Queer Cinema(s)

Quote:
It is difficult for me to articulate quite why it is that I adore Jacques Nolot’s Avant Que J’Oublie (2007), or Before I Forget as it is known to English speakers. Ostensibly your typical French drama about middle class angst, alienation and spiritual decay, the film deals with an ageing gay man who looks back over his life with considerable bitterness as he considers all the things he lost and all the things he failed to gain. However, while filled with negativity about his own past, the central character Pierre (played by Nolot) is gripped by terror when he thinks about the future as his health dwindles, his sex drive sputters and his days come to be consumed by talk of money, food and how he will most likely die alone. Read More »

In a society where kissing is punishable by death, and people pay for things by receiving slaps to the face. Angine, an unhappy woman, shops compulsively in a department store. There, she becomes fascinated by a playful salesgirl. Despite the prohibition of kissing, the two become close, raising the suspicions of a jealous colleague.Read More »

Homosexuality was a taboo subject in 1956 Hollywood. So it was a challenge for screenwriter Robert Anderson to adapt his hit Broadway play about a sensitive prepschooler called “sister boy” by his peers, and the lovely housemaster’s wife who realizes she must offer more than tea and sympathy to help the boy prove his manhood. The frankness may be muted but the power remains in this stellar film. Under Vincente Minnelli’s direction, Deborah Kerr and John Kerr reprise their Broadway roles as older woman and younger man in poignant performances that reveal the compassion and the torment of being human. Their stage costar Leif Erickson joins them in counterpoint as the emotionally clenched housemaster.Read More »

Quote:
Johan thrives as a gay man in Copenhagen, enjoying endless bars, parties, and casual flings. Everything changes when he meets William, a transgender man, and falls into a deep love that defies societal norms around gender, identity, and relationships.Read More »

Civil rights lawyer Chase Strangio’s courtroom battles against anti-trans laws intertwine with exposing media narratives impacting public perception of transgender rights.Read More »

A young man decides one night to leave the woman he loves. He tells him by phone. All night, he calls her. They talk about this dead love. The young man is a painter. He meets a runaway teenager who prostitutes himself to eat. Strong bonds are created between the painter and the teenager.

“Au cours de son errance nocturne à Paris, Jean se souvient de sa passion pour Stella à laquelle il vient d’annoncer la fin de leur liaison. Il rencontre Jeannot, un jeune prostitué, devant la gare de Lyon : les deux hommes se racontent leurs tourments, poursuivant ensemble leur déambulation à travers la capitale…”Read More »

Quote:
Introduced to the homosexual lifestyle by soldiers, Karl later enlists in the military. After leaving the service, Karl plunges into civilian life as an insatiable loner desperately trying to find himself.Read More »

Quote:
Laura lives in Vouzela with her husband, considerably older than her. When Nuno, her brother, come to visit, he realizes that Laura does not have a happy life. In turn, Nuno initiates a friendship with a helper on the farm of his brother.Read More »

Quote:
An alcoholic writer begins having visions apparently warning him of impending danger. After he delivers a lecture, he begins an affair with a woman from the audience. The visions intensify, however, and begin to threaten his relationship with the woman, since it may be her the visions are warning against.Read More »