39
FILM
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Summer camp
Chalk two up for drag queens of color
johns, screaming
divas and such
exciting activi
ties as trick rip-
off schemes and
deadly assaults.
Rio’s bohemi
an slum is the
ideal backdrop for
Joao’s heady life,
captured in high-
point vignettes
from his early ’30s
career. Scenes dis
play every aspect
of an iconic per
sonality—a bnital
encounter with
Lázaro Ramos is the rather unforgettable Madame Sata
an exploitative
boss, Joao’s pimping of Tahx> to a supposed
M adame S ata
straight guy whom they gleefully rip off and musi
Aug. 15 to 21, Cinema 21
cal interludes involving feathers and fans and
leopards.
oao Francisco dos Santos (1900-1976) is
O f course, success comes and goes, even for
the subject of this lively, episodic, if not
such talented queens, and “Saint Rita’s” temper
altogether successful biopic.
For those who don’t follow the adventures of gets the best of her when a dnink starts harass
ing her with epithets increasingly nastier and
famous Brazilian drag queens who kill and sing,
more vicious.
Joao— later dubbed “Madame Sata” in tribute
Madame Sard’s ambiance has a strikingly rich
to Cecil B. DeMille’s campy 1930 movie
look, with a sort of squalid glamour throughout,
M adame Satan — was one of those Renaissance
and Joao’s story is seductive indeed, both as per
queens who could do it all: one minute in
sonal biography and as a history of the ascen
feathers warbling Piaf-like dirges, the next using
dance of Afro-Brazilian slum scxriety into visi
Bruce Lee kicks to take down a hx:al tough.
bility as apotheosized by the elaborate costume
African-black, commandingly tall, fearless,
and timeless celebrations of Camivale.
charismatic and dishy, Joao (Lázaro Ramos)
Also on the plus side are sizzling encounters
heads up an outlaw commune in Rio’s red-light
between Joao and the gorgeous Renatinho.
district composed of quasi-wife and whore Lauri-
The camera, happily, doesn’t flinch from these
ta, simple-minded drag number Tabtxi and in
decently handsome young boyfriend Renatinho,
sweaty tongue swaps and skin rubs, letting the
characters’ lust fill the frame.
whom Joao alternately romances and assaults.
On the downside, Ramos’ portrayal of Joao,
Exotic window dressing is provided by the
admirably energetic in much of the film, is final
dark streets of Lapa— an ideal shooting loca
ly almost too vigorous, veering into caricature.
tion for a neo-noir— and the tacky theatrical
Literally a drama queen, the character makes
milieu of a club teeming with prostitutes,
J
John Schlesinger's queer film legacy
by
A
C hristopher M c Q uain
fter suffering a debilitating stroke in late
2000 and experiencing a recent deteriora
tion in health, respected and beloved gay
film director John Schlesinger died July 26 at
Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm
Springs, Calif. He is survived by photographer
Michael Childers, his partner of 30 years.
Schlesinger was bom into an upper-middle-
class family in London. After a brief career as a
stage and film actor and a stint directing for
the British Broadcasting Corp. in the 1950s, he
made his first feature, A Kind of Loving, which
was released in 1962 and, along with his fol
low-up, 1% 3’s endearing Billy Liar, became a
classic of England’s wave of “kitchen sink”
movies dealing affectionately with the grim
day-to-day struggles of working-class Brits.
The director instigated Julie Christie’s stardom
by casting her as the lead in 1965 s Darling, a per
formance for which she won an Academy Award.
Schlesinger himself received kudos from Oscar
when 1 » was named Best Director for 1969’s Mid
night Cowboy (also that year’s Best Picture).
A self-consciously modem work, Midnight
Cowboy was sexually graphic and included
straightforward depictions of homosexuality,
then a novelty for a Hollywood production.
Schlesinger’s next film, 1971’s Sunday Bloody
Sunday, expanded on Cowboy’s boldness by
depicting a love tri
angle in which the
amorous attentions
of a young man are
shared between a
(male) doctor and a
(female) divorcée.
The director
never replicated this
string of successes.
His 1976 thriller
Marathon Man and
1995 comedy Cold
Gay filmmaker John
Comfort Farm were
Schlesinger died July 26
well received, but
1975’$ The Day of the Locust and the 2000
Madonna vehicle The Next Best Thing, which
was to be his last film, were reviled.
Although Schlesinger, who appeared as an
interviewee in The Celluloid Closet in 1995,
made no effort to conceal his homosexuality,
he did not publicly acknowledge it until 1991
when he came to the defense of the controver
sial knighting o f Sir Ian McKellen.
in 1970, Schlesinger said of his work: “I’m
only interested in one thing—that is tolerance....
It’s important to get people to care a little for
someone else. That’s why I’m more interested in
the futures of this world than the successes." JPÏ
hay of every event, and all that screaming and
hitting and carry-on becomes wearisome.
To the film’s credit, it allows for multiple
interpretations of the character. Jo§o is heroic, for
instance, in his defense of his disreputable friends
and his own over-the-top lifestyle. But his stri
dency and abusiveness bring him perilously close
to being just another cartoonish Evil Queen.
— Gary Morris
Specialties
C amp
1 Apple C in nam on French Io n a
▼ F in i Hrrakfhst Sandwich
▼ / t i r i n ' & H am Reuben
Fox Tower Cinemas
Gay owned & operated
A
ctor and screenwriter T xkl Graff’s directori
al debut, Camp, begins beautifully with
intercuts of four teen-agers: a suburban
white kid practicing his tough act in front of his
bednxim minor, a gorgeous African American
girl singing her heart out onstage, a sister beg
ging her brother to pretend to be her date to the
prom and a Hispanic kid getting the crap kicked
out of him for going to his own prom in drag.
It’s effective and touching and why, you will
ask yourself while sitting through the rest of
this confusing mess, couldn’t the entire film
have been the same?
It’s a premise with promise: Graff, who hits
been a more successful actor (The Abyss, Strange
Days) than writer (The Preacher's Wife, Coyote
Ugly), takes his own teen experiences at summer
camp and pens them as Fame for a new genera-
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Michael and Ellen struggle with liking the
same boy in Camp
tion— complete with the kind of boys you know
are crowding into musical theater camp.
To wit: some satisfying zingers such as “An
honest-tcvGcxl straight boy!” and the one from the
cynical counselor trying to steer a camper from her
fate: “Teen-age fag hags become adult fag hags.”
It should have all been, like these imply, a
hilarious queer-glam look at the joys and
foibles of growing up gifted, but Graff lays on
the schmaltz so thick, he drowns us in heart
warming anecdotes and tired clichés before the
curtain’s half up. Plot devices and characteriza
tions are so uneven, you begin to wonder
toward the end if these are the same characters
you’ve been watching for an hour and a half.
Even a cameo by Stephen Sondheim is
awkward, with the musical theater veteran sim
ply looking nervous and out of place.
All this is unfortunare for a scattering of tal
ented young actors, particularly Robin De Jesus
as the sympathetic queer Michael, who quietly
carries the movie along with cute teen-age pos
ing and sensitive dignity.
Also on the upside is what you get outside the
various predictable storylines. The shows that
participants of Camp Ovation must crank out
every two weeks are a rousing tribute to musical
theater. The teens embrace the generally adult
roles with a fresh glee and robust attitude that
remind you why you like live musicals so much—
and wish you were at one right now instead of
watching these kids plod through a bad script.
Camp has a soundtrack, of course, which is
wonderful and gives you much more for your
money.
— Lisa Bradshaw JT1
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