Frameline 2011: final Sunday
Jul. 13th, 2011 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nakedbeeLast day! Singing Norweigans, tragic lovers, and a shirtless Dr. Who!
Note: plot summaries and promotional images again shamelessly lifted from Frameline. Check out the festival website and/or websearch the film's titles for more info.
Fun In Boys Shorts
52 is a gay man's nightmare about aging, starring the amazing Scott Thompson (The Kids in the Hall). In Drives, Carlos is about to get married, but he’s never explored his “needs” —perhaps a handsome escort can help? Topsy-turvy musical SkallaMan (Bald Guy) takes place on the streets of a Norwegian town when a son comes home to tell his parents about the guy he’s just snogged. Adorable 12-year old Greg in Franswa Sharl has inherited his father’s competitive streak, but the contest he’s trying to win isn’t the one his father had in mind. In Cold Star, a boy pushed up a diving platform by a menacing crowd gets help from a mysterious man. Robin and Orlando have a great first date, but paranoia and other problems keep “bugging” them in The Itch. Rounding out the program is Revolution, a story about a 16-year old Iranian boy in 1989 Los Angeles, who stages his own small revolution within his traditional family.
The shorts were all cute and fun, as advertised, but of course my heart belongs to the musical one: SkallaMan was just fabulous … absolutely joyous!
A Few Days of Respite
“I love you Hassan, but I would have left without you,” says Mohsen to his young lover, Hassan, as they cross the border into France. Facing imprisonment or death, the couple is emigrating illegally from Iran. Will finding freedom together force them further apart?
This was unremittingly sad, with very little dialogue. The two main characters were suspicious of each other, but never really talked. For most of the movie they were quietly miserable in France, and then they were horribly killed. The end.
Christopher and His Kind
Christopher and His Kind presents a stunning piece of LGBT history with this BBC-produced dramatization of novelist Christopher Isherwood’s 1976 memoir. Recounting the English-American writer’s years in 1930s Germany, this is the true story of Isherwood’s celebrated The Berlin Stories, which served as the basis for the Broadway musical and film Cabaret.
In the 1930s, Isherwood moved to hedonistic Berlin “because of the boys”. But he also moved there to pursue his burgeoning writing career and to escape England and the stifling expectations of his snobbish mother (Lindsay Duncan, HBO’s Rome). Handsome Matt Smith (the U.K.’s latest Dr. Who) plays the young Isherwood as the film beautifully captures his relationships with the poet W.H. Auden, flatmate Jean Ross (Isherwood’s real life friend and the basis for his immortal character Sally Bowles) and the Jewish, upper class Wilfrid Landauer (Iddo Goldberg, Secret Diary Of A Call Girl). Against the intoxicating backdrop of Berlin’s gay subculture during the waning bacchanalia of the Weimar Republic, Isherwood falls hopelessly in love with Heinz Neddermayer—yet their relationship faces impossible challenges in the face of the gathering storm of the rise of the Nazi party.
There has been a resurgence of interest in Isherwood and his works with Tom Ford’s A Single Man and the documentary Chris And Don: A Love Story (Frameline32) that chronicled the author’s 35-year relationship with artist Don Bachardy. Christopher and His Kind gives us the story of this beloved author’s early years in his own eloquent words.
The story was disjointed (maybe the result of adapting from the book?) but I liked all the 30s Berlin bits. It was really fun to see Matt Smith in the role - he was excellent. The inspiration-for-Sally-Bowles was also fun to watch.
And that's it! So many movies! Yay!
The short list (will be looking for on DVD):
Best dramatic romance: Private Romeo
Best slashy comedy romance: Four More Years
The slightly longer list (will be looking to rent and watch again):
Best comedic action flick: Madame X
Best double feature about Voguing: Paris is Burning + Leave It on the Floor
Most inspirational documentary: Wish Me Away
Most exciting documentary: (A)sexual
Shoutouts: Girl Bunnies! SkallaMan! Codependent Lesbian Space Aliens! Margaret Cho! No Gravity! Judas Kiss! The Sleeping Beauty of East Finchley!
Note: plot summaries and promotional images again shamelessly lifted from Frameline. Check out the festival website and/or websearch the film's titles for more info.
Fun In Boys Shorts
52 is a gay man's nightmare about aging, starring the amazing Scott Thompson (The Kids in the Hall). In Drives, Carlos is about to get married, but he’s never explored his “needs” —perhaps a handsome escort can help? Topsy-turvy musical SkallaMan (Bald Guy) takes place on the streets of a Norwegian town when a son comes home to tell his parents about the guy he’s just snogged. Adorable 12-year old Greg in Franswa Sharl has inherited his father’s competitive streak, but the contest he’s trying to win isn’t the one his father had in mind. In Cold Star, a boy pushed up a diving platform by a menacing crowd gets help from a mysterious man. Robin and Orlando have a great first date, but paranoia and other problems keep “bugging” them in The Itch. Rounding out the program is Revolution, a story about a 16-year old Iranian boy in 1989 Los Angeles, who stages his own small revolution within his traditional family.
The shorts were all cute and fun, as advertised, but of course my heart belongs to the musical one: SkallaMan was just fabulous … absolutely joyous!
A Few Days of Respite
“I love you Hassan, but I would have left without you,” says Mohsen to his young lover, Hassan, as they cross the border into France. Facing imprisonment or death, the couple is emigrating illegally from Iran. Will finding freedom together force them further apart?
This was unremittingly sad, with very little dialogue. The two main characters were suspicious of each other, but never really talked. For most of the movie they were quietly miserable in France, and then they were horribly killed. The end.
Christopher and His Kind
Christopher and His Kind presents a stunning piece of LGBT history with this BBC-produced dramatization of novelist Christopher Isherwood’s 1976 memoir. Recounting the English-American writer’s years in 1930s Germany, this is the true story of Isherwood’s celebrated The Berlin Stories, which served as the basis for the Broadway musical and film Cabaret.
In the 1930s, Isherwood moved to hedonistic Berlin “because of the boys”. But he also moved there to pursue his burgeoning writing career and to escape England and the stifling expectations of his snobbish mother (Lindsay Duncan, HBO’s Rome). Handsome Matt Smith (the U.K.’s latest Dr. Who) plays the young Isherwood as the film beautifully captures his relationships with the poet W.H. Auden, flatmate Jean Ross (Isherwood’s real life friend and the basis for his immortal character Sally Bowles) and the Jewish, upper class Wilfrid Landauer (Iddo Goldberg, Secret Diary Of A Call Girl). Against the intoxicating backdrop of Berlin’s gay subculture during the waning bacchanalia of the Weimar Republic, Isherwood falls hopelessly in love with Heinz Neddermayer—yet their relationship faces impossible challenges in the face of the gathering storm of the rise of the Nazi party.
There has been a resurgence of interest in Isherwood and his works with Tom Ford’s A Single Man and the documentary Chris And Don: A Love Story (Frameline32) that chronicled the author’s 35-year relationship with artist Don Bachardy. Christopher and His Kind gives us the story of this beloved author’s early years in his own eloquent words.
The story was disjointed (maybe the result of adapting from the book?) but I liked all the 30s Berlin bits. It was really fun to see Matt Smith in the role - he was excellent. The inspiration-for-Sally-Bowles was also fun to watch.
And that's it! So many movies! Yay!
The short list (will be looking for on DVD):
Best dramatic romance: Private Romeo
Best slashy comedy romance: Four More Years
The slightly longer list (will be looking to rent and watch again):
Best comedic action flick: Madame X
Best double feature about Voguing: Paris is Burning + Leave It on the Floor
Most inspirational documentary: Wish Me Away
Most exciting documentary: (A)sexual
Shoutouts: Girl Bunnies! SkallaMan! Codependent Lesbian Space Aliens! Margaret Cho! No Gravity! Judas Kiss! The Sleeping Beauty of East Finchley!