Filmes de Interés Gay

. . banned from
American screens
simply because it
used the word
homosexual . .

Recent critics find "Victim" timid in its treatment of homosexuality, but viewed in the context of Great Britain in 1961, it's a film of courage. How much courage can be gauged by the fact that it was originally banned from American screens simply because it used the word "homosexual." To be gay was a crime in the United States and the U.K., and the movie used the devices of film noir and thriller to make its argument, labeling laws against homosexuality "the blackmailer's charter." Indeed, 90 percent of all British blackmail cases had homosexuals as victims.

The defense of homosexuality was not a popular topic at the box office when the film was made, and director Basil Dearden tried to broaden the film's appeal by making it into a thriller and a police procedural. There is no sex on (or anywhere near) the screen, and while the hero is homosexual by nature, there is doubt that he has ever experienced gay sex. The plot hinges on anonymous blackmailers who collect regular payments from wealthy and famous gays, and on the decision of a prominent barrister to stand up to them.

This man is Melville Farr, who at the young age of 40 has just been offered the opportunity to become a Queen's Counselor. He will lose that appointment, his career and his marriage if he's identified in the press as gay, and yet he decides that someone must stand up to the blackmailers to demonstrate the injustice of the law. As he tracks the blackmailers through a network of their victims, the movie follows him through the London of the time -- its courts of law, police stations, pubs, clubs, barbershops, used bookstores, cafes, drawing rooms, car dealerships -- showing how ordinary life is affected in countless ways by the fact that many of its citizens must keep their natures a secret.

Farr was played by Dirk Bogarde, as a smooth, skilled barrister who projects a surface of strength and calm. He only raises his voice two or three times in the movie, but we sense an undercurrent of anger: He finds it wrong that homosexuality is punished, wrong that gays cannot go to the police to complain of blackmail, wrong that hypocrisy flourishes. There is a moment in the movie when he unexpectedly hits someone who has just insulted him, and it comes as a revelation: Beneath his silky persona is a wound, a resentment, and a fierce determination to act at last on his convictions.

The opening sequences of the film involve him only slightly, as we follow a young man named Jack Barrett (Peter McEnery), on the run from the police. We learn fairly soon that he is gay, but only gradually do we understand he is wanted for embezzlement. Broke, desperate for the money to get out of London, he calls Farr, is rebuffed, and is also turned away by a book dealer (Norman Bird), a car dealer and others. His desperation is closely observed in a pub where many of the characters hang out, including an odd couple: a ratlike little man and his heftier companion, who is blind but hears all the gossip.

Barrett is arrested, and found with a scrapbook of clippings about Farr. To the almost unconvincingly wise and civilized Detective Inspector Harris (John Barrie), it's an open-and-shut case: Barrett has no money, lived simply, had stolen thousands from his employer, seemed gay, and therefore was a blackmail victim.

He calls in Farr, who offers no help, but when Harris tells him that the young man has hanged himself in his cell, Farr is deeply shaken. He has good reason: He loved Barrett.

His wife Laura (Sylvia Syms) immediately reads his mood and eventually learns of his friendship with Barrett. She knew when they married that he'd had a youthful infatuation with a fellow Cambridge student, but that it was "behind him." He never had sex with Barrett, he tells her, and stopped seeing the young man when he sensed their feelings were growing too strong -- but for her it's as much of a betrayal as physical contact, because he shows that what he felt for Barrett was different, more powerful, than what he feels for her. ~ Roger Ebert-23 May 2004

'Come Out and Play'

'The Beautiful Game
Just Got Prettier and
There is More Than
One Way to Score'

"Kudos to the Icelanders for this fun and funny little film. For some reason a gay theme film from Iceland caught me a little by surprise. "Eleven Men Out" centers on Ottar Thor, the sexiest and most popular star of KR, the Icelandic soccer team. After he surprisingly comes out of the closet to a reporter in front of his teammates, the sports world is turned upside down. He is immediately suspended from the team.

Ottar forms a team with a gang of other players who have come out. The ensuing comedy is hilarious as the 'Eleven Men Out' team win game after game on their way to the championship. The "Eleven Men Out' team finally has the opportunity to battle it out on the field with the KR team on Gay Pride Day.

Björn Hlynur Haraldsson who plays Ottar Thor is as good looking as he is talented. He displays a full-range of skill in scenes where he is dealing with his rebellious teenage son who is humiliated by his fathers decision to come out as well as with his alcoholic ex-wife as they try to unite and work together as parents. There are good soccer scenes and great repartee with fellow players. Haraldsson's steamy sex scene with another man which was interupted by his son was an unexpected turn of events!

Mark Reinhart, Executive Vice President, Acquisitions & Distribution, for 'here! ' Networks' commented,“This timely social satire illustrates the struggle gay men and women in professional sports and beyond face while trying to stay true to their identity, and we think our viewers will be charmed by this delightful film.”

'Eleven Men Out' is a feisty comedy that explores the sports world 'outside the lines', proving that in soccer - and in life - there is more than one way to score.

Film Information: 'Eleven Men Out'

Web: Cast, Bios and Additional Details at IMDb
Director: Róbert I. Douglas
Writer: Róbert I. Douglas
Cast, Crew & Credits: Full Cast, Crew & Credits
Genre: Comedy | Drama | Romance | Sport
Awards 4 Nominations
Runtime: 90 min
Spoken Language: Icelandic
Subtitled in: English

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. . The Bond Between
Boxer and Trainer . .

In "Fighting Tommy Riley," another boxing drama is asking audiences to gird themselves for more emotional gut punches. Like "Million Dollar Baby," the pugilist is blessed with the luck of the Irish but cursed by that culture's penchant for calamity. The film, like its Oscar-winning precursor, dwells on a super-close bond between trainer and fighter, but unlike that previous male-female model, this male-to-male dynamic takes on some sexual complications.

Tommy Riley (J. P. Davis) is a poor but noble prospect, who has yet to regain his footing after missteps in the Olympic trials. He wins the attention and affection of a corpulent, aging bachelor with his own losses to live down. Marty Goldberg, played by Eddie Jones, teaches Melville to high schoolers and seems more like another McCourt brother than a scrappy Jewish salt. Either way, he is a philosophizing gym rat, and he uses his stentorian aphorisms to make himself a Gandalf-style mentor to the impressionable Tommy. "Whatever special is, in this madness, I think you've got it," Marty tells him.

There are many clunky lines that work on Tommy but not the audience, who can detect more quickly than the fighter what this old softie is after. The trainer turns his prizefighter into his own prize, an object that he extracts from its normal setting and admires away from the rest of the world. He invents absurd rules for Tommy to follow, as when he forbids jogging to music since there will be none heard in the ring. It's all part of a regimen of workouts and rubdowns that are meant to foster ferocity in the ring but dependency outside of it.

The splendid cinematography favors somber blues and grays in the alleys and unadorned sparring places, and then the film bursts with color when the action travels to a lakeside retreat. There are, unfortunately, many visual clichés, like the training montage with sports-page headlines scrolling across the screen. The performances are more pretty than gritty, and Mr. Davis is too handsome to appear all that desperate. Then, in one of many unsubtle pronouncements, the secretive Marty spills his own beans: "You never know what tragedies lie in a person's wake. You only know what I let you see."

Despite its flaws, the film gets across some genuine melancholy, played up by a sobbing Irish fiddle. The last act dodges and weaves with a well-played episode about sexual bargaining, and again the filmmaker proves that tragedy is best delivered to a heterosexual male audience through a sports context. That said, the pain that "Fighting Tommy Riley" inflicts is an apt payoff, not a sucker punch. ~ Ned Martel (NYT)

Film Information: 'Fighting Tommy Riley'

Web: Cast, Bios and Additional Details at IMDb
Director: Eddie O'Flaherty
Writer: J.P. Davis
Cast, Crew & Credits: Full Cast, Crew & Credits
Genre: Drama Sport
Awards: 1 win
Runtime: 109 min
Spoken Language: English

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From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Hours" comes this brilliant film that redefines sexuality, love, and fidelity.

Although critics often resist the urge to pour praise like waterfalls, it is hard to do anything but gush over exquisite small jewels like 'A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD', Michael Mayer's measured and moving film adaptation of the novel by Michael Cunningham. Like similar films of its style and size -- You Can Count On Me springs immediately to mind -- it bears the marks of care and craftsmanship. Imperfect, uneven, and occasionally rough in spots, Mayer's new film wears its flaws like scratches and marks on a careworn antique, features that only serve to distinguish and enhance its overall uniqueness. The subject matter -- about a trio of friends who redefine sexuality, love, and fidelity to fit their own needs -- will not appeal to everyone, but then, the greatest art never has. Let the praise-laden waterfall commence...'A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD' is the finest cinematic study of relationships to come along in quite some time.

Cunningham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours, has turned his own earlier novel into a workable, adept screenplay that loses none of its wordplay or emonal impact. If prose can ever be characterized as "poetic", Cunningham's would fit the bill; the language nearly bursts with metaphor and emotion, powerfully magnifying every interaction. 'A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD' is a contemplation about the potentiality of our existence, of the possibilities inherent in living a life...the idea that not just anything can happen, but everything can happen. And yet, Cunningham is not simply awash in a gorgingly potent worldview. Even with all of life's bounty, he is keenly aware that human existence is solitary, and that our need for contact and love from others compels us through our days. As one of the characters says in 'A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD', we are all both beautiful and alone. It isn't quite a contradiction, or an oxymoron. It is, simply and magnificently, a revelation ootif reality.

Mayer, an award-winning theatrical director making his cinematic debut, is blessed with a calm, assured style and a talented cast that interprets Cunningham's tale with compassion and care. As childhood friends in Cleveland, the orphaned Bobby (Colin Farrell) and the geekish Jonathan (Dallas Roberts) bonded tightly; Bobby was even taken in after his parents' deaths by Jonathan's parents (Sissy Spacek and Matt Frewer). After high school, however, Jonathan left for New York, where he moved in with Clare (Robin Wright Penn). Bobby, lost and alone, eventually follows to New York, where he begins a relationship with Clare, who is still in love with the now-openly-gay Jonathan. Chronicling over a dozen years in their lives, 'A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD' measures the struggles of these three people to find a balance and future together as they grow up, change, and metastasize into a configuration outside of the mainstream...but not outside of a personal and contextualized normalcy.

Perhaps the biggest revelation for audiences will be Colin Farrell, who proves himself to be a much better actor that his hunky good looks or clunky blockbuster resume (Daredevil, Phone Booth, Minority Report) would indicate. As Bobby, Farrell finds the courage to wholly inhabit a gentle, slightly dimwitted, and ultimately soft persona -- Bobby is the antithesis of an action star role. His natural handsomeness is muted by his injured eyes and timid gestures, which make him a most endearingly sensitive lunkhead. For a Hollywood player on the rise as Farrell is, it is a surprising career move and an exceptionally commendable performance, neither show-offy nor self-aggrandizing. Male actors don't win awards for playing soft, but in a more perfect world, Farrell's performance would be rewarded with an Oscar.

Equally luminous are the performances by Sissy Spacek (In The Bedroom) and newcomer Dallas Roberts (Burn This). Spacek, unquestionably one of the great actresses of her generation, makes Alice her own without imposing any strictures that might upset the precarious balance of her character's incongruities. As a woman trying to adapt and reach beyond her own limits, Alice is the perfect embodiment of those women who rediscovered their self-esteem and direction midway through life. Likewise, stage veteran Roberts nimbly reveals the lonely pain behind Jonathan's cool Manhattan-ish flair. Futilely trying to disengage from emotional entanglements, Roberts' Jonathan is a walking contradiction performed with seamless precision. Also worth noting are the charming performances by Harris Allan (Queer as Folk) and Erik Smith (Cold Mountain), who play the teenage Bobby and Jonathan during the first quarter of the film.

Set against a rollicking, evocative 70's score featuring Laura Nyro, Jefferson Airplane, Leonard Cohen, Yaz, and Mozart, 'A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD' belongs in the pantheon of classic New York stories (even though the characters' search for roots lead them elsewhere for periods of time). New York City is itself, of course, both a real place and a metaphor, a combination of gritty geography and modern myth. Brimming with self-absorption and self-discovery, the unlikely dreamers of Cunningham's universe mirror those of classics like Annie Hall, The Apartment, Angels in America and Moonstruck. In the city that never sleeps, the possibilities of life are endless. And in Bobby, Clare, and Jonathan's home, there's always more life, in all its glory, waiting around the next corner. ~ Gabriel Shank

Film Information: 'A Home At The End Of The World'

Web: Cast, Bios and Additional Details at IMDb
Director: Michael Cunningham
Writer: Michael Cunningham(novel & screenplay)
Credits: Full Cast, Crew & Credits
Genre: Drama | Music | Romance
Awards: 1 wins & 4 nominations
Runtime: 97 min
Spoken Language: English

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