tnhninry 7, ?nm J—> a t ) 37
F IL M
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Two B r o ther s
and
Cold comfort
T w o O thers
TLA Releasing
VD has been the salvation of nonmainstream
queer cinema. Features, documentaries and
even shorts that would otherwise he forgot
ten after making the film festival circuit get a sec
ond chance thanks to this handy medium.
Richard Bell’s Two Brothers is a case in point.
Made for an unbelievable $545 Canadian (about
$ 350 U.S., aspiring filmmakers), this short film is
an emotionally resonant story o f the intersecting
lives of the title characters— one gay, one
straight— after the death o f their mother.
Cute Riley (Norbert Orlewicz) heads for
Vancouver to stay with his even cuter hut trou
bled brother Chad (Cody Cam pbell) and the
latter’s girlfriend, Tohie
(Karen R ae), a consum
mate fag hag.
Based on Bell’s one-
act play, the film plumbs
some strong emotions
and gets extra points for
a wonderful sequence in
which the lovemaking
o f hetero couple Chad
and Tobie is intercut
with similar scenes of
Riley and his new lover, G avin (Kevin M ac
Donald). In portraying queer and straight love
as equivalent, this sequence does what society
doesn’t seem able to do.
T h e film introduces a few too many ele
ments for its 60-m inute runtime, hut finely
honed performances and a pervasive sense o f a
grim past always threatening the present make
this a worthy entry in the queer indie genre.
Included are two documentaries about the
making of the film, a director commentary and
outtakes. T h e D V D ’s “two others”— accom pa
nying queer shorts by Lawrence Ferher— are
pretty disposable, though Cruise Control is a
diverting six minutes about a hunky bar boy
who dazzles Everyqueen until his face begins to
twist into bizarre contortions.
V egas
in
According to Punxsutaw ney Phil,
we’re looking at six more weeks of w inter.
These DVDs should help you through.
by
G a r y M o r r is
You won’t find it on the usual maps, of
course; you’ll have to rent Vegas in Space. Direct
ed by Philip R. Ford and starring famed San
Francisco trannies Miss X and Doris Fish (who
also wrote and designed the film), this legendary
drag-camp epic cobbled together between 1982
and 1992 is now available on DVD.
T he film opens with a montage of gaudy
images that set the tone: a tinselly galaxy, bright
ly colored miniature rocket ships on strings, neon
marquees and drag queens — lots of drag queens.
Fish and his rocketship crew are headed for
Clitoris to “save the universe" hut are forced to
have sex changes before landing. (In this tranny
dream world, you only have to pop a pill.) Once
they arrive at the capital, Vegas (an “oasis of
glamour in a universe of mediocrity"), the
adventurers brave earthquakes, skyrocketing
crime and the theft of the royal jewels. T he plot
quickly collapses into chaos as the Misses Fish
and X try to find the thieving Queen of Clitoris.
A loose structure allows for plenty of amus
ing scenes, such as a “traditional mid-20th cen
tury lounge act” and a witty film noir parody
sequence reminiscent of an old Joan Crawford
movie (if you can picture Joan as an inter-
galactic drag queen).
T h e major influence here is the candy-
colored 1958 sci-fi epic Queen o f Outer Space —
along with, o f course, John Waters, whose spirit
hovers over the production in the glitter walls
and lime-green fleece doors as well as the
actors’ screaming, declamatory style.
T h e D V D has a lot of extras, including audio
commentary, a teaser reel, scenes from the 1991
premiere at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre and
interviews with the director and cast.
S pace
Troma Entertainment
OSSESSIONE
Image Entertainment
ho wouldn’t want
to go to Clitoris,
an “all-girl plea
sure planet" where the
girls are style-drenched
drag queens who
patronize “black beauty
markets” and hoard
girlinium, “a rare crystal
found only in the C av
erns of G irlina”?
he late Italian film director Luchino Viscon
ti is rightly revered for his operatic studies of
decadence among the upper crust, but homo
audiences have found in him a particularly sim-
patico soul. Gay imagery in his later work—
Auerbach’s hopeless pursuit of the ideal in the
form of a young boy in Death in Venice and Hel
mut Burger’s devastating Dietrich imitation in
The Damned come to mind— has become iconic
in the world of queer culture.
T
That’s No Lady... That’s
DARCELLE X V & Co.
Glitz, Glamour & Comedy
the driving hetero “obsession” of G in o and
G iovanna (Clara Calam ai).
G ino is the first of many Visconti hunks, a
gorgeous, dreamy-eyed drifter lovingly surveyed—
indeed practically cruised— by the camera. G io
vanna is sick to death of the older fat man she
married to escape poverty, so when G ino arrives
she (along with certain audience members) lights
up with lust. Visconti perfectly captures this
mutual longing
in furtive,
steamy
encounters
barely out of
view of her
hubby.
But some
thing’s not
quite right.
Giovanna’s
desperation is
too extreme,
while Gino
seems too weak
to resist her
G ino (left) and Spagnolo exchange furtive glances and more in
Luchino V isconti’s Ossessione
W hat’s less known is that Visconti quietly
proclaimed his queemess and the lure of the
homoerotic from the very beginning of his
career. This can he savored now thanks to a new
DVD release of his first feature, 1942’s Ossessione.
Based on U .S. novelist James M. C ain ’s The
Postman Always Rings Twice, the project was
passed on to Visconti by French film great Jean
Renoir. Happily, Renoir’s lack of interest paid
off big for Visconti and for cinema fans.
This Postman almost single-handedly ushered
in Italian neorealism— and didn’t stint on the
homo subtext, either. No wonder the powerful
Catholic Church and the Fascist censors tried to
suppress it. (And, in the case of the censors,
destroyed what they thought was the only nega
tive; the savvy filmmaker had squirreled away a
duplicate that became the basis for later prints.)
Visconti was an irrepressible Marxist who
could present the lives of the poor and exploit
ed with enormous authority. Ossessione s wan
dering hero, G ino (Massimo G irotti), travels
what would become well-trod territory through
the next decade— the bleak road of the “neo-
real” marked by themes of impoverishment,
despair, murder, sexual candor and, of course, a
femme fatale who leads him far astray.
But Ossessione also presents a near-queer
romance that resonates almost as powerfully as
and the dangers she
represents. Visconti
offers an unusual
alternative possibili
ty in the form of
handsome stranger
Spagnolo (Elio Mar-
cuso), who subsidizes G ino’s first escape from
Giovanna, offering to pay his train fare. T he two
become friends and fellow travelers. Spagnolo’s
homosexuality is blatantly portrayed considering
the time and circumstance (Fascist Italy).
T h e relationship ripples with loving glances
but goes further. In one scene they’re in bed
together and Spagnolo lights a cigarette, hold
ing the m atch over G in o ’s face and studying it
with unmistakable adoration.
Visconti presents Spagnolo as an superior
alternative to Giovanna, though historically
the time was not right for G ino to make such a
choice. Visconti would he more upfront in later
films; still, there’s much electricity between
these two potential male lovers.
A homo subtext is far from the only lure of
Ossessione. Its a wrenching study o f a doomed
romantic triangle, played by a superb cast
against gorgeous northern Italian locations.
T h e queer icing just makes this already tasty
cake that much more satisfying. J H
0k
boutique
in a benefit Vegas style dinner show for the
“ The adult gift shop fo r
lovers with good taste ”
Linnton Community Center
Sunday, February 16
$20 - Dinner: 6:00 PM - Show: 7:30 PM
Linnton Community Center
10614 NW St. Helens Rd./US Hwy. 30
Advance tickets at:
• Neighbors West/NW, 1819 NW Everett, Rm 205
• Linnton Feed & Seed, 10920 NW St Helens Rd
Info: 503-286-4990
No host bar
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A dult G ifts & C ards
L otions & P otions
M assage O ils
M en ’ s & W omen ’ s L ingerie
S r x T oys
N ovelties
A dult C andies S t G ames
V
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