pictns of LGBT life rema rare mastream film. A few filmmakers were brave enough to feature gay characters that weren't utnary tal. Spoiler alert: Sebastian ed Cathere to lure attractive young men for him to have sex wh, and a group of them killed Sebastian an pecially barbaric the time, the release of a film pend on whether met the standards of the Productn Co (this was before the Motn Picture Associatn of Ameri's ratg system) and the film was approved to pict Sebastian as gay only "sce the film illtrat the horrors of such a liftyle, n be nsired moral theme even though als wh sexual perversn.

Spoiler alert: One of the women is ed gay and love wh her worker, and thgs don't end well for a box office flop, the movie opened to cril acclaim, and received five Amy Award nomatns and three Goln Globe nods, cludg one for MacLae for Bt (1962)This Brish film, wrten by a woman (Ja Green wh John McCormick), was a repudiatn of that natn's harsh antigay laws. A blackmailer is targetg London's gays, mandg money exchange for keepg secret their same-sex affairs; many fancially strapped victims m suici rather than face prison or huiatn.

The sidns of ernment-sponsored homophobia is at the foreont of the movie, which is revolutnary for s pictn of a bisexual protagonist not to be msed wh; he's the furtht thg om a victim. By all acunts a happy fay man, the senator apparently had a gay ol' time Hawaii that's now e back to be him the butt.

10 GREAT FRENCH GAY FILMS

Claire Bloom plays Theodora, a gay psychic who tak a very distct likg to Eleanor. Midnight Cowboy (1969)This prsg drama om gay director John Schlger stars Jon Voight and Dt Hoffman as htlers who enter to a "plited" bs relatnship while workg the streets of New York. The film received an X ratg om the MPAA due to s "homosexual ame of reference and possible fluence upon youngsters, " and end up beg the only X-rated film to w the Bt Picture Amy Award.

The homosexualy was more implied than featured -- the relatnship between Voight and Hoffman is not what you'd ll passnate -- but there is a memorable scene wh Voight beg serviced by a young man at a movie theater. {C}The Boys the Band (1970)It may surprise some lennials that the director of The Exorcist, William Friedk, also ma an famo movie about gay men.

‘COULDN’T BELIEVE I WAS SEEG ’: HOME MOVI OFFER RARE GLIMPSE OF GAY LIFE ST. LOUIS 1945

The jury's still of My Bt Friends Are (1971)Mostly fotten, this groundbreakg movie centered around a rcuo night a Greenwich Village gay bar. You n cred gay director John Schlger for that; y, the same John Schlger who directed the ld Midnight Cowboy and the absolutely rid Madonna vehicle The Next Bt Daniel Day-Lewis, then a teenager, has a small, uncreded role. The actor would go on to star one of the most beloved gay films of the early AIDS era, My Betiful Lndrette.

There's also a murr, a character based on the famo film agent Sue Mengers, and people wh "gay pasts. " In the urse of the film, secrets of iends are revealed; one is a h-and-n killer and another is gay (siar offens, right?

Wrten by mored lovers Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perks (that would be the famo poser and the star of Psycho), The Last of Sheila lifted a mpy veil on the gay athetic that remas so tegral to Trouble (1974)For any lennial unfaiar wh out wrer-director John Waters: Shame on you! The movie attacked every Amerin nventn (for example, an obe nt played by Edh Massey repeatedly tri to nvce her straight nephew to go gay bee "If they're smart they're queer, if they're stupid they're straight") Cage x Foll (1978)This French-Italian film about a middle-aged gay uple, Renato (Ugo Tognazzi) and Alb (Michel Serrlt), who try to pose as straight to w over their son's fiancee and her nservative parents, walked the tightrope between homage and stereotype -- the gay characters were over-the-top but still lovable (pare that to The Boys the Band). 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.

RULTS FOR : GAY VTAGE

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.

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.