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Author Topic: Gay Cinema  (Read 1078102 times)

Offline gattaca

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4755 on: November 22, 2021, 09:21:18 AM »
10-4. How I forgot to link the "foxhole" earlier is beyond me.  It's a pivoting element.

After all of Nick's gear and clothes got soaking wet from the pouring rain, the foxhole was brutally cold. Nick was shivering. It was Dylan who offered to share his "dry enough" sleeping bag.  That's a great scene which reveals the raw vulnerability of both guys.   It's a strong counterpoint to the ending where I hope Dylan was trying to overcome his "Ward 22" conditioning and that would take time, patience and caring from Nick.

Dare we recall the shivering cold BBM scene where Jack tells Ennis to "get in here"?

Both vids below reveal key story elements:   YMMV as they are graphic with violence and language:

a) better of the two.. -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6bBf4y7nGM
b) -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNDI8E7NyqA

V.

Offline tfferg

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4756 on: November 22, 2021, 02:39:40 PM »
10-4. How I forgot to link the "foxhole" earlier is beyond me.  It's a pivoting element.

After all of Nick's gear and clothes got soaking wet from the pouring rain, the foxhole was brutally cold. Nick was shivering. It was Dylan who offered to share his "dry enough" sleeping bag.  That's a great scene which reveals the raw vulnerability of both guys.   It's a strong counterpoint to the ending where I hope Dylan was trying to overcome his "Ward 22" conditioning and that would take time, patience and caring from Nick.

Dare we recall the shivering cold BBM scene where Jack tells Ennis to "get in here"?

Both vids below reveal key story elements:   YMMV as they are graphic with violence and language:

a) better of the two.. -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6bBf4y7nGM
b) -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNDI8E7NyqA

V.

Yes, yes!

Offline tfferg

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4757 on: November 22, 2021, 03:32:42 PM »
The other afternoon. on a thankfully much lighter note, I saw Italian gay feature film Maschile singolare (Masculine Singular) directed by Alessandro Guida and Matteo Pilati. It has been released in English-speaking countries and The Netherlands as Mascarpone - the Italian cheese. It is not to be confused with a 2018 gangster film with the same title.  It's an entertaining dramedy set in non-monumental parts of Rome.

Nearly-30 year-old Antonio, played by the very good-looking and expressive Giancarlo Commare, is a househusband who is completely dependent emotionally and economically on Lorenzo (Carlo Calderone). They have been married for 12 years. Antonio trained as an architect but has never practised. He spends a lot of time every day baking desserts which are no longer particularly appreciated by Lorenzo. The oblivious Antonio is shocked when Lorenzo who has been conducting an affair with Enrico for 18 months suddenly announces he is divorcing him, leaving him homeless and without an income.

Grief-stricken Antonio manages to rent a room in an expensive apartment ostensibly owned by the very gay Denis (Eduardo Valdarnini) who introduces him to his friend with benefits Luca (Gianmarco Saurini) who owns a bakery and persuades him to take him on as an apprentice. Denis and Luca gradually guide Antonio into very free gay life.

The film traces Antonio's process of self-discovery and joyously celebrates queer friendships. Antonio is a richly emotional character.

The cast includes many, many attractive young men  :P,  and there is a lot of passionate kissing and lustful grappling though most of the sex scenes take place behind closed doors.
« Last Edit: November 22, 2021, 03:45:54 PM by tfferg »

Offline tfferg

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4758 on: November 27, 2021, 08:41:37 PM »
The Swimmer, is a 2020 Israeli feature film directed by Adam Kalderon in Hebrew. I saw it with English subtitles.

Erez (Omer Perelman Striks) is an upcoming swimming star from a swimming champion family. He and four other swimmers from around the country spend three months in an isolated training camp in a boarding school in the south. The winner of the race on the last day will get the one slot available to represent Israel at the Olympic Games. Erez has a good chance of winning.

At the camp, he falls for Nevo (Asaf Jonas), the talented son of the Israeli consul in the UK, but the stern unhappy coach insists on no fraternising among the five swimmers. They must focus only on the training or not be allowed to compete for the place a the Olympics. Erez risks everything by spending time illicitly with him despite being warned by the coach. Tensions run high.

Of course, the swimmers are often dressed only in Speedos much of the time.

Erez is torn between his attraction to Nevo and his elite swimming career. He has to make the choice.

The climactic final sequence is an unexpected combination of fantasy intermingled with the actual close-run deciding race and the actual result showing who touches the wall first


« Last Edit: November 27, 2021, 08:50:28 PM by tfferg »

Offline gattaca

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4759 on: November 28, 2021, 09:48:12 AM »
^^^ Added to my "must watch listing"  TY!

Has anyone actually see "Firebird" -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4061620/

Offline tfferg

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4760 on: November 28, 2021, 01:37:43 PM »
^^^ Added to my "must watch listing"  TY!

Has anyone actually see "Firebird" -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4061620/

Yes, Vince, I saw Firebird the other day. It's a dramatic UK/Estonian feature directed by Peeter Rebane. He was given the Russian memoir, A Tale about Roman by the late Sergey Fetisov, a Russian farm boy conscripted into the Soviet airforce in the late 1970s. The director and expressive English actor Tom Prior who plays Sergey spent several years developing the screenplay. The film is in English.

At the Haapsalu Airbase in Estonia, Sergey is friendly with Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya) who is the secretary of the commanding colonel. As the end his two years of compulsory military service is approaching he confides his ambition to study acting in Moscow and she hopes to marry him, though he is more interested discreetly in men. When maverick pilot Flight Lieutenant Roman Matveev (Oleg Zagorodnii) is posted to the base, the colonel assigns Sergey as his driver, so the three of them often come across each other.

The two men become friends as they discover shared interests in photography and theatre. Roman takes him to a matinee performance of the Firebird ballet and Sergey is enraptured. On the way back to the base, Roman has Sergey stop and they go into the forest in the forbidden border zone and eat blueberries until a border patrol appears and they scramble to hide in the undergrowth. In the shared adrenaline high, Roman crosses the border between friendship and passionate love.

The lovers are in constant danger after someone reports his suspicions about Roman to the major who conducts a continuing campaign to trap him with his paramour, threatening him with five years hard labour and the loss of his career.

In due course, Sergey leaves for Moscow and drama school leaving Roman and Luisa still serving at the base. She doesn't know that Sergey and Roman are lovers.

The film is very well produced and includes beautiful photography especially of the characters at the seashore and swimming in the sea.


Offline gattaca

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4761 on: November 29, 2021, 07:31:01 PM »
^^^ THANK YOU for the wonderful summary!!! I thought it had be released in the US for streaming but I've had no luck tracking down anything but the YT teasers.   Another for my "must watch".  V.

Offline tfferg

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4762 on: November 29, 2021, 10:20:10 PM »
^^^ THANK YOU for the wonderful summary!!! I thought it had be released in the US for streaming but I've had no luck tracking down anything but the YT teasers.   Another for my "must watch".  V.

I hope it will be released in the US, especially as it is intended for a mainstream audience.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2021, 10:45:05 PM by tfferg »

Offline tfferg

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4763 on: November 29, 2021, 11:24:12 PM »
The 2020 US gay movie that is available online is Luz (Light) directed by Jon Garcia who describes himself as a straight ally. It was streamed on demand during the MQFF 2021 festival. He has made a number of indie feature films on "taboo love".

Luz was inspired when Jon Garcia saw Moonlight and wanted to make a film featuring the masculinity of another marginalised community, LatinX gay men. The dialogue is in English. The characters very occasionally mix in a few phrases in Mexican Spanish which are subtitled in English.

The sprawling film combines a prison drama with a romance about Mexican prisoners who although they are masculine do not fit the stereotype of the macho and the maricon. It opens with the attractive bearded Ruben (Ernesto Reyes) arriving in prison. His cellmate Carlos (Jesse Tayeh) immediately establishes himself as the dominator, but Ruben stands up to him and they develop a business partnership and become increasingly intimate and tender with each other until Carlos is released. Both men are comfortable with their sexuality - it is not a coming out film. It's not an imitation of Moonlight.

There are a couple of very erotic sex scenes beautifully filmed by cinematographer Sarah Wheldon.

Not having funding to film on location in Mexico, the film was shot in Oregon where the director is based. He drew on his knowledge of LatinX LGBTQ+ people in South Texas.

Ruben is very worried about his young daughter Marisa (Alan Larsen) who communicates only in sign language. When Ruben's mother dies, she is taken to live in his fortified compound by his gangster cousin Alonso, the head of the cartel to which all Ruben's cousins belong.

Flashbacks reveal how Ruben was pressured into working for the cartel as a driver of the sex workers under its control leading to the event for which he was sentenced to prison.

Tellingly, the mother of Carlos (played convincingly by the director's mother Gloria Garcia) explains to Ruben how similar their histories are with both broken by their men's rigid adherence to what they claim as their code of honour, machismo. She explains how it developed during the conquest of Mexico by the conquistadores as a hollow remnant of the medieval Spanish code of chivalry and the Indigenous peoples' code of fidelity.

There are many suspenseful scenes of implied and explicit threats and the final sequence is an absolute cliffhanger.




« Last Edit: November 30, 2021, 12:19:54 AM by tfferg »

Offline Flyboy

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4764 on: November 30, 2021, 08:12:25 AM »
I watched Tick, Tick, Boom over the weekend. If you are familiar with Jonathan Larson (Rent) then the film will be more interesting to you. If not, you'll still like it for the film musical style. Of course, I'm assuming you like Film Musicals? lol.......something was a little off with my Netflix as sometimes it seemed like the lipsynch parts didn't match. Very annoying, but it happens on my Netflix films occasionally, where the audio is behind the video. I have to stop the film and wait for the audio to catchup. This happened several times during this film. Or the actors were just bad at doing that trick. I don't know. This is why Streisand always hated it in her film musicals.

Nothing beats a live performance of a Song. IMHO, you understand?  ;D


Offline tfferg

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4765 on: November 30, 2021, 06:08:33 PM »
A film I saw last week at MQFF is topical, today being World AIDS Day. Kapana directed by Philippe Talavera in 2020 is the first Namibian LBTIQIA+ feature film, written by Senga Brockerhoff and Mikiros Garoes. It was sponsored by the Ombetja Yehinga Organisation.

Simeon (played by the very attractive Simon Hanga) is a griller at a Windhoek kapana market and soccer player. Kapana is grilled meat which is a very popular snack especially eaten during a day out or after a night out, much as people in Australia go for kebabs or people in the UK go for a curry. The grillers banter with people strolling along and helping themselves to bite-size pieces of meat while they wait for their order to be grilled and served in page torn from a newspaper..

Simeon is gay, closeted because sodomy is still illegal in Namibia and and same-sex relationships are stigmatised by many people. He hangs out on the prowl for potential hookups in a fairly easygoing bar that attracts diverse drinkers. George (Adrian Visagie), an openly gay insurance office worker picks him up there one night after Simeon's teammates have left..

There is a convincing chemistry between the two actors. One very erotic bedroom scene is beautifully filmed by Kit Hoffman in very tight close-up in a way that I guess might be intended to be less likely to alienate Namibian audiences.

The relationship is imperilled by two secrets until Simeon's sister eventually persuades him to tell her why he has locked himself away and is drinking heavily. She tells him clearly about PrEP.

The message is conveyed with a light touch, so the film is not too didactic.

I enjoyed it. The soundtrack is full of very bright Namibian music.

« Last Edit: November 30, 2021, 07:03:40 PM by tfferg »

Offline tfferg

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4766 on: December 02, 2021, 05:24:00 PM »
Another feature film in which the main character is a swimmer is the 2020 Swiss feature Beyto directed by Gitta Gsell in Swiss German and Turkish. It is set in Bern and a distant village at the end of a dirt road on the Anatolian steppe.

Beyto (Burak Ates) is an attractive young swimmer competing to race in the national championships in Geneva. He is a top student, a successful IT intern who also helps out in his proud parents' thriving kebab shop that is something of a centre for the Turkish community. He is falling in love with Mike (Dimitri Stapfer), who works in an organic vegetable garden. Mike is another swimmer who aspires to become a coach and supports Beyto in his training sessions at the pool.

The film is a familiar story of crisis between a young immigrant and traditionally-minded parents who are challenged by their child's choice of partner in the new country, but in this case they are shocked when busybodies out Beyto. To save the family honour, they whisk him off to their poor home village in Turkey post-haste and pressure him into marrying Seher (Ecem Aydin), the childhood friend he grew up with until the age of 6 when he and his mother Narin (Beren Tuna) migrated to Bern to rejoin his father Seyit (Serkan Tastemur). There are heartbreaking scenes in the village and back in Bern as Beyto struggles with the dilemma that he does love Seher while wanting to stand by Mike and live with him. He knows that Seher has always wanted to study and have a career and wants her to have the opportunity.

Seyit reacts in patriarchal, authoritarian style.While doting Narin doesn't wear the hijab, she tells Beyto that family comes first, love later. She treats Seher well.

Beyto and Seher are intelligent, resourceful, resilient characters who grow as they respond to their predicament.

The film has been rightly described as "loving ... optimistic".

It is based on Hochzeitsflug (Wedding Flight), a novel by Turkish-born Kurdish writer Yusuf Yesilöz who lives in Switzerland.








« Last Edit: December 02, 2021, 07:34:41 PM by tfferg »

Offline Sara B

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4767 on: December 03, 2021, 06:20:14 AM »
I enjoyed this on YouTube a cou0le of months ago, but alas no longer there.

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4768 on: December 03, 2021, 12:24:34 PM »

A new Danish documentary has been getting nominated in both Animation and Documentary film categories...and winning some of them.


FLEE tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon to be husband. (Gee, I wonder what the secret is?) Recounted mostly through animation to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, he tells for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan. Depicting the refugee experience through vivid animation, Flee pushes the boundary of documentary filmmaking to present a moving memoir of self-discovery.

Offline tfferg

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Re: Gay Cinema
« Reply #4769 on: December 03, 2021, 01:19:42 PM »
I enjoyed this on YouTube a cou0le of months ago, but alas no longer there.

Yes. I enjoyed it too.