Gay Films

What are some gay films - not asking about porn - that should be viewed at least once?

• I liked Saving Face. There''s more to it than the lesbian love story.

• Hedwing and the Angry Inch.

• Maurice

• Ben Hur. Beckett. Lawrence of Arabia.

• The Ten Commandments

• Parting Glances\ \ Maurice\ \ Being at Home With Claude\ \ L''Homme Blesse\ \ My Beautiful Laundrette

• The Boys in the Band

• Milk\ \ Maurice\ \ Latter Days\ \ Brokeback Mountain\ \ My Beautiful Laundrette\ \ Beautiful Thing\ \ Edge of 17\ \ Get Real

• Beautiful Thing

• Mala Noche

• Trick\ \ Total fluff but I loved it.

• The Lord of the Rings (think about it)...

• Gods and Monsters - one of my favorite movies of all time

• A Very Natural Thing - a nicely dated movie about the early 70s gay life. I also thought the guys were rather cute. \ \ Anybody ever see this and wonder if the scene when the main character, on a bike, starts shouting at a driver who almost runs him over was not intended?

• Another Gay Movie, clearly

• Top Gun\ \ Fight Club

• Gods and Monsters\ Brokeback\ Trick\ Shelter

• The Ang Lee Double Feature – THE WEDDING BANQUET and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN – So many anti-Brokeback people need to realize that Ang Lee made a beautiful film about the dangers of the closet and how in modern times even people from conservative cultures can open their minds. THE WEDDING BANQUET is sophisticated and realistic.\ \ I''d add to that WILD REEDS, YOU''LL GET OVER IT, and THE MAN I LOVE, all from France, as well as FUCKING AMAL and TILSAMMANS from Sweden. The French trio because they show you can make young coming out stories without being maudlin or full of crass jokes that make forgiving and desperate gay audiences (usually the anti-Brokeback crowd) roar with laughter.\ \ FUCKING AMAL and TILSAMMANS because they both have an adult sense of humor.

• No R15, that''s an antigay movie

• I despised The Wedding Banquet.

• The Wedding Banquet was an awesome movie.

• "The Wedding Banquet" ends with the girl pregnant by the gay guy.\ \ Yawn.

• Trick Shelter? I think I missed that one.

• "Ben Hur. Beckett. Lawrence of Arabia."\ \ They''re not really gay films, but they do have possible gay sub-texts.

• You don''t think much, do you, R22?

• Big Eden\ \ Regular Guys (German with subtitles but pleasant little foreign movie and the leading man is hot!)

• I don''t care if anybody else here agrees with me but I loved "Torch Song Trilogy".

• Beautiful Thing\ \ Come Undone\ \ Burnt Money\ \ Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green\ \ Guys and Balls\ \ The Dying Gaul\ \ Gone, but not Forgotten\ \ Eating Out (only the original)\ \ Maurice

• Breakfast with Scott

• Apartment Zero. Chilling.

• 30 replies and no one has mentioned Longtime Companion??? It''s a must.

• I love how twits like R22 -- a human yawn -- not only send out spoilers but show their true colors by the way they focus on one thing that points out all their own phobias and uses it to dismiss the rest.\ \ Without spoiling it further, a lot more happens at the end of the film that''s extremely progressive. Watch it and find out.\ \ And Ang Lee cast an out gay man, Mitchell Lichtenstein, in a gay role and didn''t shy away from make-out scenes.\ \ It''s heartfelt and well-made. No wonder the R20s of this world hated it.

• Edge of Seventeen\ \ Head On (Australian film)\ \ Happy Together\ \ Law of Desire

• Bound

• I sort of hated "The Wedding Banquet" too, and the ending of "Billy''s First Screen Kiss"...or something like that, it was a real downer.\ \ But, I loved:\ \ Maurice\ \ Get Real\ \ Beautiful Thing

• "Brokeback Mountain" is my pick. I thought that it fairly represented the anti-gay culture that was prevelant in the 1960''s and 1970''s by rural America(I came out during this era...I could empathize with the characters). Very nicely filmed and directed...I own a copy and watch it from time to time. I didn''t like "Milk," however. I''m not a big city queen and I thought that the story line was way over my head. As far as just plain gay comedy...I loved "Birdcage" with Robin Williams. Also, I enjoyed "Torch Song Trilogy" and I have watched it many times. Young Matthew Broderick played the part of a hustler very well and he was way hot back then.

• Forgot to mention:\ \ Longtime Companion\ \ Heard that Broadway is going to do a musical version of it.

• Beautiful Thing\ \ But I''m a Cheerleader\ \ Big Eden\ \ Get Real\ \ The Boys in the Band\ \ Relax, It''s Just Sex\ \ Chutney Popcorn\ \ All Over Me\ \ Debs\ \ Breakfast on Pluto\ \ Fried Green Tomatoes (Don''t anyone say this isn''t a gay film...Idgie and Ruth are obviously in a relationship, and Fannie Flagg based those characters on her lesbian aunt andher partner)\ \ Longtime Companion\ \ The Band Played On\ \ Angels in America\ \ Brother to Brother

  There are more that I like, but these are the first ons which come to mind...

• Oh and....\ \ \ Brokeback Mountain\ \ Loving Annabelle\ \ My Summer of Love\ \ A Home at the End of the World\ \ Wilde\ \ Bedrooms and Hallways\ \ Aimee and Jaguar\ \ French Twist

  r38

• Ma Vie en Rose\ \ My Beautiful Laundrette\ \ Brokeback Mountain\ \ l''Homme Blesse\ \ Cruising (yeah the message sucks ass, but it also gives a view of gay NY in the bad old Meatrack days)\ \ Gay Sex in the 70''s\ \ Showgirls (kidding)

• And on the topic of must-see "gay" films:\ \ Wizard of Oz\ \ Mommie Dearest\ \ Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?\ \ All About Eve\ \ Valley of the Dolls\ \ Who''s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

• R41, if you''re going to include "gay" films, then you also should have added Auntie Mame.

  R33

• Lifetime''s "Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life" with Jeremy "Peter Pan" Sumpter.\ \ He spends night and day looking at big tittied and lingerie clad womenz.\ \ When offered snatch, twice, he runs away in a panic.

  Queer Bait

• Auntie Mame, of course\ Whatever happened to Baby Jane?\ The Greatest Show on Earth (Betty Hutton on a trapeze!)\ All About Eve\ The Actress\ The 5000 fingers of Dr. T\ I Could Go On Singing\ The First Traveling Saleslady\ ANY Carmen Miranda film

• Parting Glances\ \ A Love To Hide (French/English subtitles)\ \ To Forget Venice (Italian/English subtitles)

• These are films I liked, but they''re not everyones cup of tea: \ \ Breakfast With Scot\ \ \ I Love You Phillip Morris \ \ \ Milk \ \ \ A Single Man \ \ \ Latter Days \ \ \ Maurice\ \ \ East Side Story\ \ \ Straight Jacket\ \ \ CRAZY\ \ \ Little Ashes\ \ \ Broakback Mountain\ \ \ Trick\ \ \ Shelter\ \ \ Wilde

• "Les Chansons d''Amour" (Love Songs) with Louis Garrel and Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet.

• Priscilla Queen Of The Desert\ \ Desert Hearts\ \ Personal Best\ \ Fried Green Tomatoes

• Hated "Milk", but watched it 3 times to understand scenes I wasn''t sure of.

• 25 Days....Scott Speedman, love him!

• Plata Quemada

• Is English not your first language, R49?

• "Cachorro" (Bear Cub)\ \ "La Ley del Deseo" (Law of Desire), if only to see Antonio Banderas getting fucked.

• Torch Song Trilogy is the best history of gays in New York.

• ''The Sum of Us'', with Russell Crowe

• Liquid Sky

• Brideshead Revisited\ \ Love Songs

  Canadian Gay

• "Broakback Mountain"\ \ Oh dear.

• TCM should have a Thursday evening feature called "The Gaysentials." Robert Osbourne could host it (for obvious reasons!).

• I''m not sure what in "Milk" can be over anyone''s head. Huh??\ \ And I''m not sure how any self-respecting gay person can like "The Birdcage". UGH!

• Just going to post "The Sum of Us'', also. \ \ Very pleasant movie with young Russell Crowe as gay plumber son to very understanding widower Jack Thompson. Great Australian movie but they do a lot of talklng to the camera if that annoys you.

• For a Lost Soldier, a Dutch film, that really moved me when I was young and just about to come out - it has some great memories of that turbulent time, allthough I have not seen it in years

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_a_Lost_Soldier

  its all about me

• Picnic at Hanging Rock

• R62 are you baiting the anti-pedo trolls?\ \ The soldier has sex with a 12 year old, per your own link.

• Every movie that I can think of has already been mentioned. For offbeat choices: Let the Right One In. It's kind of a gay movie--if you think about it. But it's debatable. That godawful movie with Hilary Swank about the Black Dahlia. Should only be viewed for the lesbian nightclub scene. It's such an over the top, ridiculous fantasy of a lesbian bar and a great example of everything that's wrong with the movie. But who can resist dapper lesbians in tuxedoes and elegant femmes in evening gowns? Not to mention a floor show worth of Busby Berkeley in what was surely a dive bar the size of an airplane hangar, but with the budget of Hollywood musical. And you'll love the chanteuse. All told it's about four minutes of the movie, if that. Feel free to fast forward. Together Alone: LOW LOW budget movie. Very talky. One set. But perfect for Datalounge since the characters are two men who have just had un-protected sex and one of them says he's "straight." You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll stick a needle in your eye. Not sure how this one holds up, but I'm sure it still presses all the right buttons on all the Datalounge hot topics (except for the whole cash bar at the wedding thing). Bound- can't believe no one's mentioned this yet. Have we forgotten how sexy Gina Gershon's pocket butch and Jennifer Tilly's ambiguous femme used to be? Velvet Goldmine - I really thought this, Go!, and The Fight Club meant that 1999 was going to be remembered as a year of great movies, just like 1939 was. And except for Fight Club being a fetish film for homoerotically inclined straight guys, not a lot of people care for either Go!, or this movie. Their loss.

• R53, you like your Spaniards, huh?\ \ \ R60, the "Milk" guy was trying to be funny.. I hope.

• Presque Rien\ F. est un salaud\ Drôle de Felix\ Les temoins\ Sa raison d''être\ Roseaux Sauvages\ Le Clan\ Ceux qui m''aiment prendront le train\ Je te mangerais\ 20 centimetros

• Some that haven''t been mentioned yet:\ \ Love and Human Remains- Shot in the early 90s starring a pre-Dharma Thomas Gibson as a gay waiter/washed-up actor. Even though the scenes between him and a young busboy/fanboy character aren''t very explicit they''re incredibly hot. \ \ Lilies- Beautifully shot, great gay love story between two gorgeous young guys includes a Jean Genet-like play within the film. The main female roles are also played by men. Not recommended if you can''t handle unhappy endings. \ \ The Edge of Heaven- Several overlapping storylines of Turks and Germans features a passionate lesbian love story between a Turkish political activist and a student who becomes dedicated to social justice: they are another really gorgeous couple. Again, avoid if you dislike doomed romance.

  Dyke Film Buff

• Wild Reeds

• R69 - absolutely, that''s what I was trying to post. I''m going to try again:\ Presque Rien, F. est un salaud, Drole de Felix, Les temoins, Sa raison d''etre, Les Roseaux Sauvages, Le Clan, Ceux qui m''aiment prendront le train, Je te mangerais, 20 centimetros

  R67

• The Gay Deceivers, Some of My Best Friends Are..., Saturday Night at The Baths, Staircase

• I liked "The Hanging Garden", but it might be too ''arty'' for many people.

• ... and of course the following New Queer Cinema classics: The Living End, Totally Fucked Up, Swoon, Poison, Grief, Frisk

• Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

• New Film: ( although not very new) Big Eden- a great fairytale/folktale/country song.\ \ Old Film: All those Doris Day/ Rock Hudson films. \ \ I also saw "For a Lost Soldier"- it is an interesting film. At least it is honest to itself. Those Dutch, boy- first man-boy love and then the face of the Muhammad in a painting. They really know how to piss people off.

  Anonymous

• Oh, and "Unveiled"\ \ "Late Bloomers"\ \ "Serving in Silence"\ \ "The Hunger"\ \ "The Vampire Lovers"

  r38

• Frodo and Sam''s Big Gay Adventure.

• Young dykes should definitely watch "Desert Hearts". The sex scene was the best ever.

  Phyllis Lyon

• "It''s In The Water"

• PINK NARCISSUS. Ultra ne plus ultra...a love poem, an erotic trance, a psychelic collage, held spellbound.

• I''m hoping someone here can help me. There is a documentary about a drag competition in the late ''60''s in NYC. I think it might even be titled "The Competition". I''ve seen snippets of it on youtube, but they''re not available now. \ \ Can anyone provide an exact title and possibly where to find a copy?

• Is it "Paris Is Burning", r81?

• Maybe...Maybe Not\ \ My college roommate saw it...and the rest is history!

• No, from the late ''60''s probably pre-Stonewall. About these absolutely normal guys, accountants, lawyers who are drag queens. They come to NYC for a competition. Seemed really fascinating, in the few 2min clips I''ve seen

• Speaking of Stonewall... "Stonewall". Great fictionalization of the event.

• R81: That film is called "The Queen". I saw it in a revival theater about twenty years ago and the only thing I remember (besides the fact that it featured vert briefly a young International Chrysis, aka Chrysis St. Laurent) is thinking that speed really made people''s skin bad. Instead seek out "Q & A" (which might have been a double-feature with the above film), a touching documentary of Chrysis''s life filmed shortly before she died of cancer.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Chrysis

  Dyke Film Buff

• Correction: I think the documentary is at the link. International Chrysis might''ve been in "Q and A" as well, but I don''t think I saw that film.

  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108206/

  Dyke Film Buff Again

• You''re my hero DFB. Now where to get my hands on a copy?

• R88/81: I don''t know about "Split" (the documentary I recommended) but long clips of "The Queen" (if not the whole film) appear to be on Youtube.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZcalBjHe-A

  Dyke Film Buff

• No one has mentioned "Jeffrey" yet?

• Deathwatch, with Leonard Nimoy

• Actually "Split" is for sale on Amazon--for anyone who still has a VCR.

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/6303403417?tag=imdb-adbox

  Dyke Film Buff-Still Procrastinating Actual Work

• That''s awesome DFB, I''m going to buy it. And maybe The Queen too. They have a couple "used" for 30 bucks. Be happy to loan it to you.

• I second r1. Saving Face is one of the best gay films around.

• I just saw "All over the guy" today on Cinamax. It was great!

• I''ll give another vote for Saving Face.\ \ Also for Fucking Amal. That might actually be in my top three gay movies of all time. Along with The Color Purple and Brokeback Mountain.\ \ I also have a soft spot for Jeffrey and High Art.\ \ And for something different, there was a little movie called In the Gloaming that always seems to make me cry. I think Christopher Reeve directed it.

• Before Night Falls\ \ The Law of Desire\ \ Farewell my Concubine\ \ Maedschen in Uniform\ \ Different From the Others\ \ Capote\ \ The Boys in the Band\ \ Victim\ \ Brokeback Mountain\ \ The Wedding Banquet\ \ The Children''s Hour\ \ Don and Chris\ \ Valentino: The Last Emperor\ \ Bad Education\ \ Burned Money\ \ Yossi and Jaeger\ \ The Hunger\ \ Parting Glances\ \ Sebastian\ \ Edward II\ \ Caravaggio\ \ My Beautiful Laundrette\ \ Querelle\ \ Ma Vie En Rose\ \ Long Time Companion\ \ M. Butterfly\ \ Bent\ \ Broken Heart''s Club\ \ Sunday Bloody Sunday

• Duh -- how could I forget Another Country?

• Y Tu Mama Tambien

• Casper Andreas is going to kill himself because of you bitches!

  Not Jesse Archer

• Love r97-r99 choices...\ \ what about Breakfast at Tiffanys ?\ \ what gay boy didn''t want to be Holly Golightly living the high life in in New York when he was growing up out in the sticks ?\ \ What New York sophisticate didn''t want to have a fabulous duplex and host parties like Bette''s Margo in All About Eve ?\ \ Wilde in ''97 is good too - Fry is a bit too lightweight (Peter Finch was much better in the 1960 film) but the younger Jude Law was smokin!\ \ Sunday Bloody Sunday - Finch is amazing, particularly that pickup scene with Jon Finch\ \ Dirk in Victim. \ \ Delon in Plein Soleil, and Matt and Jude in The Talented Mr Ripley\ \ Maurice - the best of Ivory/Merchant, Wilby, Graves and yes Hugh Grant\ \ I''m ambivalent about Brokeback, but Heath Ledger was astounding.

• r101 again ... the films of those recent openly gay directors:\ \ Bill Condon''s Kinsey\ \ Don Roos'' The Opposite of Sex, Happy Endings\ \ Todd Haynes'' Far From Heaven - his new Mildred Pierce should be a must see\ \ Francois Ozon''s french films like 8 Women, Time To Leave, Under the Sand etc,

• I founder Shelter to be suprisingly sweet

• Lianna\ \ Personal Best\ \ Desert Hearts

• Jeeps, however could I fail to list Happy Together?

  fantastic flick

• I agree with lots of these choices.\ \ Has anyone seen "Dorian''s Blues"? Very well written and funny, and the lead actor was really terrific.

  Matt

• Dessert Hearts

• Cruising\ \ The Choirboys\ \ Longtime Companion\ \ Angels in America\ \ Shortbus\ \ The Cockettes\ \ Boys in the Band

• Farewell My Concubine\ \ Interesting, R63.

• I just saw Shank, am absolutely blown away. It has everything one could hope for: sex, drugs, violence plus social critique.

  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1288571/

• I''m surprised Breakfast At Tiffany''s hasn''t been remade, even as a TV movie.\ \ Who would be the dream cast?

• The Witnesses

• [quote]I''m surprised Breakfast At Tiffany''s hasn''t been remade,\ \ [italic]Thank God![/italic]\ \ They probably would''ve soiled my memory further by casting, once again, that horrible Jennifer Love [italic]Hewey[/italic]!

  Audrey Hepburn

• [quote]Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green\ \ In my nearly 20 years of adulthood, I''ve only walked out of two movies. This was one of them. Yes, it was THAT bad, and you should probably be banned from DataLounge for life for even mentioning it.

• Suddenly Last Summer\ \ What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?\ \ A Place in the Sun!\ \ Rebel Without a Cause

• here''s a really extensive list of ''all'' gay movies

  http://www.ranker.com/list/gay-movies-list-of-all-gay-films/all-genre-movies-lists#

• "For a Lost Soldier" was a great movie--but I was shocked that they actually showed the soldier fucking the kid (simulated, but still).\ \ "Bent"--heartbreaking--I had forgotten about this one.

• Has anyone seen From beginning to end yet? I don''t really know what to make of it. Obviously, it''s a bad movie. It''s like a bizzare mix of softcore porn and soap opera. And yet... it''s kinda intriguing. Also the lead actors are very hot.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH6vtx3HVB8

• I made a charming unknown little indie flick some years ago...

  Dawson

• R118 I saw it about a month ago, I was disappointed to say the least. I went in with some inhibitions because the incest dynamics were a tad bit disturbing to me but since both leads were so gorgeous, I gave it a go. It was a sub-par film, if you watch the trailer you hve seen the film. The actors were good but they had little to work with, the sex scenes were not particularly graphic but it would raise some eyebrows, directing was great though. All in all I would give the movie a C- for the most. R117 I began watching For a Lost Soldier when someone uploaded it on Youtube but stopped midway, I was completely turned off by the attempt to romaticize a man-boy relationship. Some gay films that are my favourites are Plate Quemada, Maurice, Just a Question of Love, Lost Languages of Crane, Priest, Brokeback Mountain, Bent and Keillers Park.

• the "Dead Poets Society" was chock-a-block with gay sub-text and homoerotic bonhomie

• R120, you''re right, the screenplay is substandard. But it''s so much better than Harry and Max! jesus Christ, that one sucked. Christopher Munch, you should have known better. I guess I''m just a sucker for incest dramas.

  r118

• @122\ same here!

• A defense of "For a Lost Soldier": I haven''t seen it since it first came out in the early nineties, but I remember that the film was based on a memoir of a famous Dutch choreographer: he''s the boy. I don''t know how closely the film was based on the book, but the relationship is not portrayed as a destructive force in the boy''s life. It''s also made clear that the other soldiers (in town to liberate the country from the Nazis) were fucking underage girls-- both from the pastor''s sermon and the crying girl who interrupts the soldier and the boy. Even though the townspeople knew what was going on (at least with the straight soldiers) they were resigned to it, not outraged. The relationship is also not portrayed as all sweetness and light: the boy experiences physical pain when they fuck which the soldier tries to assuage by feeding him chocolate in bed! It reminded me of the Lenny Bruce line about not being surprised Europeans hated Americans, "We fucked their mothers for candy bars during World War II."

  Dyke Film Buff (& Not a Pedophile)

• Grande Ecole (available on Netflix)

• Has anyone mentioned "Wilde"? I netflixed it recently and thought it was really good . ..

• re: beginnig to end: what I didn''t get is that somber undressing scene. \ \ *Spoiler* Are we supposed to believe that they waited to go all the way until Mom was six feet under? Very strange.

• Wild Reeds (Les Roseaux Sauvages) is [probably my favorite gay film. \ \ As far as the stuff that has a more commercial feel to it, I thought Mambo Italiano was pretty well done.

• R127 Exactly, the undressing scene was so strange. There was no build up, I mean the mother died, the father moved out and suddenly the brothers are having sex. How random. That movie was just too strange.

• One I didn''t see mentioned above is "A.K.A." (2002) by Duncan Roy.\ \ It''s far from perfect, but I quite like it. Even if it''s stiff and on-the-cheap in some respects, it more than makes up for it with an original story told, interesting experiment in visual storytelling, great soundtrack, Diana Quick and a small role by Bill Nighy.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKA_(film)

• R130, that does look good. Even though it''s from the director he was responsible for the most vile Dorian Gray ''adaptation''. \ Looks a lot like an even gayer ''Talented Mr Ripley.

• Beautiful Thing\ \ Get Real\ \ Shelter\ \ Mysterious Skin\ \ The History Boys\ \ Speedway Junky\ \ A Home at the End of the World\ \ Another Country\ \ Les Amities Particulieres\ \ And I agree with r68 about Lilies. It''s kind of artsy and strange, but very much worth watching.

• Good one R100.\ \ Self-promoter Andrea''s movies all suck big time. No wonder none of them have turned up in over 130 posts.