The incomparable Quentin Crisp (1908-2009) shared a birthday with Jesus and was played by John Hurt in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp’s memoir of the same name.

The Queen of interwar Old Compton Street, he starred with Helen Mirren, among others, on the London stage before moving to the United States where his dinner parties became legendary. He played Queen Elizabeth I opposite Tilda Swinton in 1992’s Orlando and appeared as a party guest in a scene of the same year’s Philadelphia.

Imperiously disparaging about everything from AIDS (”a fad”) to Princess Diana (”vulgar”), he wrote a classic series of film reviews for Christopher Street magazine, one of which is reprinted here.

Please visit the Quentin Crisp website, or purchase the anthology of Quentin Crisp film reviews, “How To Go To The Movies”, here.

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN

United States, 1985
Director: Hector Babenco
Stars: William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga

Available on DVD - order here

June was a month of debauchery.

During it, I watched two films in one week, one wantonly with a movie maniac and the other in the line of duty with your Mr. Steele. The one that my movie-mad friend chose was called Man, Woman and Sin. Two days later, I saw Mr. Babenco’s masterpiece, Kiss of the Spider Woman. Though this was screened in an upper room on Broadway for the most highbrow critics in the land and is as sordid a tale as you will ever find (however hard you try), the woman sitting next to me laughed delightedly throughout the entire two hours of its showing time.

Kiss has glaring faults but none that, in my opinion, make it ludicrous.

Perhaps we should deal with these errors at once and quickly so that we may dwell at length on the film’s remarkable virtues.

Continue reading "Quentin Crisp reviews Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)"

The incomparable Quentin Crisp (1908-2009) shared a birthday with Jesus and was played by John Hurt in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp’s memoir of the same name.

The Queen of interwar Old Compton Street, he starred with Helen Mirren, among others, on the London stage before moving to the United States where his dinner parties became legendary. He played Queen Elizabeth I opposite Tilda Swinton in 1992’s Orlando and appeared as a party guest in a scene of the same year’s Philadelphia.

Imperiously disparaging about everything from AIDS (”a fad”) to Princess Diana (”vulgar”), he wrote a classic series of film reviews for Christopher Street magazine, one of which is reprinted here.

Please visit the Quentin Crisp website, or purchase the anthology of Quentin Crisp film reviews, “How To Go To The Movies”, here.

LAW OF DESIRE

Spain, 1987
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Stars: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Eusebio Poncela

Available on DVD - order here

If, in an idle mood, you happen to be wandering up Broadway past the Cinema Studio, you can snatch from just inside the entrance a leaflet advertising their newest release, Law of Desire. This sheet of paper tells you that Senor Almodovar, the maker of this film, is “the last of the great hedonists” and that his current work is a comedy.

I feel impelled to issue a warning.

For all I know, the Senor himself may be as hedonistic as hell, but Law of Desire is no such thing, neither is it a comedy, unless Spaniards are like Russians, who, it is said, find humour in circumstances that to other nations would seem tragic (Dr. Chekhov described The Seagull as a comedy, though in it a girl’s life is ruined by a brief affair with a heartless philanderer and a young man kills himself). It is true that almost all the characters in Senor Almodovar’s bizarre tale are seen to be living for pleasure - kinky pleasure at that - but, except for an inexplicable child and the police, no one survives the weird twists of the plot entirely unscathed. I would describe the intention of this picture as heavily moralistic.

Continue reading "Quentin Crisp reviews Law of Desire (1987)"

The incomparable Quentin Crisp (2008-2009) shared a birthday with Jesus and was played by John Hurt in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp’s memoir of the same name.

The Queen of interwar Old Compton Street, he starred with Helen Mirren, among others, on the London stage before moving to the United States where his dinner parties became legendary. He played Queen Elizabeth I opposite Tilda Swinton in 1992’s Orlando and appeared as a party guest in a scene of the same year’s Philadelphia.

Imperiously disparaging about everything from AIDS (”a fad”) to Princess Diana (”vulgar”), he wrote a classic series of film reviews for Christopher Street magazine, one of which is reprinted here.

Please visit the Quentin Crisp website, or purchase the anthology of Quentin Crisp film reviews, “How To Go To The Movies”, here.

THE HUNGER

United Kingdom, 1983
Director: Tony Scott
Stars: Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon

Available on DVD - order here

Fifty years ago, if you had told any girl - any nice girl - that she looked sexy, she would have slapped your face. Life was pleasant then. There was a lot of flirtation and very little fornication or, if your interests lay elsewhere, there were a great many mysterious threats and very little murder. People lived largely in the mind and always seemed to have some adventure to which they could look forward.

Now all that has changed. Nay, everything has been reversed.

In the 1980s, fulfillment precedes desire. This nasty state of affairs is reflected in many of our contemporary movies or, possibly, it is caused by them.

Just such a film is The Hunger; it should have been called The Glut. It drips with blood and oozes sex.

I myself belong to Vampires Anonymous and I can assure you that a vampire’s life is not easy. Continue reading "Quentin Crisp reviews The Hunger (1983)"

The incomparable Quentin Crisp (2008-2009) shared a birthday with Jesus and was played by John Hurt in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp’s memoir of the same name.

The Queen of interwar Old Compton Street, he starred with Helen Mirren, among others, on the London stage before moving to the United States where his dinner parties became legendary. He played Queen Elizabeth I opposite Tilda Swinton in 1992’s Orlando and appeared as a party guest in a scene of the same year’s Philadelphia.

Imperiously disparaging about everything from AIDS (”a fad”) to Princess Diana (”vulgar”), he wrote a classic series of film reviews for Christopher Street magazine, one of which is reprinted here.

Please visit the Quentin Crisp website, or purchase the anthology of Quentin Crisp film reviews, “How To Go To The Movies”, here.

THE FOURTH MAN (DE VIERDE MAN)

The Netherlands, 1983
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Stars: Jeroen Krabbé, Renée Soutendijk, Thom Hoffman, Dolf de Vries

Available on DVD - order here

The Fourth Man is not hard porn because although the audience is regaled with a  glimpse of you what the very moment the central character staggers out of bed, it is always seen at rest - never prepared for action. The movie is not even soft porn, because pornography is an attempt to sell sex without mentioning the price. Here, the wages of sin are quite clearly death. Furthermore, scenes of sexual activity are not given the nauseating gauzy treatment that is customary in so many modern films. Instead, it is depicted as the nasty, slightly ludicrous pastime that it truly is.

Almost from the beginning of the picture, violent extermination stalks the screen either in the lurid dreams of the antihero, played by Mr. Krabbe, or in the actual narrative. Even the home movies of the heroine, played by Miss Soutendijk, are unflinching records of the various ways in which her three husbands have met their ends.

The first spectacle of extinction comes in the form of a fantasy in which Mr. Krabbe murders his flat mate by strangling him with a bra that just happens to be lying about their apartment. (Who wears this garment is not stated bu why should it be? Perversity is the very air of Holland.) As the boyfriend is practicing the violin before breakfast, silencing him seems a fairly natural act. Indeed, we can say more. Murdering anyone who plays the violin is justifiable homicide. All the same, this entire incident is nothing more than a bloodstained herring. Mr. Krabbe commits no subsequent murders and the young man is never seen again.

This kind of wanton depravity garishly ornamented with symbolism is the main weakness of this picture.

Continue reading "Quentin Crisp reviews The Fourth Man (De Vierde Man) (1983)"

The incomparable Quentin Crisp (2008-2009) shared a birthday with Jesus and was played by John Hurt in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp’s memoir of the same name.

The Queen of interwar Old Compton Street, he starred with Helen Mirren, among others, on the London stage before moving to the United States where his dinner parties became legendary. He played Queen Elizabeth I opposite Tilda Swinton in 1992’s Orlando and appeared as a party guest in a scene of the same year’s Philadelphia.

Imperiously disparaging about everything from AIDS (”a fad”) to Princess Diana (”vulgar”), he wrote a classic series of film reviews for Christopher Street magazine, one of which is reprinted here.

Please visit the Quentin Crisp website, or purchase the anthology of Quentin Crisp film reviews, “How To Go To The Movies”, here.

TOOTSIE

United States, 1992
Director: Sydney Pollack
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Bill Murray

Available on DVD - order here

Tootsie is not a gay movie; it is not even a happy movie, but it is highly enjoyable in spite of certain weakness.

The story concerns a struggling actor, played by Mr. Hoffman, whose struggling girl friend fails to qualify for a certain part on television because she does not present to the casting office a sufficiently aggressive image. Her lover dresses up as a woman and wins the role. He falls in love with or, rather, since this is a modern film, begins to lust after the juvenile lead in the TV serial. He also becomes famous, but, after a while, public acclaim no longer compensates him for the complications his deceit has brought into his relationship with the girl and he abandons his imposture.

Nobody wins.

Continue reading "Quentin Crisp reviews Tootsie (1982)"

The incomparable Quentin Crisp (2008-2009) shared a birthday with Jesus and was played by John Hurt in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp’s memoir of the same name.

The Queen of interwar Old Compton Street, he starred with Helen Mirren, among others, on the London stage before moving to the United States where his dinner parties became legendary. He played Queen Elizabeth I opposite Tilda Swinton in 1992’s Orlando and appeared as a party guest in a scene of the same year’s Philadelphia.

Imperiously disparaging about everything from AIDS (”a fad”) to Princess Diana (”vulgar”), he wrote a classic series of film reviews for Christopher Street magazine, one of which is reprinted here.

Please visit the Quentin Crisp website, or purchase the anthology of Quentin Crisp film reviews, “How To Go To The Movies”, here.

ERNESTO

Italy, 1979
Director: Salvatore Samperi
Stars: Martin Halm, Turi Ferro, Michele Placido

Available on DVD - order here

This movie contains the most romantic love scene ever depicted on the screen. It is more poetic than Lord Tennyson’s description of Mr. Lancelot’s adultery with Mrs. Arthur, more lyrical than the duet sung by Lieutenant Pinkerton and Miss Fly, more beautiful than the famous kiss sculpted by Monsieur Rodin.

We watched Ernesto in the very pleasant 8th Street cinema, where some months previously we had seen The Hunger. At that time, the events taking place on the screen did not hold your Mr. Steele’s attention completely. When someone stole his briefcase, he was instantly aware of the theft and rushed in pursuit of the culprit, but during the present film, if anyone had asked him, he says he would have given him the briefcase rather than take his eyes from the picture.

The amorous sequence about which I am rhapsodizing takes place during the first twenty minutes of the film. Both aesthetically and for reasons of realism, this is too soon. The story never again reaches such a high level of intensity. Worse, the speed with which Ernesto and his lover arrange to consumate their desire makes the situation seem slightly facile. The boy is so young that he does not need to shave, while his lover is over thirty; the boy is Jewish, wheras his friend is Italian; the boy is middle class but his friend is a manual laborer. These barriers would not be easy to cross now when all our values have collapsed. Seventy years ago, they would have been impassible.

Continue reading "Quentin Crisp reviews Ernesto (1979)"

The incomparable Quentin Crisp (2008-2009) shared a birthday with Jesus and was played by John Hurt in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp’s memoir of the same name.

The Queen of interwar Old Compton Street, he starred with Helen Mirren, among others, on the London stage before moving to the United States where his dinner parties became legendary. He played Queen Elizabeth I opposite Tilda Swinton in 1992’s Orlando and appeared as a party guest in a scene of the same year’s Philadelphia.

Imperiously disparaging about everything from AIDS (”a fad”) to Princess Diana (”vulgar”), he wrote a classic series of film reviews for Christopher Street magazine, one of which is reprinted here.

Please visit the Quentin Crisp website, or purchase the anthology of Quentin Crisp film reviews, “How To Go To The Movies”, here.

MAURICE

UK, 1987
Director: James Ivory
Stars: James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves

Available on DVD - order here

I went with a representative cross section of the contributors to Christopher Street magazine to see Maurice (pronounced Morris by the English, to whom any word that sounds even faintly French is depraved). This is a surprisingly popular film. Even at the ten thirty showing, we were only able to sit together in goods eats through the kindness of the management of the Paris cinema, who let us into the auditorium ahead of the mere mortals clamoring to get in. I only wish that in return for this courtesy, I could praise the film with more enthusiasm.

The trouble with a homosexual encounter is that by nature it does not provide its participants with the desired illusion of entering the jungle. A heterosexual man or woman mates with an alien, even hostile being - someone of the opposite gender. In happier times, in order to impart this sort of exciting clash to a homosexual engagement, one party acted cute or helpless or bitchy. These antics are frowned on by modern gay men. Now, in the hope of bestowing interest upon a union of two people of the same sex, it is necessary to cross boundaries of race or culture. In the England of 1913, before the irreparable breakdown of its social structure, differences of class were a great help in making sexual activities tolerable.

To the British aristocracy, the embodiment of the primitive male was the gamekeeper with a bloodstained rabbit in his hand. Maurice might be called Mr. Chatterley’s Lover.

Where I see class distinctions inflaming desire, Mr. Forster saw love conquering prejudices. His problem was that - at any rate in literature - he was not content with a bit of rough trade; he longed for eternal love. It is here that this story abandons all probability.

The narrative begins at Cambridge University, which has come to represent the life beautiful - a haven where ideas about “The Ideal State” float through the quadrangles, woven with adolescent longings for love. Clive (Hugh Grant) is the true aristocrat and Maurice (James Wilby) is his middle-class friend. They romp and kiss but do nothing worse, on the grounds that they might “regret it later”.

Continue reading "Quentin Crisp reviews Maurice (1987)"