LGBT film: the lineage
During a recent phone conversation, director Roland Emmerich revealed how hard it was finding a location to re-create the New York’s Greenwich Village neighborhood circa the summer of 1969, when riots erupted after a police raid of the Stonewall Inn — a gathering spot for gays, lesbians and transgender people — for his new drama “Stonewall.
He finally found the right place in Montreal, where he re-created the events that are generally credited with igniting the LGBT pride movement. A line in can be drawn from those hot August nights to this summer’s historic Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage.
“Stonewall” itself — which as of this writing only a few industry people have seen in advance of its Friday, Sept. 25, world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival — has generated controversy ever since the release of its trailer revealing a cleancut, white teenage boy as the principal protagonist in Jon Robin Baitz’s screenplay, rather than the people of color, lesbians, drag queens, and trans folk generally credited with being the main forces behind the riots.
When Emmerich traveled to Montreal, he was merely looking for a movie location, the right place. Similarly, in 1969, the real Stonewall Inn was the right place at the right time. It birthed a movement, and also influenced a change in material for mainstream cinema. The change was no doubt already under way, with “Midnight Cowboy” coming out mere months before the riots, followed closely the next year by William Friedkin’s adaptation of Mort Crowley’s play “The Boys in the Band” (controversial for its stereotypical characters’ internalized homophobia).
But along with the nascent LGBT movement came more visible representation of LGBT characters onscreen. And if the mere accusation of homosexuality could lead to tragedy in the days of William Wyler’s 1961 adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s “The Children’s Hour,” that was no longer the case. The following list is only a sampling of the mainstream films that appeared in the 1970s (and doesn’t include work by John Waters, Paul Morrissey or Rainer Werner Fassbinder — the key word being “mainstream”), but these movies are awfully entertaining:
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” (1971): Two years after the downbeat “Midnight Cowboy,” director John Schlesinger returned with this Penelope Gilliatt-scripted romantic drama starring Peter Finch as a middleaged doctor in love with a bisexual sculptor (Murray Head), who is also seeing a young woman (Glenda Jackson) — and who is also moving to the U.S., breaking two hearts in the process.
“Dog Day Afternoon” (1975): Two men walk into a bank, and all hell breaks loose when their robbery goes swiftly awry in one of director Sidney Lumet’s greatest thrillers. With his morose, unbalanced and slow-witted sidekick, Sal ( John Cazale), in tow, Sonny (Al Pacino) embarks on the robbery-turned-hostage situation to pay for his “wife,” Leon’s (Chris Sarandon), sex-change operation in a drama inspired by the life and crimes of bank robber John Wojtowicz.
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975): The pioneering midnight movie is 40 years old now and still fresh as Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) opens his home to naive couple Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) and opens their minds to carnal delights (and darker things) that they never imagined. Critically reviled, the film was adopted by generations of outsider kids of whatever sexuality (not to mention theater geeks drawn to audience participation) who’ve adopted the Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania as their debauched patron saint. “Next Stop, Greenwich Village” (1976): Paul Mazursky’s autobiographical comedy drama stars Lenny Baker as version of himself, a young actor living the bohemian life in 1950s New York. And among his circle of friends in this film is Bernstein Chandler (Antonio Fargas), an out gay man whose presence on Christopher Street anticipates the future. “The Ritz” (1976): There’s a sly nod to Stonewall in this screwball comedy set in a gay bathhouse. Like that famous bar, the Ritz
Baths is all mobbed up, but Gaetano ( Jack Weston) doesn’t know that when he hides out there, one step ahead of his brother-in-law Carmine’s (Jerry Stiller) hit on him. A straight man in a gay bathhouse is a very thin joke milked for all it’s worth in Terrence McNally’s adaptation of his own play, directed by Richard Lester. What redeems it are the performances: Stiller in full-on pit-bull mode, Rita Moreno as a lavishly untalented singer, F. Murray Abraham in a rare comedic performance as a bathhouse denizen who befriends the hapless Gaetano, and Treat Williams (in only his second screen role) as an undercover federal agent. “Outrageous!” (1977): Drag performer Craig Russell won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for his performance in this film, which is a showcase both for his act (Streisand, Garland, Dietrich are among the women he channels) and for his acting talent as a gay man trying to help his schizophrenic best friend through the rocky shoals of pregnancy. “La Cage aux Folles” (1978): Before the musical “La Cage aux Folles” and the Robin Williams Nathan Lane vehicle “The Birdcage,” there was this adaptation of the Jean Poiret play. One of the highest-grossing foreign-language films of all time, it stars Ugo Tognazzi as a drag club impresario and Michel Serrault as his star and longtime partner. When Tognazzi’s son announces his engagement and brings his fiancee’s conservative parents home, a scheme to hide the truth from them quickly devolves.
“California Suite” (1978): Michael Caine rose to stardom in part by playing a womanizer in “Alfie,” but in “California Suite” it is not women who have his attention. Married to movie star Diana (Maggie Smith), Sidney (Caine) has languished in the closet, but he’s begun to find that too confining and has stopped being discreet. In Los Angeles to attend the Academy Awards — she is a nominee — the inconvenience of their marriage of convenience is becoming crystal clear.