Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and Cupid is getting his
bow and arrows ready. Some of us hope to be struck while others may be
doing everything we can to dodge his arsenal, but there is no doubt that
love will be in the air for the next few weeks.
Lots of
people turn to romantic movies this time of year for both encouragement
and solace, which got us thinking about those LGBTQ-themed films
that can be considered the most romantic. I have my personal
preferences but I also enlisted the help of nearly thirty gay and
lesbian Facebook friends to identify their favorites.
 |
| Sunday Bloody Sunday |
The
notion of romantic movies geared toward our community is actually
fairly recent, with few such films made before the 1990’s. Most
previous films featuring LGBTQ characters usually saw them being killed,
committing suicide or otherwise being punished for their non-conforming
yearnings. Pioneering early productions incorporating more positive
depictions of LGBTQ protagonists include
Midnight Cowboy (1969),
Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1971),
Dog Day Afternoon (1975),
Making Love (1982) and
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985).
Things really started to
improve with 1987’s sympathetic
Maurice. This gorgeous Merchant-Ivory
adaptation of E.M. Forster’s autobiographical novel, which Forster
refused to allow to be published while he was living, focuses on the
repressed feelings shared between two young, upper-class British men (James Wilby and Hugh Grant).
While their relationship doesn’t endure, the title character is more
successful with a dark and handsome groundskeeper (memorably played by
Rupert Graves).
 |
| Desert Hearts |
Pre-90’s romantic favorites among the
ladies include the true story
Silkwood (1983), in which Cher plays a
lesbian power plant worker caring for her radiation-exposed friend (Meryl Streep);
Desert Hearts
(1986), a passionate, 1950’s-set love story between a divorcee (Helen Shaver) and the
Nevada ranch hand (Patricia Charbonneau) she meets; and
Personal Best (1982), Robert Towne’s
graphic-at-the-time exploration of love between two female athletes (Mariel Hemingway and Patrice Donnelly) and
the male coach who threatens to come between them.
Two
recent, admirably unapologetic additions to the lesbian love canon are
Blue is the Warmest Color, the acclaimed and erotic 2013 film about a
young French woman’s sexual awakening, and 2015’s award-winning
Carol,
starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as women having a secret affair
in the closeted 1950’s.
 |
| Beautiful Thing |
For many LGBTQ people, the most
cherished romantic movies are coming-of-age stories. Frequently cited
in my survey were 1996’s
Beautiful Thing, the British tale of tentative
first love between two put-upon high school boys (based on Jonathan
Harvey’s hit play); the similar but lesbian-themed
The Incredibly True
Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995); and
Get Real (1998), in which a
brainy gay boy crushes on his school’s star athlete and finds his
attentions reciprocated, at least for a time. Two of my personal
favorites in this subgenre are 1996’s
Lilies, about a tortured love
triangle in a Catholic school for boys, and
Come Undone (2000), a
no-holds-barred French drama about two toned and tanned young men who
fall in love on the beach during summer vacation.
 |
| The Incredibly True
Adventure of Two Girls in Love |
Love
and loss often seem to go hand-in-hand in real life, so it isn’t
surprising that a few gay-themed films considered the most romantic also
involve death and dying. The Oscar-winning gay cowboy saga
Brokeback
Mountain (2005) is the undisputed champ in this regard, and the film
has resonated even more strongly in the wake of co-star Heath Ledger’s
tragic death just a few years after its release. Other tragic love
stories mentioned by my Facebook pals are the revolutionary AIDS dramas
Parting Glances (1986) and
Longtime Companion (1989), Harvey Fierstein’s
Torch Song Trilogy (1988), the fact-based
Soldier’s Girl (2003),
A Home
at the End of the World (2004) and the 2009 Peruvian gay ghost story
Contracorriente (Undertow).
 |
| A Single Man |
I would add to these David
Lewis’ 2009 film
Redwoods, starring gay fave Matthew Montgomery and the
beautiful Brendan Bradley as two men who embark on a life-changing
relationship that endures beyond death, as well as Tom Ford’s exquisite
A
Single Man (also 2009). Colin Firth scored a deserved Academy Award
nomination for his moving yet frequently funny turn as a gay university
professor grieving the sudden death of his partner.
As if
being homosexual, bisexual or trans wasn’t considered unorthodox
enough, a few recent movie gems feature unexpected romances between
unusual pairings.
From Beginning to End is a 2009 Brazilian film about
an Olympics-bound swimmer in love with another man. The catch? The two
are half-brothers who were raised together from a young age. So
controversial it was never released theatrically in the US, it is
worth seeking out on home video or streaming. And then there’s
Plan B
from Argentina, in which two heterosexual men bond as friends over one’s
messy breakup with his girlfriend (whom the other man is now dating)
but ultimately become lovers. I found this film refreshing in its
disdain for sexual labels and very touching in the end.
 |
| Soldier's Girl |
2010’s
Paulista, also from Brazil, boasts a male-to-female trans title
character who knowingly has an affair with her initially in-the-dark but
increasingly vulnerable father. It isn’t for everyone but some trans
viewers may find their dilemma intriguing, to say the least. More
recently,
The Danish Girl recounts the story of the first man to undergo
gender-reassignment surgery. This 2015 biopic is unique
in that it begins as a heterosexual romance between its married subjects
but becomes more queer as the wife (Alicia Vikander, in an Oscar winning performance) grows to support her transgender spouse (Eddie Redmayne).
The Circle (2014) is an even more factual,
inspiring love story. Director Stefan Haupt employs a combination of
documentary footage and dramatic recreations to relate the
decades-spanning romance between Ernst Ostertag and Robi Rapp. They met
as young men in the 1950’s and fought right-wing oppression in their
native Switzerland. Both were still alive and together at the time of
the film’s production.
 |
| Moonlight |
Of course, the newest gay,
cinematic love story is current awards darling
Moonlight. Based on an
autobiographical play, it depicts a neglected black boy’s coming of age
including his first sexual experience as a teenager with his best
friend. They reconnect as adults in the film’s final, hopeful segment.
Trick,
Jeffrey,
Fried Green Tomatoes,
Yossi & Jagger (I would add its 2012
sequel, simply titled
Yossi, too),
The Wedding Banquet,
Carrington and
Big Eden wrap up the remainder of my Facebook friends’ nominees for most
romantic LGBTQ films of all time, and I agree with most of these.
Wherever you find inspiration, we wish you all a happy Valentine’s Day!
By Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.
No comments:
Post a Comment