Gay-Friendly Blu-rays (1 Viewer)

[Mark-P]

Well, I just finished watching A Room With A View, and I want to see it again. I continue to bring this up in the gay friendly thread because of its gay pedigree. It's writer, E.M. Forster, was gay. It's director, James Ivory, was gay. It's producer, Ismael Merchant, was gay. One of the actors, Simon Callow, was gay. Another actor, Denholm Elliott, was bisexual. They all came together to produce one of the most romantic movies I've ever seen. Oh, and it helps that there's an extended nude scene... The supporting performances are all standouts, particularly Maggie Smith and Denholm Elliott.The blu-ray looked nice on my big screen TV. The supplements would not play on my PS3, probably because they are in PAL. But the commentary plays, and I will listen to it next.This movie gets my highest recommendation.

You do realize James Ivory is still alive? Not sure why you used the past tense, unless you're implying that he is ex-gay? But as for both Ivory and Merchant, to the best of my knowledge, neither has ever come out publicly though it may be one of the cinema's worst-kept secrets.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I was referring to the movie in past tense since it was made in 1985.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Just finished the commentary track on Room. It was rather sparse, It featured Merchant, Ivory, the cinematographer, and Simon Callow. I did not learn much. It rained a lot in Florence and England, and filming had to be delayed, or switched to interiors. One of the concert scenes featured James Wilby, who played Maurice in the next movie, and Richard Robbins, who composed the score.

I also watched the supplements, which played fine in PAL on my Mac. One of the segments was a 1970 obituary aired on BBC shortly after E.M. Forster's death. One of the guests touched on his homosexuality, and how that impacted his later writing (a certain lack of novels). There was no mention of the book Maurice, since that was not published until 1971.

I'm reading Maurice now. It's an easy read, I'll probably finish it this weekend.

 

[Matt Hough]

I think after Merchant's death, Ivory did mention in passing their professional and personal relationship in an interview or two.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I finished the book Maurice.

The movie was largely like it, whole bits of dialogue were lifted verbatim. But one difference was the character of Risley, and how Clive Durham came to leave Maurice. In the movie, Risley is caught with another man and is put on trial, sentenced to prison for six years of hard labor. Clive sees this, and is scared straight. In the book, Risley is not a factor at all. In fact, he is the person who recommends the anti-gay hypnotist to Maurice. Clive is left to his own devices, and comes to his own conclusion that life would be simpler and safer if he were not involved with Maurice.

 

[Matt Hough]

The ending in the book also takes Maurice and Scutter away from England which was a nice coda, I thought.

 

[Mark-W]

i just found out a documentary I have been waiting for is finally completed and making the festival rounds. I can only imagine a DVD and Blu-ray will be forthcoming, as the film is already getting so much attention additional screenings are being added where it is playing.

If you don't know the of Shane Bitney Crone and Tom Brideroom's love story, you many want bring along a large box of tissues.

[color=rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12.800000190734863px;]BRIDEGROOM tells the emotional journey of Shane and Tom, two young men in a loving and committed relationship - a relationship that was cut tragically short by a misstep off the side of a roof. The story of what happened after this accidental death - of how people without the legal protections of marriage can find themselves completely shut out and ostracized - is poignant, enraging and opens a window onto the issue of marriage equality like no speech or lecture ever will. On May 7, 2012, the anniversary of Tom's death, after a year of documenting his own grief, Shane decided to make a video tribute to his partner entitled "It Could Happen To You." [/color]
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Here is a link to that original YouTube video.

This film, posted on YouTube, received over 3.2 million hits and inspired over 50 thousand e-mails and comments on YouTube and Facebook. The impact of Shane's original film and the raw nerve it touched, tells us this is an important story that needs to be brought to the world stage.

The film was introduced by Bill Clinton at a recent showing and this is a partial excerpt of what
President Bill Clinton said about the film:
“This is really, on one level, a wonderful, sad, heartbreaking yet exhilarating and life affirming story, and on another level it’s a story about our nation’s struggle to make one more step in forming a more perfect union, for which marriage is both the symbol and substance,” Clinton told the crowd.
The audience seemed to be hanging on his every word. “America needs to see the consequences of a world in which gay people who love each other are accepted, and one in which they are not accepted, both in the same movie,...”
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Here is a link to the trailer for the film.


I am hoping that the film gives updates on the Bridegroom family's reaction to all this attention.
[SIZE=12.800000190734863px]A former US President just took the time to introduce a film that likely [/SIZE][SIZE=12.666666984558105px]condemns[/SIZE][SIZE=12.800000190734863px] them for their ignorance and [/SIZE][SIZE=12.666666984558105px]intolerance[/SIZE][SIZE=12.800000190734863px] [/SIZE][SIZE=12.666666984558105px]towards[/SIZE][SIZE=12.800000190734863px] their own son and his [/SIZE][SIZE=12.666666984558105px]grieving,[/SIZE][SIZE=12.800000190734863px] all-but-legal, husband.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12.800000190734863px]Cheers![/SIZE]

[SIZE=12.800000190734863px]Mark[/SIZE]

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Actually, the book Maurice alludes to Clive thinking of Maurice back in college, just as the movie shows.

 

[usrunnr]

Does anyone know whatever happened to the old color film "Song of the Loon"? I have a b&w VHS, but the original film was in color.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Does anyone know whatever happened to the old color film "Song of the Loon"? I have a b&w VHS, but the original film was in color.

I looked at IMDb, Google, and Amazon and nothing came up except the book at Amazon.

Found a clip in color, though: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x85ms_song-of-the-loon-clip_na#.UesbFRa0Gec

 

[Mark-P]

I remember reading or hearing that Merchant-Ivory deliberately gave Clive that longing look at the end, showing the audience Clive realizes he has missed out on what have could have been the love of his life, which is a significant break from the book, because Forester had believed that gay men could be happy leading straight lives. (With the recent collapse of Exodus International and their admission that they have not changed men's sexual orientation from gay to straight, one can give Forester a break for believing such a falsehood, even as he himself used his books in part to critique British culture's inability to deal with emotions honestly.)

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here, Mark. It's not so much that Forster believed in a gay cure, but he was being realistic about how people lived. I'm sure he was acquainted with a few (if not many) gay men who had indulged themselves but then committed themselves to a heterosexual existence due to societal pressures. Heck, even today there are deeply closeted people, and who's to say that they aren't living happy and fulfilled lives? In Maurice, the filmmakers chose to give Clive a motivation for spurning Maurice by having him witness Risley's conviction and sentencing. Forster saw no such need as in his day he knew of gay men who had so-called "reformed." Forster himself believed homosexuality to be a very natural thing, and no doubt he believed that these "reformed" men were just hiding their true nature, but he understood why they made these choices.

 

[Mark-W]

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here, Mark. It's not so much that Forster believed in a gay cure, but he was being realistic about how people lived. I'm sure he was acquainted with a few (if not many) gay men who had indulged themselves but then committed themselves to a heterosexual existence due to societal pressures. Heck, even today there are deeply closeted people, and who's to say that they aren't living happy and fulfilled lives? In Maurice, the filmmakers chose to give Clive a motivation for spurning Maurice by having him witness Risley's conviction and sentencing. Forster saw no such need as in his day he knew of gay men who had so-called "reformed." Forster himself believed homosexuality to be a very natural thing, and no doubt he believed that these "reformed" men were just hiding their true nature, but he understood why they made these choices.

Steve and Mark-P, I am happy my information was wrong.
(I never read the book. It sounds like I should. )

I have edited my text to avoid confusing others.

Here is what wikipedia is reporting are the differences beween the novel and film:
Maurice is 11 at the beginning of the film, rather than 14. The film omits almost all of the novel's philosophical dialogue, and also many subplots, such as Maurice's desire for the schoolboy Dickie (the scenes dealing with this subplot were deleted from the final cut). It expands the Wildean character of Lord Risley and his 6-month imprisonment with hard labour for homosexual conduct (he is not imprisoned in the novel), in order to dramatise the dangers of Edwardian homosexuality, and provide a plot device explaining why Clive feels he must reject Maurice. In one deleted scene released in the 2002 edition, Risley commits suicide, but this was not shown in the film.
In the novel, the Durham family seat is Penge, on the border of Wiltshire and Somerset. In the film the country house is set in Pendersley Park.
While undergoing hypnosis by Dr. Lasker-Jones in an attempt to "cure" himself, Maurice reveals to him that he has slept with Alec Scudder. Lasker-Jones warns Maurice that at one time homosexuals were executed in Britain. In spite of this warning, Lasker-Jones, especially in the film, seems to be the most affirming character. He suggests that Maurice relocate to a country where homosexuality is more tolerated, like France or Italy.

FYI, Pacific Rim is fun with a capital F and it starts with the UK's Queer As Folk's Charlie Hunnam, the lead of this film, with his shirt off, which occurs more often than the plot really needed, but I am not going to complain.

Best,

Mark

 

[Mark-W]

This is more of a price/bargain alert:
If you live near a Costco, they have a DVD boxed set titled the "Cinema Pride Collection" that features many films in the MGM/FOX Library. The set at Costco is only $14.99, which is less than half its price currently at Amazon.com.

Titles included:
Bent
Kissing Jessica Stein
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
My Beautiful Laundrette
The Object of My Affection
The Children's Hour
La Cage Aux Folles
The Birdcage
Imagine Me & You
Boys Don't Cry

For $14.99 I was very tempted, if mostly because the packaging is quite the space saver compared to all those single DVD cases on my wall, which is out of room, but I know the titles in there I do not own already are ones I will not want to watch more than once.

My Costco had about 6 of the box sets; my guess is this is a one time stocking situation.

Best to everyone!

 

[Moe Dickstein]

and if anyone likes Criterions, La Cage Aux Folles is coming to Blu/DVD via them in September

 

[Matt Hough]

This is more of a price/bargain alert:
If you live near a Costco, they have a DVD boxed set titled the "Cinema Pride Collection" that features many films in the MGM Columbia Library. The set at Costco is only $14.99 and it is 2.5 times that price currently at Amazon.com.

Titles included:
Bent
Kissing Jessica Stein
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
My Beautiful Laundrette
The Object of My Affection
The Children's Hour
La Cage Aux Folles
The Birdcage
Imagine Me & You
Boys Don't Cry

For $14.99 I was very tempted, if mostly because the packaging is quite the space saver compared to all those single DVD cases on my wall, which is out of room, but I know the titles in there I do not own already are ones I will not want to watch more than once.

My Costco had about 6 of the box sets; my guess is this is a one time stocking situation.

Best to everyone!

I reviewed this collection three years ago. The review can be found here.

 

[Jason_V]

The Children's Hour...what a completely devastating movie. I've seen it once and I don't know if I need to see it ever again. (That, and Boys Don't Cry. Makes you lose your faith in humanity...)

 

[Jason_V]

Keep the Lights On...it's kind of a downer, following a couple from the time they meet through various drug and alcohol issues to a natural (and appropriate) ending. My main problem with the movie is that it's broken out into different years (1998, 2000, 2003 and 2006) and one scene is not connected to the last or the next one in any meaningful way. This is almost like a snapshot of Erik and Paul as a couple taken by a still camera, one day or time...well, at a time. People come into and out of the story with no understanding of who they are. Situations suddenly pop up and we have to fill in all the missing pieces in order to follow along.

That's not necessarily a bad thing; it just takes time to mentally get to where you need to be. Otherwise, yeah, give it a look. It is on BD and I got mine from Netflix.

 

[Mark-W]

I am going to bounce around a few of topics here, as I meant to chime in a while back.

Regarding the BBC/Masterpiece Theater 2007 version of A Room With A View

No one has mentioned it yet, and its gay-pedigree is there as brilliant screenwriter Andrew Davies is noted for having included the following:
[color=rgb(51,51,51);font-family:arial, sans-serif;]In A Room With A View he [Davies] has introduced some new scenes - notably highlighting Reverend Beebe's hinted-at homosexuality by showing him trying to pick up two men in a back street in Florence.[/color]

Still, I would say avoid it. I was surprised because so much of the cast and production team has done other work I love, but the last ten minutes ruins it. Reviews have been mixed, but the ending is a major downer, which Davies also added.

Jason, yes, Leave the Lights On is a downer, but I found it very real. I also liked the lapses in time since it felt like they took a real life story and rather than compressing the story (like they put all the major events of Queen Elizabeth's rule in the first 10 years of her reign for the film Elizabeth), they let it be more real and just skipped all the minor peaks and valleys or repetitive issues of the characters' relationships and just gave us the critical periods. I thought it was fresh in that way. I also liked that they did not bother to have dialogue to fill in blanks "You've been my best friend for nine years and you know me better than I know myself" type of tired drivel. It did not spoon feed me and I appreciated it for that.

A while back I wanted to mention David Cronenberg's NAKED LUNCH based on the book by William S Burroughs.

The Blu-ray was released by Criterion and Matt Hough wrote a great review which can be found here.
I found the commentary track terrific!
Because I don't want to assume (yet again) that folks know this film, please read Matt's great review, but
also look at the photo below and you might understand why I am posting it in this thread.

 

[Mark-W]

If you have not seen Ewan MacGregor in The Pillow Book, you might want to give it a try.
MacGregor plays a bi-sexual and is more naked in this film than any of his others,...and that is saying quite a lot.

It is a Peter Greenaway film, so it is both very artsy and depressing with Greenaway's rather bleak perspective on humanity and life in general..

The DVD, sadly is 1.33:1, which was done by Greenaway himself, because he was concerned about all the frames within frames inside the film being even smaller if they were shrunk more on what was then standard 4x3 televisions.

 

[Jason_V]

Jason, yes, Leave the Lights On is a downer, but I found it very real. I also liked the lapses in time since it felt like they took a real life story and rather than compressing the story (like they put all the major events of Queen Elizabeth's rule in the first 10 years of her reign for the film Elizabeth), they let it be more real and just skipped all the minor peaks and valleys or repetitive issues of the characters' relationships and just gave us the critical periods. I thought it was fresh in that way. I also liked that they did not bother to have dialogue to fill in blanks "You've been my best friend for nine years and you know me better than I know myself" type of tired drivel. It did not spoon feed me and I appreciated it for that.

No doubt, very real. I had the problem with the structure, like I said, and I just didn't like the people in that world. It's hard for me to put into words what I want to say about that, actually.

They're not movie-perfect people, they're real. They jack up their lives and aren't good for one another. They're not the kind of people anyone in the audience should aspire to be. I don't need a steady dose of "good" people...we all have faults and make bad decisions. But at some point, enough is enough. Someone has to step in and say...that's it, you're done. Erik and Paul drag this thing out for years and years and hurt themselves. They wonder why their lives aren't great and why they're always hurting. They should know better, and I think that's what really turned me off to them.

Re: The Pillow Book...I saw this prior to coming out in a film class. Big, projection screen...mixed class. Um...yeah...I didn't much care about the plot, to be honest. (But that was when I was 19 or 20...I've matured since then )