{"id":4389,"date":"2017-12-14T15:51:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T14:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.queerlion.it\/?p=4389\/"},"modified":"2018-07-08T14:56:02","modified_gmt":"2018-07-08T12:56:02","slug":"bfi-film-forever-the-lgbt-film-highlights-of-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.queerlion.it\/en\/bfi-film-forever-the-lgbt-film-highlights-of-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Uk, BFI: Heartstone in the LGBT film highlights of 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Icelandic coming-of-age film Heartstone, which won the Queer Lion at Venice, is a sensitive tale that treats the adolescence of teenage boys, so often played for laughs, seriously, and makes excellent use of the country\u2019s eerie volcanic landscapes<\/em>”<\/p>\n

This year the BFI and organisations across the country marked the 50th anniversary of the partial legalisation of male homosexuality in the UK. It was a time for reflection, marked by the restoration and rerelease of two landmark gay British films, Victim (1961) and Prick Up Your Ears (1987). These pioneering works helped pave the way for the much greater range of queer cinema that audiences can access today, and the number of excellent LGBT films released in 2017 is testament to the filmmakers\u2019 bravery.<\/p>\n

The gay film to have reaped the widest critical acclaim in 2017 is Call Me by Your Name, a gorgeous, dreamy romance set in northern Italy in the 1980s. Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet is remarkable as Elio, a young man who begins an affair with his father\u2019s student, Oliver (Armie Hammer). It\u2019s a film of exquisite moments, such as Elio\u2019s confession in the market square and the father\u2019s touching monologue near the film\u2019s end. Even the now-famous sequence featuring a brief, passionate fling with a piece of fruit is weirdly moving. It\u2019s a triumph for everyone involved in the film \u2013 not least for James Ivory, now in his late 80s, who wrote the screenplay.<\/p>\n

My favourite film of the year was God\u2019s Own Country, which shook up the clich\u00e9s of the traditional British rural misery drama and gave audiences an unexpectedly romantic vision of gay love in the Yorkshire dales. The last few minutes \u2013 including the delirious credits sequence \u2013 are simply gorgeous, and beautifully directed by Francis Lee.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Xavier Dolan (Tom at the Farm, Mommy) returned with It\u2019s Only the End of the World, a tough drama about a gay man returning home to inform his family that he\u2019s dying. It\u2019s one of Dolan\u2019s most inconsistent works, alternating from low-end TV drama theatrics to daft symbolism. But the extreme use of close-ups on his actors add effectively to the claustrophobic atmosphere, and a vivid memory of adolescent lust, accompanied by Exotica\u2019s exhilarating tune \u2018Une miss s\u2019immisce\u2019, shows Dolan at his best.<\/p>\n

February marked a key moment in queer film history. After decades of awarding the top prize to great films with dubious representations of queer characters (Midnight Cowboy, The Silence of the Lambs, American Beauty), the Academy gave the best picture Oscar to Moonlight. It was the biggest upset at the Oscars since the bland Driving Miss Daisy took the award in 1990, although this time the surprise was a pleasant one, a case of the low-budget underdog beating the glitzy favourite (La La Land).<\/p>\n

The botched announcement, with Faye Dunaway reading out the name of the wrong film, will forever be remembered as a delicious slice of chaos and drama, but it shouldn\u2019t overshadow the remarkable achievement of Moonlight, a poignant and sensitive depiction of a young man trying to come to terms with his sexuality.<\/p>\n

In this year\u2019s line-up of possible Oscar contenders, Emma Stone and Andrea Riseborough may make the shortlist for their roles as Billie Jean King and her lover, Marilyn Barnett, respectively, in the hugely enjoyable Battle of the Sexes. As the story focuses on King\u2019s tennis match against Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell), it doesn\u2019t mention the bitter ending to the relationship, leading to Barnett\u2019s outing of King, but both actors are excellent in their scenes together, showing the beginning of a relationship that would change King\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Another Hollywood blockbuster featured an explicitly bisexual scene, with Charlize Theron\u2019s spy enjoying an enthusiastic fling with Sofia Boutella\u2019s agent in the enjoyable action romp Atomic Blonde.<\/p>\n

A minor fuss was made over Disney\u2019s delightful reboot of Beauty and the Beast, updated with a more explicitly feminist heroine, an interracial relationship and, most contentiously, a brief illusion to the homosexuality of LeFou (Josh Gad). It\u2019s a blink-and-you\u2019ll-miss-it scene, which would have avoided a lot of fuss if director Bill Condon hadn\u2019t boasted about its inclusion, which led to the film being pulled from cinemas in Kuwait and, inevitably, it being given an adult certificate in Russia. Still, at least the character\u2019s sexuality wasn\u2019t excised from the film entirely, as befell Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) in Thor: Ragnarok, whose brief scene suggesting her bisexuality was cut from the film.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a great year for independent lesbian movies getting a UK-wide release. Some of the most memorable lesbian characters appeared on the periphery, such as Rachael Stirling\u2019s sharp script supervisor in Their Finest and Cherry Jones\u2019 feminist professor in Sally Potter\u2019s The Party, brutally described as \u201ca first-class lesbian and a second-rate thinker\u201d by Patricia Clarkson\u2019s wisecracking cynic. One of my favourite films of the year was Lisa Gornick\u2019s The Book of Gabrielle, a witty drama about a lesbian Jewish artist who becomes strangely attracted to a confident male writer (loosely based on Philip Roth). It\u2019s wonderful to see Gornick making films again, after a lengthy delay following her festival hits Do I Love You? (2002) and Tick Tock Lullaby (2007).<\/p>\n

The most jaw-dropping queer film released in 2017 was Jo\u00e3o Pedro Rodrigues\u2019 The Ornithologist. Rodrigues\u2019 O Fantasma provoked much derisive audience laughter when I saw it at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival back in 2000, but The Ornithologist embraces its moments of absurdity with much more wit and intelligence. It follows a man studying black storks in Portugal, whose experiences begin to imitate moments from the life of St Anthony of Padua. It\u2019s funny, weirdly sexy, and like nothing else I\u2019ve seen before.<\/p>\n

nother one-of-a-kind mystery unravelled in Amat Escalante\u2019s The Untamed, in which a group of people seek sexual pleasure from a possibly malevolent tentacled organism. One of the creature\u2019s visitors is a gay man, whose sudden disappearance has a tumultuous effect on the lives of the other characters.<\/p>\n

Speaking of tentacles, a giant octopus made an unsettling debut in The Handmaiden. This was Korean director Park Chan-wook\u2019s frenzied erotic thriller based on Sarah Waters\u2019 crime novel Fingersmith, in which a female con artist is employed to help exploit a vulnerable Japanese heiress. Unexpected romance flourishes, but there are several more twists and turns before the film comes to a thundering climax. This being a Park Chan-wook project, there\u2019s lots of violence, lots of kink and a welcome serving of humour. It\u2019s also the most beautiful film of the year, filled with lavish spectacle.<\/p>\n

Two films that scooped queer prizes at major film festivals were finally released in the UK. I haven\u2019t seen Tomcat, an Austrian drama about how a relationship between two gay men is shaken following an unexpected act of violence, which won the Teddy award at Berlin. Icelandic coming-of-age film Heartstone, which won the Queer Lion at Venice<\/strong>, is a sensitive tale that treats the adolescence of teenage boys, so often played for laughs, seriously, and makes excellent use of the country\u2019s eerie volcanic landscapes.<\/p>\n

A Nordic film that got more attention was Tom of Finland, about the artist who specialised in homoerotic imagery. It\u2019s well acted, but it needed a little more spark and bawdiness to offset the downbeat tone.<\/p>\n

Several films focused on gay teenagers. Irish comedy Handsome Devil, set in a boys\u2019 boarding school, was sweet, if a bit safe. German teen romance Centre of My World was good, and very well acted, but far too long. I didn\u2019t share the love many audiences had for Beach Rats, about a boy trapped by the heteronormative framework in which he and his friends live, who has sex with men in secret. For me, the protagonist needed more development to hold my interest, but I am in a minority.<\/p>\n

A couple of powerful documentaries focused on queer subject matter. After an eternity on the film festival circuit, the marvellous Who\u2019s Gonna Love Me Now? finally appeared in cinemas. This award-winning film follows the inspiring personal journey of Saar, a gay, HIV positive man struggling to reconcile with his Israeli family, who finds love and acceptance after joining the London\u2019s Gay Men\u2019s Chorus.<\/p>\n

Nick Broomfield\u2019s latest portrait, Whitney: Can I Be Me, suggests, not altogether convincingly, that Whitney Houston\u2019s relationship with her \u2018best friend\u2019 may have been romantic, and that her need to suppress her sexuality contributed to her downward spiral. Although I wish Broomfield would steer away from celebrity subjects in favour of the excellent social justice films that launched his career, the footage of Houston away from the media and the screaming fans is very moving, and a sharp contrast to her public persona.<\/p>\n

2018 already has some prime LGBT films raring for their release date. The much loved Chilean drama A Fantastic Woman boasts a terrific performance from Daniela Vega as a trans woman who faces prejudice following the death of her lover. Robin Campillo\u2019s 120 Beats Per Minute throbs with the thrill of passionate debate, as Parisian activists argue about how best to combat political inaction towards the AIDS crisis. And The Wound explores masculinity and closeted sexuality in the unfamiliar world of the Xhosa community in South Africa.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t wait to see new films from Silas Howard (A Kid like Jake), Rupert Everett (The Happy Prince) and, especially, Desiree Akhavan (The Miseducation of Cameron Post), whose Appropriate Behaviour (2014) is one of the best romantic comedies of the last decade.<\/p>\n

BFI<\/a> by Alex Davidson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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