My troductn to gay London | Documentary films | The Guardian

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• MY TRODUCTN TO GAY LONDON

MY TRODUCTN TO GAY LONDON

Cast & crewUser reviewsTrivia1978Not Rated1h 53mA homosexual man is forced to hi his sexualy by day while livg his secret life by night. A homosexual man is forced to hi his sexualy by day while livg his secret life by productn, box office & pany More like thisReview a film for now as much as forty years agoThis extraordary film was ma 1978 - almost forty years ago.

Clearly, seven years on om then, a huge liberatn had occurred, but homosexualy was still hampered by amazg ignorance and tolerance general Brish society. Ron Peck and Pl Hallam's landmark portra of the London gay scene was ma 1978 but I watched 1993, Bristol, as a 19-year-old stunt who wasn't yet out to his fay and who never went to clubs.

When released, was evably - hysterilly - nmned by the tabloids, but was also cricised by some members of the gay muny, who thought wasn't celebratory me, that miss the pot of the film.

I thk the bill was fally passed the day after Derek Jarman died, which stck me as strangely you grew up the late 80s and early 90s, you didn't see many reprentatns of gay life on film or TV. A gay teacher is forced to hi his sexualy by day while livg his secret life by night, Great Bra the 1970s, not mixg his profsnal and private life, until the day when his stunts and his headmaster fd out.

The bt thg about this particular discsn (shot almost like a Kiarostami film, wh long tak of the ma character drivg and talkg) is how unfolds a non-judgemental, non-punive ’s funny how dozens of gay films (by gay filmmakers) for the past twenty years or so…. Nighthawks uld well be the cleart example of why LGBT/Gay films are not always taken to acunt or ''monized'' by many people.

Then I turned to s brief synopsis which begs: "A gay teacher is forced to hi his sexualy by day while livg his secret life by night". The reasons ther a repetivens and length to the scen is bee he's the gay bars lookg for a long term relatnship, but the bars were ma for hookups. Unniably revolutnary and important at the time of s release, Nighthawks offers a snapshot the life of a gay Br man the late 70's.

Also, s tour of the gay bars and diss of London the late '70s mak a fascatg document of a bygone me, the key scene is the one where Jim….

A landmark but liberately unshowy realist film about London's gay scene the late 1970s, Ron Peck provis a wholly naturalistic, almost fly on the wall documentarian approach, followg the divid existence of our hero Jim; prehensive school teacher by day (and only out to a handful of lleagu), by night he cis the pal's gay clubs and diss, pickg up a seri of partners but ultimately remag 's arguably this gree of rtlsns herent Jim, that mak him a sympathetic protagonist (even though Peck works agast himself by havg much of his backstory livered one long exposnal speech) the tradn of the new wave social realist hero that Peck is seemgly tryg to emulate -….

Nighthawks is the chronicle of a man tryg to fd a balance between his nventnal life as a schoolteacher and the nights he wanrs the gay bars of London search of pannship and, maybe, jt maybe, somethg more. At s re is also a portra of lonels and the nstant disappotments the search for love, of the nature of relatnships between men, the ntractns of the gay man, and the dullns of middle-class life. Ron Peck and Pl Hallam raised funds for their groundbreakg feature but piecemeal, relyg part on nfintial gifts om gay public figur.

No film had shown what was like to be an openly gay man 1970s London: the keepg-up of daily appearanc; the tirg, often moralizg work of club-hoppg and cisg; and the difficulti of makg—and fdg—lastg romantic mments. This film is the story of Jim, a man who's a prehensive (middle) school teacher by day and gay man by night the late 80's. Nighthawks is an tertg study of gay life London and at the time was ma was those heady 70s, post liberatn and pre-AIDS.

This kd of film was not ma aga so soon eher here or across the pond where Nighthawks is a study of Kenh Robertson who is a young geography teacher at one of London's ner cy schools by day and by night he's livg the life of a gay man whose only venue is the bar scene. He answers a lot of their qutns, their most ignorant qutns sce the are kids who have not exactly been exposed to posive gay role mols. Fdg a steady boyiend prov challengg for a gay geography teacher prejudiced 1970s London this Brish drama starrg Ken Robertson.

The film was nsired darg s day wh s suggtn that somethg is wrong wh a society which is so hard for homosexual men to be themselv. There are some admirable techniqu at hand, like the absence of dible dialogue for the first six mut and a shot that gradually zooms to his nervo face at a gay bar, and some of the dialogue ronat (some believe "you're not even human" if you do not "like birds"). A new teacher at Robertson's school also provis a too obv outlet for him to ramble on about the difficulti of beg gay and while a scene which his prejudiced stunts grill him about their misnceptns of homosexualy is great, too late the piece.

As a semi-anthropologil study of a gay man London is vaguely tertg, but any claims may make to take a eper look at the soclogil them of the time, or of attus are jt bridg too far. As one of the first mercially regard featur to emerge om London's gay unrground the '70s, Ron Peck and Pl Hallam's remarkable 1978 film Nighthawks had to tread a th le between challengg public misnceptns and prentg an accurate portra of the gay muny.

Nighthawks sisteps the pfalls by focg on the double life of Ken Robertson, a closeted geography teacher, as he navigat through the straight and gay worlds.

At night, he scends on the few gay bars and diss, nursg a pt of beer while anxly snng the dance floor until someone tch his eye. Wh timacy and passn, Peck and Hallam explore the romantic dilemmas of margalizatn, g a mcule budget and few lotns to show the suffotg lims of homosexual life. Twelve years after Nighthawks was released and subsequently hailed as a landmark gay cema, Peck returned to direct a fascatg pann piece, 1990's Strip Jack Naked.

Ostensibly a "makg-of" documentary, this loose assembly of outtak, photographs, sketch, film clips, and newsreel footage evolv to a far more amb and personal history of gay culture England. Tracg back to his adolcence, Peck begs wh a rivetg acunt of his peculiar attractn to the same sex, well before homosexualy was crimalized 1967, and go on to expla how the gay muny ntued to flourish, even the grim moral climate of the Thatcher Era.

The first major Brish gay film, this study of a closeted schoolteacher who spends his nights cisg London’s gay clubs search of Mr Right fi tegorisatn.

Both a fascatg glimpse to the 1970s scene and a portra of an ordary gay man livg a homophobic society, Nighthawks subverts stereotyp, led by Ken Robertson’s strong, naturalistic performance. To quote the Pet Shop Boys’ endurg anthem of gay pursu, To Speak is a film’s hero, Franck, obss on Michele after wnsg a shockg event: Michele has jt drowned his lover the lake.

Watchg the film the ntext of ntemporary gay life – which foc squarely on achievg pary wh the straight one – feels revolutnary to dive to a world that’s entirely furtive, erotic and wild. Photograph: SuppliedRon Peck’s soberg 1978 film – which follows a gay teacher, Jim (Ken Robertson), as he surs London’s clubs and bars search of love – was off-puttg to an imprsnable adolcent chg out of the closet.

The film, which ow a huge bt to John Waters, is a rtoonish parody of gay nversn therapy mps, a subject many felt was not cryg out for the edic treatment.

Photograph: c Orn/Everett/Rex FeaturNothg happens the first 44 mut of My Betiful Lndrette to suggt that we are for a “gay movie”.

If you’ve ever exclaimed “yaaaasssss queen!, ” st some sha at a servg party, watched RuPl’s Drag Race, vibed to Madonna’s “Vogue” or enjoyed Beyoncé’s Renaissance, know that you owe a bt to ballroom culture and the movie that brought to a vastly new Livgston’s documentary lv to how queer muni of lor – among them drag queens, gay men and transgenr women – rpond to racism, the Aids crisis, and generally beg grad by and shut out of the mastream world by creatg their own nway petns where they uld feel glamoro, honored and seen for who they actually were. Photograph: Glendale Picture Company/Sportsphoto/AllstarAs a closeted gay teenager and as an out gay twenty-somethg, I was forced to squtg to try and see myself sparse shreds of gayns on-screen. It wasn’t jt that the gay bar where he meets Chris New’s mment-ristant artist was somewhere I once dared myself to enter until passers-by shouted “faggots” at those outsi and I quickly diverted.

But was mostly bee wrer-director Andrew Haigh fally gave me a chance to see sex and romance as jt as heady and thrillg and all-nsumg for gays as had been for straights the many many stori I grew up wh.

Photograph: RONALD GRANTThere’s a gay kiss John Schlger’s 1971 love triangle that seems like no big al, which is of urse what mak seismic: middle-aged London doctor Daniel (Peter Fch) greets his younger sculptor lover Bob (Murray Head) wh a sual, uple-y smooch that, g jt four years after sex between men was crimalised England, feels fiant s urse, ltle else this richly drawn relatnship tangle is que so simple: happily bisexual Bob is also love wh divorcee Alex (Glenda Jackson), and rri on both affairs, wh all parti the know, until circumstanc dictate otherwise.

At once morn and a fascatg time psule, Schlger and film cric turned screenwrer Penelope Gilliatt’s tartly funny, emotnally bisg film succeeds normalisg bisexualy, homosexualy and polyamory while tailg their bed plexi even among nsentg adults: even ma today, would seem bracgly forward-thkg. The director qutn was Ron Peck, who has died of ncer aged 74, and the film was Nighthawks (1978), which explored wh ndour and passn the tratg life of Jim, a teacher who spends his days among his lleagu and pupils, and his nights surg London’s clubs and bars search of sex, love and ial appeal prompted about 250 letters om gay men and lbians, many of whom Peck met or rrpond wh.

Photograph: Mark AyrIn fact, Nighthawks do build imprsively to a five-mute climax which Jim, played by Ken Robertson, out to his stunts rponse to their needlg homophobic scene, cut together om five tak shot over two days, and populated (like the rt of the film) by non-profsnal performers, explos wh an improvisatory wildns held check throughout the precedg 90 mut or so.