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

Contents:

• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• 16 MT-SEE CLASSIC GAY MOVI FROM BEFORE YOU WERE BORN
• INTERNATNAL GAY CEMA: 33 LGBTQ MOVI TO SEE OM AROUND THE WORLD
• QUEER KO: 1970S AND ‘80S GAY GERMAN ARTHOE CEMA

10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS

Knowg as much as we do about some LGBT stars is a feat nsirg how much rewrg and verg up the Hollywood stud heads did to everyone they managed, whether gay or straight. In his own words, he felt “pafully isolated, strand between the sual homophobia of most ‘normal’ people and the flagrantly gay Hollywood subculture – where [he] was even ls fortable and ls accepted. Five years before Hunter beme a star, he was arrted along wh several other men for “lewdns, ” a mon charge for men showg any signs of homosexualy public.

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

Diana McLellan mentns this her book The Girls and the uple’s relatnship is heavily analyzed William Mann’s Behd the Screen: How Gays and Lbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969.

Gaynor and Adrian were succsful durg a time when any sort of evince of their homosexualy would have hurt their reers, so ’s not surprisg that there isn’t ncrete evince about the tth of their relatnship.

This may e as a surprise om a untry where male homosexualy was illegal until as recently as 1967, and where gay marriage ntu to ffle right-wgers, swivel-eyed or otherwise.

INTERNATNAL GAY CEMA: 33 LGBTQ MOVI TO SEE OM AROUND THE WORLD

We’ve narrowed down the list to films easily available on DVD, although honourable mentn mt go to the über-rare Two Gentlemen Sharg (1969), a swgg slice of the 60s that hted at terracial homosexualy. 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. Tom Shkolnik’s betifully observed The Comedian (2012), which a possibly gay, possibly bi thirtysomethg (Edward Hogg) tri to make as a standup the pal, also narrowly missed cln.

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). The ma tr may be straight, but the mera’s love of Pl Robon’s torso – the film was directed and produced by gay men – hts at an even more taboo love story. Although ma at a time when homosexualy was unmentnable on screen, Hale’s gtur and waspish livery clearly the character as not the marryg kd.

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. Victim was released four years after the publitn of the Wolfenn report, a paper which remend that male homosexualy no longer be regard as a crimal offence. 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.

QUEER KO: 1970S AND ‘80S GAY GERMAN ARTHOE CEMA

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). A newlywed (Col Campbell) havg marriage problems fds pe through mararie wh a biker gang – and don’t realise that his dynamic and fatly misogynist bt iend (Dudley Sutton) is gay.

The last scene, set a gay bar, featur a nga le of unlikable stereotyp, but at least Sutton across more sympathetilly than Ra Thgham, playg Campbell’s shrewish wife. Some praised for s realistic portrayal of a gay teacher unsuccsfully seekg a lovg relatnship the newly sexually liberated clubs of London. Now Nighthawks n be re-evaluated as an valuable time psule of the late 1970s gay scene, the liberated perd between crimalisatn and the outbreak of AIDS.

Ken Robertson is very good as the antihero, pecially the film’s bt scene, when the teacher out to his homophobic class and nonts their prejudic.

Homosexualy is jt one of the topics vered  Hanif Kureishi’s amb, Osr-nomated screenplay, which also tak on racism, culture clash, and the state of Thatcher’s Bra.

Betiful Thg (1996)This favoure remas one of the sweett of all gay films, tellg the story of two troubled boys – one bullied at school, the other at home – who fd love each other’s arms. 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. 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.