My top 10 gay movie list ... what are yours?

[Smiles]

The thread just below about the Oscars got me to thinking about which "gay"-themed movies I've seen over the years are my favourites.

I must admit to enjoying Brokeback Mountain very much, but quite honestly I cannot see it as a "Best Picture" winner (IMHO of course). When comparing it to Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107156/usercomments), for me 'Brokeback" comes of in second place, not first. I simply thought The Wedding Banquet to be a better film ... though certainly less dramatic and spectacular.

At any rate, here is a list of my personal top 10 gay films ~ in order of preference.

ALL these films are terrific, but Happy Together (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118845/usercomments) is arguably heads and shoulders above the rest . . . in terms of both quirky film making and the strangely invigorating-yet-despressing overall mood.
As you can probably tell, I am a great Stephen Frears fan ( Prick up Your Ears (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093776/usercomments) and My Beautiful Launderette (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091578/usercomments)). Some years after making these 2 smallish films listed below, he directed the mesmerising Les Liasons Dangereux (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094947/usercomments).

How about sharing your own list . . . ?


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/sawatdeephotos/Images2/top10.jpgThe last photo in this group is from a small made-for-TV film for which I could not find a poster, so I copied a still shot from the movie itself. It's called Doing Time on Maple Drive and is unexpectedly excellent. It starts off as a fairly typical "coming out to the family" movie, but is filled to the brim with fine acting, some wonderfully fleshed-out characters, meandering story lines (the Gay Comer-outer ~ the kid in the middle of the family photo ~ is not the only drama here), and a VERY early turn by a VERY youthful Jim Carrey, who can't live up to either his father's expectations, or match the news of his brother's gayness.


Cheers ...

One of my complaints is that so many "gay" movies (not about AIDS) are so gawdawful - however I do have some faves

In addition to Beautiful Thing, Brokeback Mtn, Idaho and Maurice, at the top of my list is:

http://www.bigeden.com/graphics/poster.jpg

which is shot in Montana - which makes the beautiful scenery of Wyoming - found in Brokeback - look like the slums of Camden, New Jersey

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Also on the list

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000560PU.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Which has a great cast of attractive reasonably well-known actors in a story that is by turns touching and also angst-y.

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A bit more controversial is

http://www.lot47.com/lie/images/lie_home_art.jpg

which does deal with adolescent sexuality and pedophilia (actually ephebophilia) without being exploitative and creepy like in a Larry Clark movie

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From an excellent eye-candy perspective

http://www.electro-comicsonline.com/miramax/velvet_goldmine.jpg

Ewen McGregor prances about with his cock flopping, Jonathon Rys Myers looking ethereally beautiful and Christian Bale doing a very creepy turn

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I couldn't leave out

http://cvmc.kgbinternet.com/media/titlepics/MachoDancer.jpg

which I grant is Fillipino rather than Thai gogo - but it was one of the first gay-themed movies I ever saw - and certainly the one that unleashed my inner rice-queeniness. It is definitely erotic - but does not try to glamourize the harsh lives of these boys

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The movie that (I think) opened the closet door for gay-themed films with actual budgets


http://www.affichescinema.com/insc_b/billy_kiss.jpg

This is a genuinely funny film - with then-unknown Sean Hayes going on to play Jack in Will and Grace and introducing Brad Rowe as the Brad Pitt look-alike, who doesn't really have to do much besides be a Brad Pitt look-alike

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A very powerful movie is

http://www.lavenderlibrary.org/images/LatterDays.jpg

which has themes of relgion and intolerance, self-loathing and ultimately, love - plus two very sexy guys!

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A real surprise to me was

http://liglff.org/images/films/2005/cowboys%20and%20angels.jpg

Which I knew nothing about before seeing it - and while I usually prefer my favorite movies to have something to hit rewind for - this one, while lacking in erotica, is rich in good acting and an intriguing script

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I am including this one as a *Gay* film

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6300269388.01._PE40_.The-Last-of-Sheila._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

because the screen-writers, actor Anthony Perkins (Psycho) and the god of the Amercian Musical Theatr Stephen Sondheim (West Side Story, Gypsy, Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Assassins etc. etc. - see my Avatar) are both gay - and there is a gay character. It is a brillaintly plotted murder mystery penned by two puzzle fans.

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and lastly, one that rang true with some of my own experiences growing up gay

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/cover/UNCUTNICODANI.jpg

not a great film - but the young actors do a fine job, and the story is a not-always-generous look at two best friends who have openly explored their adolescent sexuality together, and et whos ultimate attractions go in different directions.



OK - maybe it is disingenuous for me to bitch about crappy gay movies, and then pop out an additional ten to the list above - but there are 20 crap films for every good one!

The Children's Hour: Shirty McLaid and Audrey Heartburn.
Gilda: There is a gay bit but, if you blinked you missed it--And again in:
Inside Daisy Clover: Redford's character was gay.
?... The one with Bacall & Bogart: The art dealer & his boyfriend...etc.
Suddenly, Last Summer.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. (The 'gay business' was expunged from the movie, but we knew.)
Reflections in a Golden Eye...Liz, again.
Midnight Cowboy.
Taking Care of Mr. Sloan. Pure camp.
La Cage Funnier in French.

The worst--Gay, straight...whatever...movie of all time, not even good camp; the leather-lesbian, Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill! And I sat through the whole damn thing...What one will do on a rainy Saturday afternoon in a strange town and you see a theater you heard is a grope-show. So I left there ten minutes into the second feature: an almost-as-bad Andy Warhole thing I can't remember the name of, and went off to see my first gay porn flick--And the manager asked me to leave: because I laughed so hard --Not at the movie but all the hats and rain coats bobbing up-and-down! he took me to his office for discipline--His--So it wasn't a total waste.

I think that might have been "Entertaining Mr. Sloane" but it was the 1960s when I saw it and it is said that anyone who remembers the '60s, wasn't there. Perhaps it spawned a spoof.

Sorry Smiles but I found "Happy Together" very implausible and too depressing. Some of the films made earlier by the same loose alliance of Hong Kong filmakers are quite homoerotic and my favourite of those would be "Days of Being Wild". I'm particulary fond of Alex To in this.

If one stickes to gay themed films the Hong Kong film named after a Japanese schoolgirl fad "Bishonen" is great but I can't really evaluate it as I kept seeing people I knew from the HK scene of the 1990s. The star of course is adorable and all those policeman's uniforms ... nuff said.

The Asian gay themed film that rings truest for me though is Japanese. "Like Grains of Sand" in English. Tasteful and sensitive.

I think that might have been "Entertaining Mr. Sloane" but it was the 1960s when I saw it and it is said that anyone who remembers the '60s, wasn't there.

Yes, right on both counts: I saw it on late-night television: the movie--And the 60's.

There is only one worth mentionng:

Victim

1961

Director: Basil Dearden

Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms

www.imdb.com/title/tt0055597/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055597/)

www.outrate.net/outratevictim.html (http://www.outrate.net/outratevictim.html)

[Smiles]

" ... Sorry Smiles but I found "Happy Together" very implausible and too depressing. . . . The Asian gay themed film that rings truest for me though is Japanese. "Like Grains of Sand" in English. Tasteful and sensitive... "
Hi Northstar, yes "Happy Together" takes no prisoners and you either love it or hate it. You are not aIone. I know quite a few gay friends who left the theatre shaking their heads and muttering what that was all about. But that's why I think it such a great film.

Thanks for the thoughts on "Like Grains of Sand". I missed that one somehow (as in, never heard of it) but will attempt to find it. But I live in a small town just around the corner from where Brokeback Mountain was filmed! ``:colors: Hard to find stuff here.

Cheers ...

"Like Grains of Sand" is a Japanese rites of passage film. More on it

here. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113922/)

OK Ill bite.
In no particular order.

Brokeback

Boys Don't Cry

Beautiful Boxer (can't believe no one mentioned it yet)

La Vie en Rose

But I'm a Cheerleader

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Victor Victoria (Julie Andrews is one sexy boy!)

The Crying Game (I did NOT know the "secret" when I saw it. I let out a yelp in the theater when it was revealed)

La Cage aux Folles (French version)

Some like it Hot

HONORABLE MENTIONS (since the rule is 10 only)

Taboo (Gay samurai boys)
Mulan (yes, the Disney movie!)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (saw the premier at the Castro in San Francisco and the crowd went wild)
Beautiful Thing (fond memories of this movie)
Lawrence of Arabia (there's just something about this movie that makes me HOT every time I see it)

Edith, are you thinking of "Maltese Falcon" with Bogart? Sydney Greenstreet was the art dealer Caspar Gutman and Elisha Cook was his "boy" Wilmer. Its not an easy subtext to get but Peter Lorre was an obviously gay Joel Cairo with his curly hair and perfumed handkerchiefs.
Bacall wasn't in that one, it was Mary Astor. (sorry to nitpick)

The Boys in the Band

This was adapted from an excellent stage play, and the movie was a nod to the then-emerging nationaladmission that homosexuals exist.

If it was made today then GLAAD would condemn it for its "negative gay stereotypes" due to the portrayals of screaming, bitchy, catty, campy queenies...although the film adaptation of Terrence McNally's Love, Valour, Compassion didn't seem to raise that many hackles

probably becasue it wasn't a very good adaptation

[Doug]

I loved, "Mumbo Italiano".

Torch Song Trilogy

[elephantspike]

Beautiful Boxer (can't believe no one mentioned it yet)

Thailand has had quite a few noteworthy gay-themed films in recent years. Iron Ladies 1 and 2, Saving Private Tootsie, I Am Lady, Beautiful Boxer. Has anyone seen this one yet?

Tropical Malady

Year Released: 2004
Stars: Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul


Tropical Malady is the lyrical and mysterious new film by maverick Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Blissfully Yours), one of the most prominent young directors of the Thai New Wave. Tropical Malady chronicles the mystical love affair between a young soldier and the country boy he seduces, soon to be disrupted by the boy's sudden disappearance. Local legends claim the boy was transformed into a mythic wild beast, and the soldier journeys alone into the heart of the Thai jungle in search of him.


<center>http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/images/1120_1.jpg (http://www.gayasianshop.com/site/prodDetail.asp?pID=1120&Affiliate=169)</center>

I stumbled accross it when I was looking for new DVDs to promote on the index page fron gayasianshop.com. I don't think I've seen any reviews of it at all.

I know you are busy screwing the board together ES but if you look back to 26th/27th of January, you'll find a brief exchange on this Tropical Malady Movie in the Ong Bak thread.

Basicaly, Manfarang and I disagree on the movie as a whole. I can take the first half as cutsie view into young gay life Thai style but feel shrtchanged with the rather difficult to interpret second part.

I believe it was also discussed on the previous board. I seem to remember giving my 2p's worth.

[manfarang-old]

My all time favorite, Happy Together. Also loved Tropical Malady.
Not necessarily a top ten, but some of my other favorities:

Farewell My Concubine (http://www.tlavideo.com/details/product_details.cfm?v=2&sn=1469&id=106317)
http://images.tlavideo.com/images/catalog_gaybase/106317.jpg

Bishonen (http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/bishonen.htm)
http://www.shuqi.org/movies/bishonen/poster-cover/bishonen_image.jpg

Rice Rhapsody (http://aznfilms.com/product_info.php/products_id/1710?osCsid=23b80)
http://aznfilms.com/images/ricerhap.jpg

MyLife on Ice (http://www.filethirteen.com/reviews/mylifeonice/mylifeonice.htm)
http://images.tlavideo.com/images/catalog_gaybase/196848.jpg

I Like You... I Like You Very Much (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005NKBU/104-0789885-0030349?v=glance&n=130)
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005NKBU.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Fleeing By Night (http://www.tlavideo.com/details/product_details.cfm?c=2&v=2&sn=1469&id=191659)
http://images.tlavideo.com/images/catalog_gaybase/191659.jpg

Twinkle (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104616/)
http://sazuma.com/images/PCBC-50564.jpg

Hold You Tight (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144029/)
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000648Z9.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Not gay per se, but definitely a gay feel (and good, dumb fun):
Water Boys (http://www.j-fan.com/cinema/cinema.cgi?action=viewrev&selected=2)
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/pictures/l/15/39/TDV-2694D.jpg[/img]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini, the celebrated Italian gay communist , murdered by a rent-boy thirty years ago- quite probably a political assassination.
Mama Roma, Salo, Theorem all have gay sub-texts (remember that the films were made in the 60s and 70s and so had to allude to rather than portray gay themes) while the astonishingly beautiful Arabian Nights (1974)- still available on DVD and VHS- celebrates the male body and the strange landscapes and cities of the Yemen, Ethiopa and Nepal.

One of my favourites is Death in Venice (1971). A powerful film, great acting and powerful music. Similar to Brokeback, it ends in tregedy and if I recall correctly the guys never mention "love" and never say "I love you" to each other as well.

I can see DVD is available from amazone.co.uk for 6.97 pounds, other films mentioned above are also available from amazon. I shall wait till Brokeback's DVDs become available and will buy them all together to get free delivery.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000WN118.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[wowpow]

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Priest

Longtime Companion

Transamerica

Entertaining Mr. Sloan

The Times of Harvey Milk

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Capote?

and television sourced

Angels in America

Brideshead Revisited

Queer as Folk UK

Queer as Folk US

Tales of the City

Will and Grace?

www.aboutgaymovies.info (http://www.aboutgaymovies.info)

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini

...really, well I think I enjoyed "Theorem" in the early '70s but also recollect walking out of "Salo".

As Manfaarang had listed it I decided to watch "Rice Rhapsody" last night. A friend had left it on DVD a few weeks earlier but the packaging looks amateurish as did the acting when I first dipped into it. I've never be able to stand Martin Yan (can cook?) long and I find Singlish the most irritating accent on the planet. Anyway on the strength of the recommendation I persevered last night and was pleasantly surprised by the end of it. It sort of wrings you out after about the first hour.

Nobody, seems to have mentioned "East Palace, West Palace" yet. It seems to be a fairly direct transcription from the stage, (off-Broadway Beijing?). I found the development of the characters very sound and the whole a real insight into the situation of those living under dictatorhips of the proletariat.

including "Myra Breckinbridge" and ..oh that's it !

(or is that high camp ?)

[manfarang-old]

Nobody, seems to have mentioned "East Palace, West Palace" yet.
I should have. A definite oversight.

Did anyone manage to see the Thai film Rainbow Boys: The Movie (http://www.rainbowboys-themovie.com/data/note.htm) a few months back? It's based on the Alex Sanchez novel of the same name. I read somewhere that it had a brief theatrical run but was more of a straight-to-DVD production, but I've never seen it listed on any of the usual Thai video sources.

Last night I watched a rental of Dorian Blues (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dorian_blues/). Quite entertaining.
http://images.tlavideo.com/images/catalog_gaybase/204318.jpg