Queering the Oscars: Visconti's "The Damned"

by Cláudio Alves

At the 42nd Academy Awards, the Best Original Screenplay category was a rarity of historical importance. You wouldn't know it in 1969, but all nominees would be studied for years to come. Whether seen as seminal works in their author's careers or cultural milestones with much to reveal about the society that produced them, the films form an illustrious bunch, going from Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice's pop psychology to the revisionist brutality of The Wild Bunch. The winner was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a western which has inspired queer readings for over half a century though it was far from the queerest picture in the race. 

That would be Luchino Visconti's The Damned, marking the start of his German trilogy, the international metamorphosis of his cinema, and the most open expression of gay sensibilities in his oeuvre to that point…

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Queering the Oscars: Knowing Our History in “Changing Our Minds"

For Pride Month, Team Experience is looking at LGBTQ+ related Oscar nominations... 

dr evelyn hooker

by Eurocheese

When this series was announced, my first goal was to find a film that was completely new to me on a subject outside of my cinematic wheelhouse. Watching this film served as a reminder of how little I know about LGBTQ+ history. While I’d heard the name Evelyn Hooker before, I’m ashamed to admit I couldn’t have told you what role she played in history, much less the impact she had on the state of gay rights today. If the same is true for you, dear reader, I highly recommend carving 107 minutes out of your day to learn a bit about her impact in the Oscar nominated documentary Changing Our Minds: The Story of Evelyn Hooker (1992). I want to offer a trigger warning though as this film delves into difficult topics and images.

The sliding doors nature of Hooker coming to study homosexuality is mind-boggling if you stop to picture a world where her findings never existed...

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Queering the Oscars: Calamity Jane's "Secret Love"

For Pride Month Team Experience is looking at LGBTQ+ moments in Oscar history. 

by Nathaniel R

When we decided to do this series we left it up to contributors to pick their topics. Does an movie achievement qualify as queer because of an aesthetic sensibility? Because the artists involved were LGBTQ+? Because of subject matter or characters? Any of those! With Old Hollywood movies one of the most common 'qualifying' reasons -- it's all very subjective of course -- is whether or not a movie or singular element of a movie was 'adopted' by the queer community. In this regard "Secret Love," the Oscar-winning ballad from the western musical comedy Calamity Jane more than qualifies...

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Queering the Oscars: "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert"

For Pride Month Team Experience is looking at queer and queer-adjacent moments in Oscar history...

by Cláudio Alves

It was the night of the 67th Academy Awards when a Vera Wang-clad Sharon Stone stepped on stage to present the Best Costume Design Oscar, the second category in an evening most remembered for its Forrest Gump lovefest. And yet, amid celebrating that epic of political passivity and proto conservatism, the Academy found time to tip its metaphorical hat at two classics of 1990s queer cinema. The second such picture, Trevor, would have its moment later when the Live-Action Short race resolved itself in a shocking tie. For now, slotted after a resplendent Dianne Wiest accepted the Supporting Actress trophy, it was time to honor The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert…

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"Horseplay" and the cinema of Marco Berger

by Cláudio Alves

HORSEPLAY (2022)

Last week, Marco Berger's Horseplay enjoyed a limited release in American theaters. The film is the Argentinean director's latest purview of queer desire among straight-passing men, full of his trademark languidness and crotch shots galore. In some ways, it represents an Ozu-like return to heretofore explored premises, with both variations and shapeshifting tone making the virtually identical feel radically distinct. For those who've been following Berger's career, it might be a rewarding foray into violent bleakness. For viewers first encountering his oeuvre, it makes for a strange introduction. 

With that in mind, let's think back to the auteur's evolution, from blue-balling short exercises to the latent disquiet of Horseplay…

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