Cruising (1980)

Straight cop Steve Burns (Al Pacino) goes undercover to solve the serial killing of gays in NYC's S & M and leather clubs in the 1970's. Body parts of gay men are showing up in the Hudson River. Burns has to learn the complex rules and signals of this subculture to find the killer. He rents an apartment in the Meatpacking District of the West Village and befriends a neighbour, Ted Bailey (Don Scardino), a young gay man. His undercover work takes a toll on his relationship with his girlfriend Nancy (Karen Allen) and leads him to question his own sexual orientation. Burns mistakingly leads the police to investigate waiter Skip Lee (Jay Acovone), who is forced to strip and masturbate in front of detectives to provide them with a semen sample. Burns is disturbed by this, and believes that the police are motivated by homophobia. Outraged, he almost quits his job. However, his boss (Paul Sorvino) convinces him to continue the investigations. Near the end of the film Burns thinks he has found the serial killer, a gay music student, who attacks him with a knife in Morningside Park. Burns brings the man into custody. Soon afterwards, the severely mutilated body of another gay victim, Ted Bailey, the neighbour of Burns, is found and the case remains unsolved. In the ambiguous finale, Nancy tries on Burns' leather cap and he wipes off his make-up and looks directly at the camera.

When first released, "Cruising" was universally reviled by gays, critics, and the viewing audience. In fact, throughout the summer of 1979 members of NYC's gay community protested the production of the film. Gays were urged to disrupt filming, and gay-owned businesses to bar the filmmakers from their premises. People attempted to interfere with shooting by pointing mirrors from rooftops to ruin lighting for scenes, blasting whistles and air horns near locations, and playing loud music. One thousand protesters marched through the East Village demanding the city withdraw support for the film. Now "Cruising" is considered one of director William Friedkin's best films. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Al Pacino turns in a tour-de-force performance as a family man who plans a Brooklyn bank robbery to pay for his gay lover's sex-change operation. Pacino plays John "Sonny" Wortzik, and the film is based on a real-life story. The heist goes horribly wrong, placing Wortzik in a highly publicized situation that makes him a media hero. With his partner Salvatore "Sal" Naturile (John Cazale), he holds the employees of a Brooklyn bank hostage the day after his pre-operative transgendered lover was committed to a psychiatric hospital following a suicide attempt. Detective Eugene Moretti (Charles Durning) calls the bank to tell Sonny that the police have arrived. Sonny warns that he and Sal will kill the hostages if anyone tries to come into the bank. After realizing they cannot make a getaway, Sonny demands transportation: a jet to take them out of the country. His male "wife" Leon Schermer (Chris Sarandon) arrives and reveals that Sonny is robbing the bank to pay for Leon's sex change surgery and that he also has a legal wife, Angie, and children. After more attempts to have Sonny surrender, he is taken in a limousine to the airport. Sal is killed, Sonny is arrested, and the film ends with Sonny watching Sal's body being taken from the limo on a stretcher.

Based on the events of a real bank robbery that took place on August 22, 1972, this film was inspired by P.F. Kluge's article "The Boys in the Bank", which tells a similar story of the robbery of a Brooklyn bank by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile. The title refers to the "dog days of summer". Sidney Lumet directed.

Faustrecht der Freiheit (1975)

Franz "Fox" Bieberkopf (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) is a naive working-class gay who is in a jam when his lover Klaus (Karl Scheydt) is arrested for tax fraud and the police close their carnival booth. To get money, Fox picks up Max (Karlheinz Böhm) and extorts ten marks from him to buy lottery tickets. The next day he wins a lottery for 500,000 marks. At Max's home, Fox meets his bourgeois gay friends. He spends the night with sophisticated Eugen Thiess (Peter Chatel), a man already in a gay relationship. The next morning the boyfriend finds out. Eugen then takes over his father's printing company, and hires only homosexuals. Fox and Eugen go to a gay bar and then to a restaurant, where they meet Eugen's two other friends. Eugen then gives Fox a tour of his new factory. Later, Fox goes to a gay spa and talks to Max, who suggests investing in Eugen's company. Fox takes out 100,000 marks and gives them to Eugen. They go to the factory and tell Eugen's father Wolf (Adrian Hoven).

Eugen gets evicted from his flat for moral reasons (two men living together) and suggests that Fox buy his own flat. They visit one and Fox buys it, then buys furniture from Max for 80,000 marks. They go clothes shopping at Eugen's ex-boyfriend, and again Fox pays for it all. Later, they have lunch at Eugen's parents' and Fox displays no table manners. He then signs a contract for the 100,000 mark loan. Fox and Eugen go to the gay bar, and find Klaus has been released from prison. Fox lends him 30,000 marks, and Eugen is jealous. At the flat, they have a party and the ex-boyfriend whispers to Max that he might be living there soon. They go on holiday to Marrakech, Morocco. Fox pays for it. They pick up a male prostitute (El Hedi ben Salem) but he is not allowed in their hotel because he is an Arab. The hotel assistant says they have male escorts specially for the hotel.

They return from the holiday to a bankrupt company. The workers cannot be paid. Fox suggests giving his flat to Eugen, so the bank lets him take a loan to pay his workers. Eugen goes to the opera with Max, leaving Fox alone. Fox goes to the gay bar, throws a fit, gives 500 marks to the florist and runs off. The next day at the factory Fox makes a mistake with some imprints, and Wolf tells him off. Later, they all have dinner together. Fox goes to a pub and propositions two American soldiers, but nothing happens. He drives to the gay bar, the florist hits on him, Fox slaps him, then has a minor heart attack. Back at the flat, he tells Eugen about the attack but his lover doesn't seem to care. The next day he visits a doctor, who gives him medication.

Fox breaks up with Eugen, who says he is taking the flat to make up for the bungled imprints (costing 150,000 marks). At the factory the next day, he is told that the 100,000 marks from the contract was paid back in his monthly salary, he didn't have to work. Later he goes to the flat but Eugen's ex-boyfriend is there and won't let him in. He then visits his sister Hedwig (Christiane Maybach), they have an argument and he sleeps in his car. The next day he sells his new car for only 8,000 marks. Later in the gay bar, Fox sees the American soldiers and they ask him how much he pays. He starts sobbing. Finally, he is shown lying on the floor in the underground, dead from an overdose of pills. Two young boys steal his money and watch. Max and Klaus see him, but leave when they see he is dead because they do not want to be involved.

The German title of the film means "First Right of Freedom", although the English title is "Fox and His Friends". This melodramatic film is one of director Fassbinder's most accessible: the story and performances are direct, and the look of the film is polished and inviting. Yet it is also a powerful movie, dealing with some of Fassbinder's central themes such as the search for love, and exploitation in its many forms. Peer Raben composed the original music. The script was written by Chrisian Hohoff and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who also directed.

Hamam (1997)

"Hamam" is about Francesco (Allesandro Gassman), a designer in Rome unhappily married to Marta (Francesca d'Aloja). He goes to Instanbul where he has inherited a derelict Hamam, a Turkish bath house, from his aunt Anita. Francesco's life and the Hamam become one when he renovates it. As the film’s tagline indicates, "What he inherited was a sexual awakening". Something inside him brings out his love for life in Istanbul and his desire to have gay sex with Mehmet (Mehmet Günsur), and soon they become lovers. Marta arrives in Istanbul to get a divorce from Francesco but is taken aback when she sees how much Francesco has changed. She falls in love with him again, and their divorce is no longer important to her. Francesco's unwillingness to sell the property has made him some enemies, resulting in his murder one day. Marta decides to stay in Istanbul and run the hamam, the final scene suggesting she has turned into a second Anita. This great Italian/Turkish/Spanish movie has some unexpected twists and turns, some stunning scenery, and excellent acting. It features music by Aldo De Scalzi. Ferzan Özpetek wrote the screenplay and directed. The Italian title is "Il Bagno Turco" and the English title is "Steam: The Turkish Bath".

Beefcake (1999)

"Beefcake" is a semi-documentary about the physique models in L.A. in the 1950's. It's not listed in any of my movie review books, but the video cover claims it's about the underground physique culture, a photographer ahead of his time, and the struggle for first amendment rights. The cover is deliberately misleading, calling the film a comedy and other things it is not, merely to sell the product. "Beefcake" was inspired by F. Valentine Hooven III's 1996 book "Beefcake: The Muscle Magazines of America, 1950-1970". It is fascinating to see the vintage photos and films of muscular young men in posing straps and also fully nude. Joe Dallesandro ("Little Joe never gave it away"--Lou Reed), Jim Lassiter, and other former models recount their fond memories of the era. Most were heterosexual bodybuilders who believed they were physical fitness role models for the youth of America. Fitness guru Jack Lalanne is also interviewed. One of the problems with this film is that it mixes genres. About 10% is documentary, 15% is interviews, 20% is historical re-creation, but most is fiction. The poorly focused mixture of biography, fantasy, and history doesn't work. The story is based on the rise and fall of photographer Bob Mizer (Daniel MacIvor) and his magazine "Physique Pictorial"--the first male physique periodical. He seems naive and oblivious of the fact that his photos were bought primarily by homosexual men. Basically "Beefcake" sugarcoats and reinvents Mizer. The movie is somewhat campy and kitschy, but "Gay" did not exist then, and is not mentioned in the film. Thom Fitzgerald wrote the script and directed.

The Celluloid Closet (1995)

"The Celluloid Closet" is a funny and informative look at the depiction of homosexuality in Hollywood movies, based on Vito Russo's 1981 book of the same name. Russo researched the history of how motion pictures, especially Hollywood films, had portrayed gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters. Lily Tomlin narrates this documentary of the history of gays in film, from negative to positive reflections of gay characters. It's a chronological assortment of over 100 movie clips from the turn of the century to the silents, to the effeminate caricatures of the 1930s, to the flamboyant homosexual portrayals of the 1950s and '60s, to the violently deviant homosexual of the '70s and '80s, and concluding with the clean image of recent times. "Sissies" appeared early in Hollywood as stock characters for comic relief. Harvey Fierstein says "I like the sissies", as homosexuals needed "exposure at any cost". Lily Tomlin says, "The sissy made everyone feel more manly or more womanly by filling the space in between." However, showing gays as comic figures, perverts, villains, or AIDS victims, cinema has historically destroyed gay self-esteem and promoted homophobia. Arthur Laurents says, "You must pay. You must suffer. If you're a woman who has another woman you better go hang yourself. It's a question of degree and certainly if you're gay, you have to do real penance--die!" Among the films featured are "Spartacus", "The Boys in the Band", "The Children's Hour", "Philadelphia", "Tea and Sympathy" and many others. Harvey Fierstein, Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Shirley MacLaine, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Curtis, Gore Vidal and others comment on the films.

The script was written by Rob Epstein, based on Vito Russo's book. Russo wanted his book made into a documentary film and helped out on the project until he died in 1990. Some critics of the documentary noted that it was less political than the book and ended on a more positive note. But Russo wanted the documentary to be entertaining and reflect the positive changes in films. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman directed.

Las Cosas del Querer (2000)

After the Spanish Civil War in 1940's Madrid, Juan (Angel de Andres Lopez) plays piano for Pepita (Mary Carmen Ramírez) and her on-stage partner gay singer and dancer Mario (Manuel Bandera), who also owns the nightclub. Although Mario really wants to steal Juan for himself, Juan is not interested and Mario resorts to a string of lovers as consolation. Dora (Angela Molina) auditions for a job with Mario. Juan is in love with Dora (they met previosly during an air raid) despite her unchanged habit of going out with as many men as possible. The two of them are also friends with Mario, who also goes out with as many men as possible. There is a nobleman whose attentions Mario at first entertains, loves, then leaves. The nobleman is devastated, and his mother vows revenge on Mario for breaking her son's heart. Ultimately the conservative and intolerant society forces Mario into exile. Basically "Las Cosas del Querer" is a drama about how musical performers during the Spanish post-Civil War era suffered political and sexual persecution. Music was composed by Gregorio García Segura. Dialogue was written by Fernando Colomo and Jaime Chávarri, who also directed. In Spanish with English subtitles, the English title is "The Affairs of Love" or "The Things of Love".

東宮西宮 (1996)

"Dong Gong Xi Gong" is a Chinese movie about gay writer A Lan (Si Han) who is attracted to young cop Xiao Shi (Hu Jun) in a park, gives him a kiss on the cheek and jogs off, looking seductively over his shoulder. The cop returns a few days later, this time out of uniform, wearing a leather jacket, and brings A Lan back to the empty police station where a nightlong interrogation ensues. Is the cop looking for a confession or a turn-on? He becomes fascinated with his young prisoner who goads him to behave ever more brutally. However much he tries to suppress it, the cop seems attracted to the writer. A Lan tells his life story about repression in Chinese society. In China, homosexuality isn't illegal, but homosexuals are routinely persecuted by police and arrested for "hooliganism". The film's title is Chinese slang for the notorious bathrooms located in Bejing near the Forbidden City--the East Palace and the West Palace. The two parks are favorite haunts of Beijing gays at night. Billed as the first mainland Chinese drama to deal openly with the subject of homosexuality, a subject considered taboo in Chinese cinema, it was shot in 1996, then smuggled out of China for post-production in France. It premiered at the Mar del Plata Film Festival in Argentina in November 1996 and at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival as part of the "Un Certain Regard" competition.The film angered Chinese censors and this resulted in authorities confiscating director Zhang Yuan's passport shortly after his return from Hong Kong on April 10, 1997, thereby preventing him from attending the Cannes Film Festival. Zhang Yuan wrote the screenplay with Wang Xiaobo. The English title is "East Palace, West Palace", or "Behind the Forbidden City", or "Behind the Palace Gates".