The rereleased Merchant-Ivory film picts gay love wh a straightforwardns that few films sce have matched, says Guardian lumnist Charlotte Higgs
Contents:
MRICE AT 30: THE GAY PERD DRAMA THE WORLD WASN'T READY FOR
A gay classic that is suated at the begng of the twentieth century. Clive is gay, but Mrice don't want to know anythg about . Until he adms he also has feelgs for persons of the same sex, even though tellectual circl homosexualy is 'the love that dare not speak s name'.
Of urse he wants to be himself, but society don't accept gay people. When he more or ls cis to live as a gay man bosom iend Clive chang his md, ightened by a lawsu agast a gay man.
A passnate love velops between Scudr and Mrice, which mak Clive realize what kd of appearance he has to keep up as a 'nverted' gay man. The actors playg the leadg rol are straight real life but act the gay rol a betiful way. Many of their greatt films evoke a sense of unspoken sire, of any persuasn, simmerg beneath a placid surface of m – a reprsn wh which many a gay person, unable always to eely articulate their romantic self, has been able to empathise.