Derek Jarman struggled for seven years to bring his portrait of the seventeenth-century Italian artist Michelangelo da Caravaggio to the screen. The result was well worth the wait, and was greeted with critical acclaim: a freely dramatized portrait of the controversial artist and a powerful mediation on sexuality, criminality and art - a new and refreshing take on the usual biopic.
The film centres on an imagined love-triangle between Caravaggio, his friend and model Ranuccio, and Ranuccio's low-life partner Lena. Conjuring some of the artist's most famous paintings through elaborate and beautifully photographed tableaux vivants, these works are woven into the fabric of the story, providing a starting point for its characters and narrative episodes.
Caravaggio features wonderful performances from Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, and, in her first role, Tilda Swinton, who was to become Jarman's muse and long-time collaborator. A visual treat, it was the first major film production for award-winning costume designer Sandy Powell, with luscious production design by Christopher Hobbs.
Based on murders that took place between 1962 and 1979 in New York city, Cruising follows the story of police detective Steve Burns (Al Pacino)as he tries to solve a number of brutal murder cases in the gay community. Cruising received a multitude of publicity when it was released due to the censorship row that surrounded it.
Beautiful People is not your average family sitcom because the Doonans are not your average family.
The show is the story of a dream, the dream that one day Simon would leave suburban Reading and move to London to be with the beautiful people. In fact he moved to New York to become the creative director of Barneys, an uber-chic fashion store, and to write the memoir on which this hugely exuberant comedy is based. It has song, dance, jokes, bitch-fighting, drunken hairdressers, black posh spice dolls, exploding baked bean cans causing death and a soundtrack featuring Dannii and Kylie Minogue, Sophie Ellis Bextor, The Pet Shop Boys, Sam Wood and Dan Gillespie Sells of The Feeling.
Mum and Dad drink homemade wine, Simon hangs out with his best friend Kyle, better known as Kylie, working on dance moves to 90s floor fillers; his sister Ashlene wants to look like Heather Small and "hang with the hood", whilst his aunty Hayley is blind, feisty and eating nuts. Gran meanwhile used to be the nicest woman in the world and has now turned very nasty.
Set within the Asian community in London, My Beautiful Launderette is an unusual love story concerned with identity and entrepreneurial spirit during the Thatcher years. Omar (Gordon Warnecke) takes over the running of his wheller-dealer Uncle's launderette with the intentionof turning it into a glittering palace of commerical success. When he employs childhood firned and ex-National Front member Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) they become lovers as well as working partners. However, complications soon ensure as the anger of Johnny's deserted gang begins to build and Omar is forced to face increasingly difficult family issues. Written by Hanif Kureishi and skilfully directed by Stephen Frears, My Beautiful Launderette tackles the difficult issues of racism, bigotry, violence and politics in early 80's Britain and still manages to be compassionate, humourous and hugely entertaining.
Ayse, a beautiful 19-year-old girl from the Turkish countryside, is chosen to be married to the Hasan, son of formidable and house proud mother Fatma, who resides in Vienna with her husband and children.
However, what soon becomes apparent is that Ayse is to be second wife to Fatma's husband. This tight-knit family go to great lengths to preserve traditional values, and although polygamy is illegal in Austria, Ayse is welcomed. Yet, her presence in a country whose language and culture is entirely foreign to her immediately marks her as an outsider.
As Western societal norms and Muslim religious beliefs draw closer together in an ever diversifying family unit, tensions arise, resulting in an explosive stroke of fate.
Umut Dag's mature feature debut is a rich tapestry of swirling emotions, suppressed desires, unspoken words and uncomfortable yet pressing social and political questions.
The second of the Merchant/Ivory films (A Room with a View, Howard's End), Maurice deals with a theme few period pieces dare mention--a young man's struggle with his homosexuality. It's not just a gay coming-of-age story, however. The hero wrestles with British class society as much as his personal and sexual identity.
Starring:- James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Denholm Elliott and Simon Callow The film opens on a stormy, windswept beach, as an older man awkwardly instructs young, fatherless Maurice Hall (James Wilby) in the "sacred mysteries" of sex. The same turbulent, wordless struggle with passion lasts throughout this slowly evolving, beautifully filmed story. Novelist E M Forster's brainy, British melodrama hinges on choice and compulsion, as the pensive hero falls for two completely different men. First comes frail, suppressed Clive (Hugh Grant), who wants nothing more than classical Platonic harmony ... and a straight lifestyle. (Grant's performance is so convincing, one wonders how he ever became a heterosexual sex symbol.) After Clive's wedding, Maurice turns to hypnosis to cure his unspeakable longings. Unfortunately, his "cure" is interrupted by Clive's lustful, brooding, barely literate gamekeeper Scudder (Rupert Graves), a worker more at home gutting rabbits than discussing the classics. Maurice's love for a "social inferior" forces him to confront his illicit desire and his ingrained class snobbery
Boys On Film explores the darker side of romance with a collection of edgy, controversial and scintillating short films that have wowed film festival audiences the world over, including the Oscar-winning 'The New Tenants' starring Vincent D'Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket) and 'Mirrors' starring Xavier Dolan (Heartbeats, I Killed My Mother).
When you are a tall strapping man who dresses like a woman for a living, finding a pair of sexy but durable shoes can be worth your weight in gold. Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor)--a drag queen also known as Simon--finds her shoe salvation in straight-laced Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton), who has inherited his father's shoe factory. Unable to pay the bills making traditional loafers and wingtips, Charlie agrees to make Lola a pair of kinky boots that turn out to be so fabulous the pair end up going into business together. They face a few obstacles, such as the bawdy union workers who aren't too keen on taking orders from a drag queen who's more of a man than they are. Then there's Charlie's posh real estate girlfriend, who wants to convert the factory into pricey condos. While the movie doesn't provide any real surprises (or even any scenes as suggestive as its title might suggest), the film (which is loosely based on a true story) is highly entertaining that will delight fans of both comedy and shoes.
Not technically gay cinema, but still good fun and plently of camp humour
Where 2009 saw the birth of the hugely popular Boys on Film brand, 2010 picks up where Boys On Film 3: American Boy left off, with nine award-winning and hotly anticipated short films about objects of desire, and whether the attaining of them is worth the struggle. Elliot Tittensor (TV’s Shameless) stars as Daz in headlining film Protect Me From What I Want, a gripping British film debut that sees him woo a young lad in an underpass, only to be threatened with a break-up the following morning. Passive and submissive roles are tackled and tugged in gay graffiti tale Vandals and Icelandic grapple-fest Wrestling, while Postmortem, My Name is Love, and Iris Prize winner Steam look at promising encounters that turn awry. Rounding out the collection are Heiko, an alternative ode to foot fetishes, Breath, where 12 year old Erik swims out to sea to make a daring move on his best friend’s father, and the Oscar-winning short film Trevor.
Nine more award-winning short film favourites from the hugely popular Boys On Film canon, from four different continents and celebrated film festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Outfest, Frameline and many more.
Boys will be boys in Pascal Alex Vincent s FAR WEST and CANDY BOY, where a farmyard and an orphanage get a gay makeover. GO GO REJECT sees Flashdance obsessive Daniel aims for the stars, as SWEAT has Holby City s David Paisley infiltrating a bath house with unexpected results. Meanwhile, love proves to be timeless when LAST CALL unites past and present, but TWO YOUNG MEN, UT hints at an uncertain future. Looking back on the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, BLOKES focuses on the sexual awakening of a peeping Tom. Two more young boys; a confused JAMES and mute DAVID, both reach out for an experienced hand, but will they find what they are looking for?
