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BRET EASTON ELLIS SAYS STANLEY KUBRICK WAS GAY
The major players of Amerin tr cema particular—those artists whose nam voke entire, self-ntaed univers of cematic feelg and imagery, like Hchck, Srse, Terrence Malick, Francis Ford Coppola, Spike Lee, Taranto, the Anrsons—have been monstrably disterted explorg gay characters any signifint way. Sce their ever-prent filmographi have long eclipsed the reers of so many others, this is hardly negligible terms of wrg any kd of mastream gay film history. And probably go whout sayg that each of those s, the homosexualy of the character be a touch pot of the plot rather than cintal, an exprsn of some psychosexual motivatn.
To briskly simplify three plex films: Reflectns’ Major Penrton (Marlon Brando) is tortured by supprsed gay urg; The Color Purple’s Celie (Whoopi Goldberg) fds solace the arms of Shug Avery, is implied, partly rponse to a world of monstro, abive men; and the vourg, vengeful lbianism of Mulholland’s Diane/Betty (Naomi Watts) plays as a sort of narrative and character doublg effect, an ia of the spltg of the self that has more foundatn Frdian spl nscns than sexual experience. Most overtly there is the homoerotic bathg scene Spartac (1960), which Lrence Olivier’s Crass tells Tony Curtis’s slave Anton that he has a taste for both “snails” and “oysters. Between Men: English Lerature and Male Homosocial Dire.
Clarke, worried that Kubrick might reject further llaboratn wh him bee he was gay, one day mtered the nerve to nont the issue head on. Choosg his moment, he abptly announced durg one of their meetgs, “Stan, I want you to know that I’m a very well-adjted homosexual.