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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1990)
Lodging - Where Mountain Meets Sea The movies of the '80s With no early box office breakouts, Hollywood rapidly lost interest in gays and lesbians as primary subject matter Liaisons', Deitch surfaced again on television in 1989 with The Women of Brewster Place, featuring a prominent lesbian relationship. he success of La Cage aux Folles in The immensely talented Sherwood has not American in 1979 — it was the highest- grossing foreign language film to that time — been heard from since, although one of his stars, Steve Buscemi, has been aiming up brought the movies into the ’80s with a regularly in supporting roles (New York willingness to try gay and lesbian themes Stories, Mystery Train, Bloodhounds of again. After a burst of interest at the end of Broadway). the previous decade, they had pretty much Torch Song Trilogy tried to be the La Cage ignored us (with a few significant exceptions, aux Folles of the 1980s by giving America such as Dog Day Afternoon) through most of another drag queen to love; but many critics, the 1970s. gay as well as straight, felt Harvey Fierstein’s pre-AIDS story was inappropriate in 1988. That most prolific gay filmmaker, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, died in 1982. Two other prominent European directors. Franco Zeffirelli and Patrice Chereau, came out when reporters at film festivals happened to ask them if they were gay. Chcreau’s L'Homme Blesse was one of the best gay films of the ’80s, but he’s been concentrating on theater work since making it. Parting Glances Buoyed by the success of A Room with a View, James Ivory threw caution to the winds Hitting the screen in 1980 were the in 1987 and made Maurice, from the gay homophobic Cruising and the lesbophobic novel that wasn't published until after author Windows, plus the first and better of two E.M. Forster's death. It was beautiful but sequels to La Cage; but by 1982 we had the dull — very Masterpiece Theatre — but Ivory more thoughtful, if imperfect. Personal Best added a brief political message to Forster's and Making Love. The former had Olympic chaste gay romance. hopeful Mariel Hemingway “outgrow” her Lesbian/gay film festivals that began in lesbian phase after a hot affair with Patrice San Francisco and New York in the 1970s Donnelly; the latter was hopelessly bourgeois expanded rapidly in the ’80s as the concept and sanitized by giving Middle America what spread to dozens of other cities. Besides someone thought it could handle in the story rediscovering classic films in closets within of Michael Ontkean leaving Kate Jackson for vaults, these festivals have unearthed gay and Harry Hamlin and both former spouses lesbian films from many countries, including winding up happily remarried to professional Greece (Angel), Israel (Drifting), Taiwan (The men. Outsiders) and Hungary (Another Way), some Nineteen eighty-two also brought us of which went on to at least limited Partners, a throwback comedy from Francis commercial release. Vebcr, author of La Cage aux Folles, with John Hurt as a stereotypical gay cop paired While Derek Jarman, Rosa von Praunheim and Pedro Almodovar have had some works with and lusting after Ryan O’Neal, who was shown widely, they can always count on masquerading as an equally stereotypical gay festivals to exhibit their films that don’t get in a murder investigation. distributed elsewhere. With no box office breakouts among the Festivals also give American (Marc above films, Hollywood rapidly lost interest Huestis, Barbara Hammer), Canadian (John in us as primary subject matter, although Greyson, Anne Claire Poirier), West German foreign films (e.g., Querelle, Caravaggio, (Monika Treut, Alexandra von Grote) and Another Country, Colonel Redi) didn’t. British (Paul Oremland, Richard American filmmakers, however, became Kwietniowski) independent filmmakers a increasingly aware that we weren’t going to go away, and they began making more use of place to show their films and videos. Gus Van Sant parlayed festival showings of his us in minor roles as part of the fabric of life. Mala Noche into a contract to make By 1988, probably the peak year for the Drugstore Cowboy, a nongay but hardly phenomenon, roughly one film in four mainstream movie. contained some lesbian or gay character, reference or plot element — though not always a positive one. Because Academy Awards bestow a kind of validity (not always warranted) on the movies and performers they touch, we must consider as key events of the 1980s the Oscars to Robert Epstein and Richard Schmeichen for Best Documentary of 1984, The Times of Harvey Milk, and to William Hurt for Best Actor of 1985 as a gay character in Hector Babenco’s Kiss of the Spider Woman. Vera A mini-wave developed mid-decade, with not only Spider Woman but Stephen Frear’s Van Sant’s experience is indicative of the My Beautiful Laundrette, Donna Deitch’s most significant trend of the end of the Desert Hearts and Bill Sherwood’s Parting decade, the move toward the mainstream of gay-identified and gay-sensitive directors. Glances getting more than a handful of bookings. None of these low-budget films John Waters, who had in 1981 progressed (?) lost money, but none made enough to get from midnight cult films to the widely-seen attention in an era of blockbusters. Frears Polyester, shocked everyone when his 1988 followed Laundrette with the Joe Orton Hair spray got a PG rating. Suddenly it was OK for Divine to wear a dress, as long as he biography Prick Up Your Ears before didn’t say the F word. We’ll see what returning to his own preference in Dangerous BY T 95590 Highway 101 6.2 Miles South Of Yachats, Oregon 97498 Be ^ (503) 547-3227 Reservations Recommended 1 piffer Oregon A|£)S Hotline Training January 20 & 2 0 :ebruary 3 Three Saturdays in a row. 9am to 4pm all 3 days Call 2 2 3 -2 4 3 7 for volunteer applications or more information. 0 1 outrageous colors, hundreds to choose from. All cotton comfort. . . ’cuz we all want to feel good. 404 NW 10th Mon-Sat 10-4 pm just outT 22 T January 1990 S T E V E W A R R E N happens to Waters’ Cry Baby in 1990. Terence Davies, whose autobiographical Trilogy had been acclaimed, followed it in 1989 with the equally personal Distant Voices, Still Lives, this time omitting the gay aspects of his life. Former Andy Warhol colleague Paul Morrissey released two pictures in 1988, the campy but somewhat homophobic Beethoven s Nephew and the campy but filled- with-lesbophobic-dialogue Spike of Bensonhurst. Both featured pretty but untalented leading men, and both failed to find an audience, offending the people most likely to appreciate them. Pedro Almodovar did tremendous business with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Spain’s most successful film ever and one of Pedro’s few with no gay characters or themes, though his gay sensibility shone through. So did Paul Bartel’s, although his sex farce Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills included only one bisexual character (Ray Sharkey) and one male-male liaison (Sharkey and Robert Beltran). Mexico’s Jaime Humberto Hermosillo segued from his breakthrough gay romantic comedy Doña Her linda and Her Son to the barely-released Clandestino Destino, which had a bisexual plot but favored hetero sex scenes over gay ones. Bruce Weber showed less of what appeared to be a gay sensibility in Let's Get Lost than in his debut feature, Broken Noses. Multinational Argentine Martin Donovan will follow his homoerotic Apartment Zero in 1990 with the nongay Close Enemy. Another Country While there was no gay content in Derek Jarman’s 1989 War Requiem, the music (Benjamin Britten) and poetry (Wilfred Owen) were by gay men and war as a cause of mass death was intended as a metaphor for AIDS. AIDS films and videos became a genre of their own in the latter half of the decade. The late Arthur Bressan, Jr. started the ball rolling with Buddies, before the disease claimed him and one of his stars, Geoff Edholm. Rob Epstein worked on The AIDS Show and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, while John Erman reached the largest audience via NBC with An Early Frost. Micki Dickoff’s concise drama Mother, Mother is touring the country in benefit showings for local AIDS organizations. Here’s the ultimate in subjectivity, with a long list of runners-up between the lines after each name on the list: Best Lesbian/Gay Films of the 1980s Best Gay Film (English-Language): Parting Glances (Bill Sherwood, USA) Best Gay Film (Foreign-Language): Tras el Cristal (Augustin Villaronga, Spain) Best Lesbian Film: Vera (Sergio Toledo, Brazil) Best Documentary: Before Stonewall (Greta Schiller, USA) Best AIDS Film: Mother, Mother (Micki Dickoff, USA) Best Short Film: Alfalfa (Richard Kwietnowski, England) Most Suddenly (and Happily) Dated Film: Westler — East cf the Wall (Wieland Speck, West Germany) y Please and thank you aren't; th e only magic words: when supporting our advertisers mention Ju st Out.