The Very First Lgbt+ Film Was Shown Exactly 100 Years Ago This Year

FEATURE

GAYS ON FILM THE VERY FIRST LGBT+ FILM WAS SHOWN EXACTLY 100 YEARS AGO THIS YEAR. XAV JUDD LOOKS AT HOW THE LGBT+ COMMUNITY HAS BEEN REPRESENTED IN A CENTURY OF CELLULOID

SPRING 2019 | @pridelife | /Pridelifemagazine | PRIDELIFE.COM | 085 FEATURE 20 MUST–SEE LGBT+ MOVIES

Moonlight – 2016 Director: Barry Jenkins The coming–of–age drama outlines three stages in the life of Afro–American Chiron Harris. At first, as a kid growing up in a rough neighbourhood in Miami; as an adolescent, unsure about his sexual orientation; and finally to Atlanta and a rendezvous with an old flame.

Another Country – 1984 Director: Marek Kanievska CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: ALGIE THE MINER; ANDERS ALS DIE In a public school in the 1930s, two ANDERN; CABARET; THE LEATHER outsiders try and cope with the rigours BOYS; ROCK HUDSON; DOG DAY and regimentation of daily life. Guy AFTERNOON; A STREETCAR NAMED “Marlon Brando, DESIRE; VICTIM Bennett (Rupert Everett), excoriated for his homosexuality, wonders about his James Dean and place in a repressive, culturally and socially hierarchical UK, while Tommy Montgomery Clift Judd (Colin Firth) is another scourge of the anachronistic British elite, a Marxist.

were all schooled in Bent – 1997 Director: Sean Mathias the Method” Max (Clive Owen) is a promiscuous non– heterosexual who’s forced to flee 1930s Berlin. Eventually sent to Dachau concentration camp, initially he denies ince its inception in the 1890s, the homosexuality on celluloid before this feature depictions of violence and prostitution – in order by MGM for not renouncing his sexuality - and example, his handkerchiefs are fragranced he’s “bent”. Then he falls in love with an seductive wonder of cinema has had the was released, but these were always stereotypical. to offset falling audience numbers during the ushered in a set of tenets that effectively with gardenias. Such bowdlerisation of the openly–gay prisoner, Horst (Lothaire capacity to thrill us, engender tears and For instance, in 1907, French pioneer Georges Great Depression. One example of this desire to disallowed the depiction of homosexual source material reached even greater heights in Bluteau), and gradually manages to take instil laughter. However, perhaps it Méliès made L’Éclipse du Soleil en Pleine Lune cause a stir was in The Sign of the Cross (1932), characters on the silver screen The stringent relation to Charles R. Jackson’s novel, The Lost pride in his own sexual identity. Swasn’t until exactly one century ago in 1919 when (The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon) in where it is implied that emperor Nero has a slave restrictions of the Motion Picture Code (the Weekend (1944) - the gay persona was German production Anders als die Andern which the two celestial bodies are represented by boy who is also his lover. Hays Code), which although created in 1930 completely whitewashed. In the book, it’s Boys Don’t Cry – 1999 (Different from the Others) hit the silver screen male actors’ faces. Well, when the impish star However, such disparaging enactments of weren’t enforced until four years later, had come suggested that the protagonist, Don Birnam Director: Kimberly Peirce that our community had something we could moves right behind an effete-looking moon, the “queerness” in early-1930s Hollywood were not about because many had seen the aforesaid (Ray Milland), is an alcoholic, closet homosexual Hilary Swank plays Brandon Teena, a truly identify with. This tragic romance is latter seems to be really enjoying himself. without a touch of irony. Firstly, since openly gay upturn of brutality and lewdness in late-1920s haunted by a same-sex liaison at college; yet all Nebraskan trans man who starts dating regarded to be the first pro-gay movie. To mark Across the Atlantic in Hollywood, which actor William Haines was a top-five box-office star and early-1930s cinema as depraved. Indeed, a references to problems with his orientation were Lana Tisdel (Chloë Sevigny), who is this landmark, we examine how homosexual men produced its first movie in 1910, in Algie, the from 1928 to 1932. Secondly, as the initial four sanctimonious church had threated to organise entirely edited out of Billy Wilder’s 1945 movie. unconcerned when she finds out about have been portrayed on celluloid since that that Miner (1912), the titular lead is an effeminate, years of the 30s witnessed the Pansy Craze. This boycotts of certain features deemed unsuitable, A new breed of matinee idol blazed a trail his true sexual identity. However, a couple time mainly in the British and US film industries. flowery individual who minces around for comic was a period in American history when and some branches of government had across the cinematic landscape of 1950s America. of her buddies, ex–cons John and Tom Anders als die Andern was important because effect. Such negative characterisations were also homosexual subculture went mainstream due to considered censoring or banning them. To stave The impossibly handsome Marlon Brando, James think differently. the sympathetic story centres on Paul Körner evident in The Soilers (1923) and A Wanderer of Prohibition; this 1920-1933 nationwide alcohol off either of these eventualities, the major Dean and Montgomery Clift were all schooled in (Conrad Veidt), a virtuoso pianist who gets the West (1927), where a “sissy” archetype is a foil ban resulted in bars and clubs in many cities studios initiated the new rules as a form of self- the Method, so gave raw, nuanced performances Dog Day Afternoon – 1975 involved with Kurt Sivers (Fritz Schulz), a to the supposedly more masculine gun-toting (Chicago, New York, San Francisco, amongst regulation. As a result, scenes of childbirth, in which they weren’t afraid to show their Director: Sidney Lumet spirited younger man he’d been giving music cowboys in the picture. others) eager to maximise profits from selling miscegenation and sexual perversion etc, could vulnerability. All were at least bisexual, and Based on a true story, Sonny Wortzik lessons to. Unfortunately, their happiness When Al Jolson uttered the immortal line illicit booze, adopting a laissez-faire attitude in not be shown. Non-heterosexuality was regarded conceivably their orientation partly informed (Al Pacino) holds up a New York bank to becomes doomed when they’re blackmailed. “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet” in The Jazz Singer respect of their clientele. Thus, a new bohemia to be in the latter category, so any trace of our their choices of roles. Each of them starred in get the money for his partner to have a When considered in social context, the fact this (1927), the earliest feature-length film to use emerged as a previously underground LGBT+ community was either buried so deep in subtext features where there was a strong homosexual sex change, and ends up holding the monochrome gem presented LGBT-relations in sound, it ushered in a new era: Tinseltown community mingled with straight people for the you’d practically need a PhD in semiotics to subtext: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951); Rebel staff hostage. a positive light was iconoclastic, as gradually moved away from silent pictures to first time in various entertainment venues, and figure it out, or totally expunged. Without a Cause (1955); and Suddenly, Last homosexuality was outlawed in Germany at the talkies. Nonetheless, there was no shift in the because some of these establishments hired drag Indeed, in Dashiell Hammett’s book The Summer (1959) respectively. This final picture was Todo sobre mi madre time (as it was in most of the Western world up portrayal of non-heterosexuals as clichés, apart queens (“pansy performers”) – Ray Bourbon, Bruz Maltese Falcon (1930), it couldn’t be written based on Tennessee Williams’ 1958 play of the (All About My Mother) – 1999 until at least the late-1960s); and, actually, from the fact that we now had campy accents Fletcher and Gene Malin were the most notable. more explicitly that one of the bad guys, Joel same name, in which the lead character’s cousin, Director: Pedro Almodóvar Magnus Hirschfeld, the famous sexologist and such as in actor Benny Rubin’s performance in The Pansymania trend ended in 1933 to a Cairo (Peter Lorre), isn’t straight, as he is Sebastian, is a voracious queer who procures When Manuela’s (Cecilia Roth) son dies in gay and transgender rights advocate, (partly) the musical-comedy Sunny Skies (1930). degree due to the repeal of Prohibition which referred to as “the fairy” and “queer”; but not to young men. The film’s scriptwriter, Gore Vidal, a car accident she heads from Madrid to produced this movie as a riposte to Paragraph 175 Eventually, these stock gay personas were also meant a lot of speakeasies closed, but also as a fall foul of the censors, although still effeminate, wanted to portray this as explicitly as he could but Barcelona to track down his father, a – the 1871-enacted provision that had made non- given a degree of danger so as to be in tune with more authoritarian morality had been sweeping in John Huston’s 1941-directed film version, the was forced to water down the intended narrative. transvestite called Lola (Toni Cantó) who heterosexual acts illegal in Germany. an industry that desired more shock-value across the US. It was a Zeitgeist that put paid to non-heterosexual traits of the character as played Indeed, in the documentary The Celluloid Closet never knew he existed. There had been a few earlier depictions of subject matter – e.g. increased numbers of the film career of Haines - in 1933 he was sacked by Peter Lorre are smothered in subtext – for (1995), he laments: “I have never seen such a time

My Own Private Idaho – 1991 My Beautiful Laundrette – 1985 Director: Gus Van Sant Director: Stephen Frears Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Keanu In Thatcher’s Britain, Omar (Gordon Reeves) are gay hustlers who go on a journey Warnecke), a young Englishman of of self–discovery in search for Mike’s mother. Pakistani origin, opens up a laundromat in South London, and then rekindles a Philadelphia – 1993 romance with childhood friend, street Director: Jonathan Demme punk Johnny (Daniel Day–Lewis). Tom Hanks is a senior lawyer who conceals his homosexuality and the fact he’s living The Adventures of Priscilla, with AIDS. When he’s sacked from his job Queen of the Desert –1994 he sues for wrongful dismissal. Director: Stephan Elliott Road movie detailing the trials and Pride – 2014 tribulations and hopes and fears of drag Director: Matthew Warchus queens Adam/Felicia (Guy Pearce) and Based on a true story, George MacKay Tick/Mitzi (Hugo Weaving), and a CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: plays a closeted twentysomething student MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO; transgender woman, Bernadette (Terence who joins a London–based group of PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE Stamp) as they travel the Outback from LGBT+ activists in their attempt to raise DESERT; DALLAS BUYERS’ CLUB; Sydney to Alice Springs. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY; PRIDE; money for the striking miners in the 80s. MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE; BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN F**king Åmål (Show Me Love) – 1998 Victim – 1961 Director: Lukas Moodysson Director: Basil Dearden Two very different teenage schoolgirls Melville Farr (Dirk Bogarde) is an reside in a small town that they both accomplished barrister tipped for despise and find they have much more in promotion in 1960s London. Ostensibly common than they realise. happily married, he is a repressed homosexual and puts his relationship with The Killing of Sister George – 1968 his wife and career on the line to take on a Director: Robert Aldrich gang blackmailing gay men. George (Beryl Reid) is a thoughtless, controlling, often bitter actress, involved in La Cage aux Folles – 1978 a tetchy, long–term relationship with a in my life with censorship… You can’t say this. You An influx of such international material was Director: Édouard Molinaro Hollywood cinema is that a major homosexual traits: the rejection of heteronormativity, and much younger woman, Childie (Susannah can’t say that. By the time we started to cut it, it part of the reason the Hays Code became Rip–roaring comedy as a flamboyant male character dies in the denouement, such as in non-straight sex scenes and protagonists. York). made no sense at all”. unenforceable (it ceased to exist in 1968), and it couple – Renato (Ugo Tognazzi), the 2009’s A Single Man and 2013’s Dallas Buyers Perhaps the apotheosis of this mini-genre was It’s no surprise that such prejudicial attitudes ultimately paved the way for the success of an manager of a snazzy Saint–Tropez Club). And if we didn’t commit suicide, we were Gus van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho (1991), Chun gwong cha sit (Happy Together) – 1997 were still the prevailing ethos in 1950s America, even more sexually risqué kind of movie: discothèque that’s below their apartment homicidal maniacs – in Vanishing Point (1971) where River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves play Director: Wong Kar–wai as the opening years of the decade were the Midnight Cowboy (1969). Set mainly in the seedy and Albin (Michel Serrault) – endeavour to and Freebie and the Bean (1974), amongst others male prostitutes - the fact that both stars were Hong Kong couple Ho (Leslie Cheung) apogee of McCarthyism. Most people know this underbelly of New York, and in spite of it keep their cohabitation and the drag In the 1980s AIDS caused a moral panic in the on the cusp of A-list status took the queer and Lai (Tony Leung Chiu–wai) travel to phenomenon as the hysterical witch hunt for stretching convention by depicting hustler Joe venue hush–hush when Renato’s son West with HIV being blamed on the LGBT+ aesthetic to a much wider audience. Since then, a Argentina yearning to reinvigorate their suspected communists in government. Buck (John Voight) engaging in oral sex with pays a visit with his fiancée and her community which was demonised in the media. number of heavyweights playing multi- relationship. Nevertheless, gay men were also targeted in a another man, it still became the first LGBT+ flick super–conservative parents. The understandably closeted actor Rock dimensional gay characters have appeared in parallel campaign: The Lavender Scare. Firstly, to win the Best Picture Oscar. Although it was an Hudson, one of Hollywood’s top three most movies tackling all manner of subjects Faustrecht der Freiheit because they were regarded as sexual perverts American production, it had a (gay) English Brokeback Mountain – 2005 bankable matinee idols between 1957 and 1964, surrounding non-heterosexuality. For instance, (Fox and His Friends) – 1975 and viewed to be a social contagion; and also, director, John Schlesinger, who had kitchen-sink Director: Ang Lee was the first major celebrity to show symptoms Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall have a secret Director Rainer Fassbinder because their orientation supposedly made them sensibilities. His UK follow-up, Sunday Bloody Ranch hand Ennis (Heath Ledger) and of the disease in the mid-80s and he became the romance in Brokeback Mountain (2005); Tom Working–class Franz Bieberkopf more susceptible to blackmail, therefore posing Sunday (1971), was also a milestone in that its non- rodeo cowboy Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) are heavily pilloried face of the condition. Hanks in the AIDS tearjerker Philadelphia (Fassbinder) wins 500,000 marks in a a security risk. Over 5,000 were fired from heterosexual protagonist is drawn as a relatively hired to tend a sheep flock on Brokeback In such a febrile environment, there arose a (1993); and Sean Penn is the eponymous activist lottery and jumps into a relationship with federal posts in this era, with countless others accomplished and well-rounded doctor, Daniel Mountain. An initial friendship develops backlash against the LGBT+ community. With in Milk (2008). The fact that these concluding Eugen (Peter Chatel) who proceeds to being imprisoned. Hirsh (Peter Finch). into a (often tortured) clandestine, the possibility of being hit where it hurts by two performances garnered Best Actor statuettes strip him of his new–found wealth. In Hollywood, where many non-straight Both films were indicative of a Western world intermittent romance. falling revenues, Hollywood largely quit any highlighted the growing acceptance of directors, writers and other industry individuals that was undergoing a seismic transformation ambitions for a more inclusive cinema, and open homosexual-themed material in Hollywood and worked, this inquisition manifested itself in the - causing a commensurate change in Hollywood Cabaret – 1972 season on gays began – savage slurs became therefore society at large. rancorous and desperate, or victims and Hollywood Blacklist - it prevented hundreds of and Britain: films not only comment on society Director: Bob Fosse ubiquitous. Case in point, in 1982’s An Officer Fast forward to the last two or three years murderers of the 60s and 70s. Today, in the film alleged red sympathisers and LGBT+ movie but are also a reflection of it. In the USA in the Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) is a sassy and a Gentleman, Richard Gere plays a drop-out and this tendency has continued: there are industry of the West, we are better-rounded, professionals from being employed. late-1960s to the early-1970s, there was an anti- American performer in the Kit Kat Klub, in who wants to enlist in the navy. At his enrolment more and more features with LGBT+ characters more multi-dimensional figures than ever – in At the beginning of the 1960s, some British establishment, often revolutionary, fervour in the last days of Weimar Berlin. As the the Gunnery Sergeant (Louis Gossett, Jr.) cuts and subject matter. Indie-flick Moonlight some cases, whereby our sexuality is not even films had started to challenge established gender the air, best expressed by protests against the Nazis rise to power in what is a musical down his fresh batch of ungainly recruits: “You (2016) became the first LGBT+–related movie important in the context of the narrative. norms in Hollywood by portraying LGBT+ Vietnam War, and support for the black, drama, she becomes involved in a love wanna f**k me up the arse… Are you a queer?” to walk off with the Oscar for Best Picture in Yet, there are various caveats. For example, in individuals in a more true-to-life and women’s and LGBT+ movements - the Stonewall triangle with a pair of men: British writer Here, the wannabe marines (and audience) are 2017; and Call Me by Your Name (2017), a the increasingly authoritarian China, which is sympathetic light. These productions were in the Riots happened in June 1969. Brian Roberts (Michael York) and wealthy left in no uncertainty that being homosexual is romance between a couple of young Jewish- the second biggest film market in the world by kitchen sink genre, so often tackled taboo Gay people began to appear more frequently hedonist baron Maximilian von Heune the lowest of the low American men, won Best Screenplay twelve box office receipts, it’s forbidden to depict male- subjects with the most essential motif being a in movies. However, in Some of My Best Friends (Helmut Griem). In a 1992 issue of Sight & Sound, scholar and months later. male sex relations on celluloid. Hence, Call Me new type of realism. British cinema was never Are... (1971) and The Boys in the Band (1970), critic B. Ruby Rich coined the expression “New It may seem, then, that cinema with non- by Your Name and Moonlight were banned subject to the Hays Code and so 1961’s Victim which was the first mainstream US feature to Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom – 1975 Queer Cinema” to describe a movement of heterosexual content is more welcomed than outright, and the recent Oscar-winning Freddie was the earliest English language feature to use revolve around non-straight individuals, gay Director: Pier Pasolini independent films made by LGBT+ directors at ever, and undoubtedly our characterisation has Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) was the term homosexual. In A Taste of Honey (1961), people were portrayed as being intensely sad, Based on the Marquis de Sade’s infamous the start of that decade. The features in this dramatically progressed since Anders als die subjected to extensive cuts. one of the leads, Geoff (Murray Melvin), is a bitter, or self-loathing. novel, four unscrupulous, affluent category, such as Todd Haynes sci-fi horror Andern was released. No longer are we the camp And finally, when is a bona fide top ten male sensitive gay flatmate. The Leather Boys (1964) These were all traits the sexually conflicted libertines take 18 teenagers hostage. Poison (1991). the coming-of-age Brit-flick Young clichés of the initial third of the previous A-lister going to come out? If William Haines portrayed one of the eponymous adolescents as a titular figure in 1968’s The Sergeant (Rod Steiger) Soul Rebels (1991), and Gregg Araki’s comedy- century; merely subtext or completely edited out could do it in a much more repressive age, surely hip queer biker with attitude. had, before killing himself (another trope in drama The Living End (1992) shared certain as in the 1940s and 1950s; or either the solely it’s about time…

My Own Private Idaho – 1991 My Beautiful Laundrette – 1985 Director: Gus Van Sant Director: Stephen Frears Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Keanu In Thatcher’s Britain, Omar (Gordon Reeves) are gay hustlers who go on a journey Warnecke), a young Englishman of of self–discovery in search for Mike’s mother. Pakistani origin, opens up a laundromat in South London, and then rekindles a Philadelphia – 1993 romance with childhood friend, street Director: Jonathan Demme punk Johnny (Daniel Day–Lewis). Tom Hanks is a senior lawyer who conceals his homosexuality and the fact he’s living The Adventures of Priscilla, with AIDS. When he’s sacked from his job Queen of the Desert –1994 he sues for wrongful dismissal. Director: Stephan Elliott Road movie detailing the trials and Pride – 2014 tribulations and hopes and fears of drag Director: Matthew Warchus queens Adam/Felicia (Guy Pearce) and Based on a true story, George MacKay Tick/Mitzi (Hugo Weaving), and a CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: plays a closeted twentysomething student MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO; transgender woman, Bernadette (Terence who joins a London–based group of PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE Stamp) as they travel the Outback from LGBT+ activists in their attempt to raise DESERT; DALLAS BUYERS’ CLUB; Sydney to Alice Springs. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY; PRIDE; money for the striking miners in the 80s. MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE; BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN F**king Åmål (Show Me Love) – 1998 Victim – 1961 Director: Lukas Moodysson Director: Basil Dearden Two very different teenage schoolgirls Melville Farr (Dirk Bogarde) is an reside in a small town that they both accomplished barrister tipped for despise and find they have much more in promotion in 1960s London. Ostensibly common than they realise. happily married, he is a repressed homosexual and puts his relationship with The Killing of Sister George – 1968 his wife and career on the line to take on a Director: Robert Aldrich gang blackmailing gay men. George (Beryl Reid) is a thoughtless, controlling, often bitter actress, involved in La Cage aux Folles – 1978 a tetchy, long–term relationship with a in my life with censorship… You can’t say this. You An influx of such international material was Director: Édouard Molinaro Hollywood cinema is that a major homosexual traits: the rejection of heteronormativity, and much younger woman, Childie (Susannah can’t say that. By the time we started to cut it, it part of the reason the Hays Code became Rip–roaring comedy as a flamboyant male character dies in the denouement, such as in non-straight sex scenes and protagonists. York). made no sense at all”. unenforceable (it ceased to exist in 1968), and it couple – Renato (Ugo Tognazzi), the 2009’s A Single Man and 2013’s Dallas Buyers Perhaps the apotheosis of this mini-genre was It’s no surprise that such prejudicial attitudes ultimately paved the way for the success of an manager of a snazzy Saint–Tropez Club). And if we didn’t commit suicide, we were Gus van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho (1991), Chun gwong cha sit (Happy Together) – 1997 were still the prevailing ethos in 1950s America, even more sexually risqué kind of movie: discothèque that’s below their apartment homicidal maniacs – in Vanishing Point (1971) where River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves play Director: Wong Kar–wai as the opening years of the decade were the Midnight Cowboy (1969). Set mainly in the seedy and Albin (Michel Serrault) – endeavour to and Freebie and the Bean (1974), amongst others male prostitutes - the fact that both stars were Hong Kong couple Ho (Leslie Cheung) apogee of McCarthyism. Most people know this underbelly of New York, and in spite of it keep their cohabitation and the drag In the 1980s AIDS caused a moral panic in the on the cusp of A-list status took the queer and Lai (Tony Leung Chiu–wai) travel to phenomenon as the hysterical witch hunt for stretching convention by depicting hustler Joe venue hush–hush when Renato’s son West with HIV being blamed on the LGBT+ aesthetic to a much wider audience. Since then, a Argentina yearning to reinvigorate their suspected communists in government. Buck (John Voight) engaging in oral sex with pays a visit with his fiancée and her community which was demonised in the media. number of heavyweights playing multi- relationship. Nevertheless, gay men were also targeted in a another man, it still became the first LGBT+ flick super–conservative parents. The understandably closeted actor Rock dimensional gay characters have appeared in parallel campaign: The Lavender Scare. Firstly, to win the Best Picture Oscar. Although it was an Hudson, one of Hollywood’s top three most movies tackling all manner of subjects Faustrecht der Freiheit because they were regarded as sexual perverts American production, it had a (gay) English Brokeback Mountain – 2005 bankable matinee idols between 1957 and 1964, surrounding non-heterosexuality. For instance, (Fox and His Friends) – 1975 and viewed to be a social contagion; and also, director, John Schlesinger, who had kitchen-sink Director: Ang Lee was the first major celebrity to show symptoms Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall have a secret Director Rainer Fassbinder because their orientation supposedly made them sensibilities. His UK follow-up, Sunday Bloody Ranch hand Ennis (Heath Ledger) and of the disease in the mid-80s and he became the romance in Brokeback Mountain (2005); Tom Working–class Franz Bieberkopf more susceptible to blackmail, therefore posing Sunday (1971), was also a milestone in that its non- rodeo cowboy Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) are heavily pilloried face of the condition. Hanks in the AIDS tearjerker Philadelphia (Fassbinder) wins 500,000 marks in a a security risk. Over 5,000 were fired from heterosexual protagonist is drawn as a relatively hired to tend a sheep flock on Brokeback In such a febrile environment, there arose a (1993); and Sean Penn is the eponymous activist lottery and jumps into a relationship with federal posts in this era, with countless others accomplished and well-rounded doctor, Daniel Mountain. An initial friendship develops backlash against the LGBT+ community. With in Milk (2008). The fact that these concluding Eugen (Peter Chatel) who proceeds to being imprisoned. Hirsh (Peter Finch). into a (often tortured) clandestine, the possibility of being hit where it hurts by two performances garnered Best Actor statuettes strip him of his new–found wealth. In Hollywood, where many non-straight Both films were indicative of a Western world intermittent romance. falling revenues, Hollywood largely quit any highlighted the growing acceptance of directors, writers and other industry individuals that was undergoing a seismic transformation ambitions for a more inclusive cinema, and open homosexual-themed material in Hollywood and worked, this inquisition manifested itself in the - causing a commensurate change in Hollywood Cabaret – 1972 season on gays began – savage slurs became therefore society at large. rancorous and desperate, or victims and Hollywood Blacklist - it prevented hundreds of and Britain: films not only comment on society Director: Bob Fosse ubiquitous. Case in point, in 1982’s An Officer Fast forward to the last two or three years murderers of the 60s and 70s. Today, in the film alleged red sympathisers and LGBT+ movie but are also a reflection of it. In the USA in the Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) is a sassy and a Gentleman, Richard Gere plays a drop-out and this tendency has continued: there are industry of the West, we are better-rounded, professionals from being employed. late-1960s to the early-1970s, there was an anti- American performer in the Kit Kat Klub, in who wants to enlist in the navy. At his enrolment more and more features with LGBT+ characters more multi-dimensional figures than ever – in At the beginning of the 1960s, some British establishment, often revolutionary, fervour in the last days of Weimar Berlin. As the the Gunnery Sergeant (Louis Gossett, Jr.) cuts and subject matter. Indie-flick Moonlight some cases, whereby our sexuality is not even films had started to challenge established gender the air, best expressed by protests against the Nazis rise to power in what is a musical down his fresh batch of ungainly recruits: “You (2016) became the first LGBT+–related movie important in the context of the narrative. norms in Hollywood by portraying LGBT+ Vietnam War, and support for the black, drama, she becomes involved in a love wanna f**k me up the arse… Are you a queer?” to walk off with the Oscar for Best Picture in Yet, there are various caveats. For example, in individuals in a more true-to-life and women’s and LGBT+ movements - the Stonewall triangle with a pair of men: British writer Here, the wannabe marines (and audience) are 2017; and Call Me by Your Name (2017), a the increasingly authoritarian China, which is sympathetic light. These productions were in the Riots happened in June 1969. Brian Roberts (Michael York) and wealthy left in no uncertainty that being homosexual is romance between a couple of young Jewish- the second biggest film market in the world by kitchen sink genre, so often tackled taboo Gay people began to appear more frequently hedonist baron Maximilian von Heune the lowest of the low American men, won Best Screenplay twelve box office receipts, it’s forbidden to depict male- subjects with the most essential motif being a in movies. However, in Some of My Best Friends (Helmut Griem). In a 1992 issue of Sight & Sound, scholar and months later. male sex relations on celluloid. Hence, Call Me new type of realism. British cinema was never Are... (1971) and The Boys in the Band (1970), critic B. Ruby Rich coined the expression “New It may seem, then, that cinema with non- by Your Name and Moonlight were banned subject to the Hays Code and so 1961’s Victim which was the first mainstream US feature to Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom – 1975 Queer Cinema” to describe a movement of heterosexual content is more welcomed than outright, and the recent Oscar-winning Freddie was the earliest English language feature to use revolve around non-straight individuals, gay Director: Pier Pasolini independent films made by LGBT+ directors at ever, and undoubtedly our characterisation has Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) was the term homosexual. In ATaste of Honey (1961), people were portrayed as being intensely sad, Based on the Marquis de Sade’s infamous the start of that decade. The features in this dramatically progressed since Anders als die subjected to extensive cuts. one of the leads, Geoff (Murray Melvin), is a bitter, or self-loathing. novel, four unscrupulous, affluent category, such as Todd Haynes sci-fi horror Andern was released. No longer are we the camp And finally, when is a bona fide top ten male sensitive gay flatmate. The Leather Boys (1964) These were all traits the sexually conflicted libertines take 18 teenagers hostage. Poison (1991). the coming-of-age Brit-flick Young clichés of the initial third of the previous A-lister going to come out? If William Haines portrayed one of the eponymous adolescents as a titular figure in 1968’s The Sergeant (Rod Steiger) Soul Rebels (1991), and Gregg Araki’s comedy- century; merely subtext or completely edited out could do it in a much more repressive age, surely hip queer biker with attitude. had, before killing himself (another trope in drama The Living End (1992) shared certain as in the 1940s and 1950s; or either the solely it’s about time…