'Two boys snoggg was revolutnary': the greatt gay moments cema | Film | The Guardian

Contents:

• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• THE BT GAY VILLAG IN THE UNED KGDOM FOR FABULO QUEER FUN! ??
• 'TWO BOYS SNOGGG WAS REVOLUTNARY': THE GREATT GAY MOMENTS CEMA

10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS

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. 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.

THE BT GAY VILLAG IN THE UNED KGDOM FOR FABULO QUEER FUN! ??

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. 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.

'TWO BOYS SNOGGG WAS REVOLUTNARY': THE GREATT GAY MOMENTS CEMA

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. 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.