Great Moments in Gayness: "Fosse, Fosse, Fosse"

Happy Gay Pride Week Everyone!

Dancin' Dan here to wish you all a Happy Gay Pride Month! When I think about the first gay person I ever saw on screen, I usually think of Rupert Everett in My Best Friend's Wedding, a performance I kind of love in a film that actually has a very gay sensibility. But just recently I realized that there was a much gayer mainstream Hollywood hit which came out the year before that Julia Roberts vehicle : The Birdcage.

Yes, in 1996, The Birdcage was a massive hit. It was also, oddly enough, a prestige comedy - based on a popular French play-turned hit crossover film, directed by Oscar winner Mike Nichols, starring Oscar nominee Robin Williams and Oscar winners Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest (the cast, which also starred soon-to-be-Tony winner Nathan Lane, actually won the Best Ensemble SAG Award that year). It grossed over $100 million. And not only did a good percentage of the film take place in the titular drag club, its two main characters were gay. [more...]

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i ♥ glowing eyes

i just do! Beauty Break: Awesome Glowing Eyes

8 more sets o' vibrant peepers after the jump

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This is not what "bent" is supposed to mean in this context...

Happy--no, Sad face. My copy of Nick Davis's book "The Desiring Image: Gilles Deleuze and Contemporary Queer Cinema" arrived. YES. But it arrived like so, rolled up like a damn newspaper! NO.

I've tried to straighten the gorgeous gay out but it's not budging. Permanently bent!

[one hour later] Oops... I started reading instead of finishing this post which I should not have done since I have to return this copy! I'm so into the launching Cronenberg chapter and am digging the provocative argument that he...no I can't. Must. Return. Get. New. Copy.

I can't even bear to take a photo of the mangled cover so you should remind yourself of how beautiful it is here. And if you haven't ordered it yet, do it now. Nick is a great writer, provocative thinker, and unshakeable cinephile and since it's gay pride month, it's a great time to start digging in. You'll probably even have your beautiful unmangled copy before I get this one replaced by Amazon!

Man of Link

Film Studies for Free collects essays on Todd Haynes' 1995 masterpiece [safe]
Advocate Man of Steel as gay allegory?
Scriptnotes discusses The Little Mermaid in depth. For a whole podcast 
Guardian lists the 5 best performances of Kevin Costner. And it's SO bizarre I don't even know where to start. No Bull Durham (which as Tim correctly stated this week is by far his best work) but Robin Hood: Prince of Thi.... no I can't even type the full title out. Blargh!
Pajiba celebrates Men in Tights given that Supes is back in theaters

Cinema Blend Marvin Gaye Biopic starring Jesse L Martin doesn't have funds to finish production. Boo. I need another biopic about a famous singer with drug problems like I need another superhero flick but I like Jesse.
/Film Sandra Bullock for Miss Hannigan in Annie? That could be fun but as always say it with me now... "can she sing?"
In Contention a biopic of Ingrid Bergman? I can deal with that... especially since this possible new one has a tight focus on one moment in her life (the best kind of bio) 

Off Cinema
Salon on the battle over Detroit's art collection. News from my first home always seems to be bad :(
Towleroad Cheyenne Jackson pleads "Don't Look at Me" in his new video. We disobey
Vulture the ten best oral sex faces of the 2013 tv season  

Blue is the Hottest Controversy

Julien K. here, your special correspondent in Paris, reporting on the recent controversy surrounding the latest Palme d’or winner, Blue is the Warmest Color. 

As those of you who are familiar with the French film industry may know, director Abdellatif Kechiche’s work has been consistently lavished with praise for the last decade. In 2005, his sophomore effort L’esquive –a raw, direct exploration of teenage sexual politics in the banlieues (the French suburban hoods) by way of eighteenth century playwright Marivaux- unexpectedly trumped critical favorite Kings and Queen and populist heavyweights A Very Long Engagement and Oscar nominee The Chorus at the César Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The same thing happened in 2008, when his powerful immigrant family drama The Secret of the Grain defeated a pack of prestige Oscar contenders (La Vie en Rose, Persepolis, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) in the same top categories. 

But now that he’s won the most prestigious award of them all, Kechiche is facing a harsh backlash. [more]

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