Brokeback Mountain (2005)

"Brokeback Mountain" is a gay romantic-drama that depicts the complex romantic and sexual relationship between two men in the American West from 1963 to 1983. The story is about ranch hand Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) and rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), who meet and fall in love on the fictional Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. Ennis and Jack first meet when they are hired by Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) to herd his sheep through the summer. During the long months of isolation, a bond develops between the two. One night Jack makes a sexual pass at Ennis, who rejects then accepts Jack's advances. They develop a physical and emotional relationship which is cut short unexpectedly. Separating at the end of the summer, each goes on to marry and have children. Ennis marries his long-time fiancé Alma Beers (Michelle Williams) and Jack ends up in Texas, where he meets and marries rodeo princess Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway).

The two men reunite four years later, and Alma accidentally witnesses them kissing. Jack wants to create a life together on a small ranch, but Ennis and Jack meet only for infrequent fishing trips. At the end of a camping trip, Ennis tells Jack he has to cancel their next outing because of his job, and an argument erupts. Ennis blames Jack for "making me the way I am". Jack dies and Ennis wants to scatter his ashes on Brokeback Mountain. Sadness and melancholy pervade this "gay cowboy movie". It's a quiet, heartbreaking love story adapted from E. Annie Proulx's short story. Oscar winning director Ang Lee captures the natural beauty of Wyoming and Texas and Gustavo Santaolalla's music score helps to complete a beautiful and tragic film.

יוסי וג'אגר‎ (2002)

"Yossi & Jagger" is an Israeli film in Hebrew ("Yossi VeJager Israel") about the love affair of two Israeli soldiers. Yossi (Ohad Knoller) commands a troop of soldiers in the snow-covered mountains near Lebanon. In secrecy, he has a romantic relationship with his second-in-command officer, Lior Amichai (Yhuda Levi), who is called Jagger by everyone for his rock star good looks. The pair lead a loving, yet secret life together, going off to be alone and open with one another. One day, a Colonel (Sharon Raginiano) arrives at the base with two female soldiers. He is there to supervise a night-time ambush, which Yossi resents because of the full moon, and he fears for his soldiers' safety. Tragically, Jagger is fatally injured that night, dying in the arms of his lover, who only now is able to articulate his love for him. At the funeral reception at Jagger's parents' house, Jagger's mother mistakes Yaeli (Aya Steinovitz) for his girlfriend. She laments that she knew very little about her son, including his favorite song, which only Yossi is able to tell her.

This sociological study of two men and how the others in their unit react to their situation is based on a true story. The film did not receive production assistance from the Israeli army but proved to be so popular in Israel that it got official army showings later. Scripted by Avner Bernheimer, it was directed by Eytan Fox. The English title is "Yossi & Jagger".

Από την άκρη της πόλης (1998)

"Apo Tin Akri Tis Polis" or "From the Edge of the City" refers to "Menidi", a poor suburb on the edge of Athens, where many Cosssack Greeks live. They are called "Pontoi", ethnic Greeks from the Black Sea dispersed through the ex-Southern Soviet Union in the Stalin era. The Pontoi returned to Greece en masse after the fall of the USSR. Parents speak mostly Greek, but the teenage children speak a hybrid Russian-Greek language reflecting their lack of identity and marginalization in Greece's xenophobic society. The film is about hunky 17 year-old Sasha (Stathis Papadopoulous), a part-time construction worker and "rent boy" prostitute (since age 13) with Greek god looks. He is surrounded by all kinds of horrors: a father who slaps him around, a mother who weeps, junkie pals, and whores with black eyes. One of his friends is Giorgos (Dimitris Papadoulidis), an older pimp (maybe 20) who struts around in black T-shirts and lets Sasha have his prize whore, Natasha (Theodora Tzimou), so that Giorgos can buy another. In addition, there's a group of boys and girls whose lives are touched on. The best of this ragged lot is the only real gay character, Panagiotis (Panayiotis Hartomatzidis) , who sets Sasha straight on the subject of their evening occupation. Fearing that Panagiotis' has become so enamored of one of his patrons that he's getting fucked, Sasha says "You're a rent boy, not a faggot who takes it up the ass." Panagiotis, more cynical than his pal, replies, "Get with it. What's the difference?" Sasha's marginalization is the film's theme: the life of petty crime and prostitution which second or third class Greeks lead as Cossack Greeks.

"Από την άκρη της πόλης" purports to be an insider view of a tribal urban culture, but it's impossible to care much for these brats. For some viewers it's a tantalizing male flesh parade. Sasha's interest in boxing, for example, comes out of nowhere, simply an excuse for him to strip down. A shower scene with Sasha and Giorgos is also gratuitous. On the plus side, some of the dialogue has a charm very well suited to the subject. During one of Sasha and Natasha's jaunts through town, their cabbie neatly summarizes the film's worldview: "You go to a whorehouse and all you fuck is imported cunt. You want Greek pussy, you gotta mortgage your fucking house." Trickery saturates this film, everything from zooms and pans to blackouts that chop a scene to bits. Most annoying is a camera that tears through the landscape so fast the background becomes a blur. In one scene , Panagiotis is standing with a trick in a living room looking at the beautiful ocean view. Suddenly he disappears. Gay director Constantine Giannaris, a former male hustler himself, started out to make a documentary but eventually opted for a quasi-fictional feature. He also wrote the script. The English title is "From the Edge of the City".

O Fantasma (2000)

This Portuguese film is about Sergio (Ricardo Meneses), a young brooding and lonely man who works the night shift as a trash collector in Lisbon, Portugal. Sergio lives in the room of a run-down pension, and is alienated from life with no friends or family. Even his sexual encounters fail to engage him or satisfy his desires. He roams the city with the company's guard dog, Lord, engages in anonymous sex and tries to rebuff the advances of his co-worker Fatima (Beatriz Torcato). Sergio becomes obsessed with his neighbour's motorcycle, and then also its arrogant owner, João (Andre Barbosa), a young man totally indifferent to Sergio. The frustrated Sergio unleashes his darkest impulses, sending him down a path of violence and depravity. Sergio stalks João , eventually donning bondage gear and making the motorcyclist his love prisoner. After having his way with his captive, Sergio vanishes into the night and prowls the city's garbage dumps in a strange odyssey of sexual dysfunction and cruelty. Shot almost entirely at night, director João Pedro Rodrigues has created a haunting study of the alienation and despair that fill modern urban life, and the devastation that solitude and repressed sexuality can inflict on the psyche. This film won awards from the New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Entrevues Film Festival, and others. Alexandre Melo and José Neves wrote the script. The English title is "The Phantom".

Prick up your Ears (1987)

This dark and disturbing motion picture is about the life and death of 1960's gay playwright Joe Orton. The title is an anagram play on words: "Prick up your arse". Orton (Gary Oldman) is befriended by the older Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina), and while the two begin a relationship, it's not all about sex. Orton loves the dangers of bath-houses and sex in public restrooms. Halliwell, not as charming or attractive as Orton, doesn't fare so well in those places. While both long to become writers, it is Orton who achieves fame with his plays "Entertaining Mr. Sloane" and "Loot". The film tells the story in flashback, with sequences of John Lahr (Wallace Shawn) researching the book the film is based on with Orton's literary agent, Peggy Ramsay (Vanessa Redgrave). Lahr's wife (Lindsay Duncan) appears periodically though the film as his research assistant. Orton and Halliwell's relationship is traced from its beginning. As Orton grows increasingly confident in his talent, Halliwell's writing stagnates. They fall into a parody of a traditional married couple, with Orton as the "husband" and Halliwell as the "wife". When Orton is commissioned to write a screenplay for The Beatles, Halliwell prepares for a meeting with the "Fab Four", but Orton is taken away for a meeting on his own. Finally, Orton's status as a brilliant playwright coupled with Halliwell's increasing marginalization and mental instability leads Halliwell to bludgeon Orton to death and then kill himself with a drug overdose.

"Prick Up Your Ears" was to be the title of an unreleased play by Orton, a name suggested by Halliwell, who had provided most of Orton's titles throughout his successful years. Director Stephen Frears, who also made the gay-themed "My Beautiful Laundrette", balances our sympathies for both the protagonists while the leads give standout performances. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the book by John Lahr.

Gods and Monsters (1998)

Set in 1957 Los Angeles, James Whale (Ian McKellan), director of FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), has retired and lives with his housekeeper Hanna (Lynn Redgrave), who disapproves of his gay lifestyle. Whale has suffered a series of strokes that have left him fragile and tormented by memories of his past, growing up as a poor outcast, his World War I service and working in Hollywood as a director. He indulges in his fantasies, reminiscing of gay pool parties and toys with a starstruck fan who comes to interview him. Whale also battles depression knowing his life is slipping away and the diagnosis that his stroke damage grows worse, at times contemplating suicide.

Whale: Hatred was the only thing that kept my soul alive. And amongst the men I hated... was my dear old dumb father, who put me in that hell in the first place.

Whale befriends his handsome and muscular gardener, ex-Marine Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser) and the two begin a friendship. Boone agrees to pose for Whale, is reluctant to remove his shirt, but does so. Whale begins sketching and the two begin talking about their lives. Clay researches Whale's film career, and is impressed. His girlfriend speculates that Whale is just an old fruit pretending to be famous to have sex with him. Hanna confirms that Whale is homosexual and Clay leaves when Whale talks about the young men who've posed previously. Boone, impressed with Whale's fame, watches THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN on TV as others mock the movie. He questions his friendship with Whale and Whale's intentions. After assuring Whale he is straight, Whale says he has no interest in him.

Hannah: Poor Mr. Jimmy. There is much good in him, but he will suffer the fires of hell.
Boone: Oh yeah?
Hannah: That is what the priests tell me. His sins of the flesh will keep him from heaven.
Boone: Hell, everybody's got those.
Hannah: No. His is the worst. The unspeakable. The deed no man can name without shame. What is the good English? All I know is bugger, he's a bugger, men who bugger each other...
Boone: A homo?
Hannah: Yes, you know...

Boone: No, I don't have a girlfriend.
Whale: Why not?
Boone: You have to kiss some ass to get a piece of it.
Whale: My life is a game of strip poker. Want to play?
Boone: You must think the whole world is queer.

Boone storms out when Whale graphically discusses his sexual history, then later returns with the agreement that no such discussion will occur again. Boone escorts Whale to a party given by gay director George Cukor (Martin Ferrero) hosted by Princess Margaret (Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy) where a photo op has been arranged with Whale and "His Monsters", Boris Karloff (Jack Betts) and Elsa Lanchester (Rosalind Ayres). It starts raining and the two return to Whales' home. Whale realizes he is but a footnote in cinematic history, which only worsens his depression and uses a sudden rain storm as an excuse to leave.

Back home Whale persuades Boone to pose nude for him and uses the opportunity to make a brazen advance on Boone. Whale puts a gas mask on Clay, kisses him and touches his penis. Predictably, Boone becomes enraged and attacks James, who confesses that this was his plan all along, to use Clay as his means of assisted suicide. He begs Boone to kill him to relieve him of his suffering. Boone refuses, puts Whale to bed then sleeps downstairs. The next morning Hanna is alarmed when she can't find Whale, prompting a thorough search. Boone finds Whale floating dead in the pool, as a distraught Hanna runs out clutching a suicide note and orders Clay to leave.

The film closes roughly a decade in the future. In an epilogue, Clay has a son who enjoys watching THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN on TV. His son is skeptical of his father's claim that he knew Whale but is impressed when shown a sketch of the Frankenstein monster signed, "To Clayton Boone. Friend?". Clay gives his son the sketch for the Frankenstein monster. He then takes the trash out, and begins walking like the Frankenstein monster.

One of the most critically acclaimed films of 1998 and winner of several awards including the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, GODS AND MONSTERS is a speculation about the final days of James Whale (1889-1957), the director of SHOWBOAT (1936) and 20 other films of the 1930s and '40s. He was openly gay and said "I'm an artist, and don't have to put up with this s**t". Hollywood disagreed, and he was out of work. The movie is humorous but ultimately rather sad, a touchingly affectionate film that succeeds on many levels. A loving tribute to James Whale, it is a richly moving drama about loneliness, memory, and the passions that keep us alive. The title comes from a line in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN with Dr. Pretorius toasting Dr. Frankenstein: "To a new world of gods and monsters." This film is about Whale and his straight gardener Clay Boone, usually considered his murderer by those in the know, but not in this Hollywood movie.

The cast also includes: Lolita Davidovich (Betty), David Dukes (David Lewis), Kevin J. O'Connor (Harry), Mark Kiely (Dwight), Jack Plotnick (Edmund Kay), Matt McKenzie (Colin Clive), Todd Babcock (Leonard Barnett), Brandon Kleyla (Young Whale), Pamela Salem (Sarah Whale), Michael O'Hagan (William Whale), David Millbern (Dr. Payne), Amir Aboulela (The Monster), Marlon Braccia (Starlet), Jesse Long (Assistant Director), Owen Masterson (Camera Assistant), Lisa Vastine (Librarian), Kent George (Whale at 25), David Fabrizio (Photographer), Jesse James (Michael Boone), Lisa Darr (Dana Boone), Paul Michael Sandberg (Sound Man), Judson Mills (Young Man at Pool), Arthur Dignam (Ernest Thesiger), John Gatins (Kid Saylor), Curtis Harrington (Cukor party guest), Sarah Ann Morris (Daisy), and Richard Pines (Bar Patron). Carter Burwell composed the original music. Bill Condon wrote the screenplay from Christopher Bram's 1995 novel "Father of Frankenstein" and also directed.

Circuit (2001)

John Webster (Jonathan Wade-Drahos), is a gay cop who moves to LA and discovers the gay Circuit Party scene in West Hollywood. He temporarily moves in with his cousin Tad (Daniel Kucan), who is living with his ex-boyfriend Gill (Brian Lane Green) and his new boyfriend Julian (Darryl Stephens). Tad is a filmmaker shooting a documentary on circuit parties and Julian DJs at the parties. Gill takes John to a party in the Hollywood hills, where he meets Hector Ray (Andre Khabbazi), a hustler who is battling mounting insecurities over his looks and age. John and Hector become friends and Hector introduces John to the world of circuit parties, illicit drugs, and Bobby Ross (Paul Lekakis), an exotic dancer and model who performs at circuit parties. Bobby is HIV-positive but asymptomatic. Gino (William Katt) is involved in a number of business ventures, including running circuit parties, and plans to kill Bobby because he wants his life insurance money. Also performing at the club is comedian Nina (Kiersten Warren), living in her car, so John invites her to stay with him in his trailer. The story goes on and on and on until Bobby's farewell performance at the annual Palm Springs White Party. Gino arranges for Hector to murder Bobby with poisonous "poppers". In bed together Bobby says to Hector, "You saved my life tonight," and Hector replies, "More than you'll ever know." Hector kills himself on his 30th birthday, in one of the best death scenes in cinema history. Six months later, John, Gill, Nina, Tad, Louise and others gather for the premiere of Tad's documentary.

"Circuit" was filmed over a six month period in digital video, and circuit party music inspired and guided the structure of the film. The soundtrack is mono, with incidental music by Tony Moran. It's a good movie, perhaps too long for some viewers. Written by Gregory Hinton and Dirk Shafer, who also directed.

Wilde (1997)

The film opens with Oscar Wilde's (Stephen Fry) 1882 visit to Leadville, Colorado during his lecture tour of the United States. Despite his flamboyant personality and urbane wit, he proves to be a success with the silver miners as he regales them with tales of Renaissance silversmith Benvenuto Cellini.

Wilde returns to London and weds Constance Lloyd (Jennifer Ehle), and they have two sons in quick succession. While the second child is still an infant, the Wildes are playing host to young Canadian Robbie Ross (Michael Sheen), who seduces Oscar and helps him come to terms with his homosexuality. On the opening night of his play "Lady Windermere's Fan", Wilde is re-introduced to the dashingly handsome and openly foppish poet Lord Alfred Douglas (Jude Law), whom he had met briefly the year before, and the two fall into a passionate relationship. Hedonistic Alfred is not content to remain monogamous and frequently engages in sexual activity with rent boys while his older lover plays the role of voyeur. Alfred's father, the Marquess of Queensbury (Tom Wilkinson), objects to his son's relationship with Wilde.

Marquess of Queensberry: Where d'you stand on cremation?
Wilde: I'm not sure I have a position.
Marquess of Queensberry: I'm for it. I wrote a poem about it. "When I am dead, cremate me." That's how it starts. 'When... I am dead... cremate me". Whaddya think of that for an opening line?
Wilde: It's... challenging.

Douglas: (Wilde is ill in bed) You look such an idiot lying there. Revolting. Have you forgotten how to wash?
Wilde: As a matter of fact, I'm dying for a glass of water
Douglas: Well, help yourself. You know where the jug is.
Wilde: Bosie, darling...
Douglas: It stinks in here. You'll be wanting me to empty your chamber pot next.
Wilde: Well, I emptied your chamber pot... I looked after you...
Douglas: Well, I'm not looking after you. Not now. You don't interest me, not when you're ill. You're just a boring, middle-aged man with a blocked-up nose.
Wilde: Bosie, dearest boy...
Douglas: Shut up! Dearest boy! Darling Bosie! It doesn't mean anything! You don't love me! The only person you've ever loved is yourself. You like me, you lust after me, you go about with me because I've got a title. That's all. You like to write about Dukes and Duchesses, but you know nothing about them. You're the biggest snob I've ever met, and you think you're so daring because you f**k the occasional boy.
Wilde: Bosie, please... You're killing me...
Douglas: You just about do when you're at your best. You're amusing, very amusing, but when you're not at your best, you're no one!
Wilde: All I asked for was a glass of water...

Carson: In this poem by Lord Alfred Douglas, "Two Loves", there is one love, true love, which, and I quote "fills the hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame." And there is another: "I am the love that dare not speak its name." Was that poem explained to you?
Wilde: I think it's clear.
Carson: There's no question as to what it means?
Wilde: Most certainly not.
Carson: So, is it not clear that the love describe relates to natural and unnatural love?
Wilde: No.
Carson: Oh. Then what is 'the love that dare not speak its name?'
Wilde: "The love that dare not speak its name", in this century, is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Johnathan. Such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you may find in the sonnets of Michelangelo or Shakespeare. It is, in this century, misunderstood. So much misunderstood that it may be described as 'the love that dare not speak its name', and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful. It is fine. It is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual. And it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man when the elder has intellect and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it and sometimes puts someone in the pillory for it.

The Marquess of Queensberry eventually baits Wilde by publicly demeaning him shortly after the opening of his play "The Importance of Being Earnest", and when Wilde makes a complaint of criminal libel against him, his sexual preference is exposed and he is arrested and tried for gross indecency. He chooses to fight the charge rather than flee the country. Eventually sentenced to two years' hard labor, he is visited in prison by his wife, who tells him she isn't divorcing him but is taking their sons to Germany and that he is welcome to visit as long as he never sees Douglas again. Oscar is released from prison and the film ends with his attempt to reconcile with Lord Alfred Douglas.

WILDE is the story of Oscar Wilde, the brilliant Victorian poet, writer, playwright, wit, and martyr for homosexuality. First the film establishes Wilde as a loving family man, complete with wife Constance and two sons, and portrays him as a dignified genius who is pained by his homosexuality. From his initial encounters with Robbie Ross, his first male lover, to his tragic affair with the beautiful and bratty Alfred "Bosie" Lord Douglas, Wilde is shown as a conflicted artist, fighting with his own urges as he amazes everyone around him. Bosie's father objects to his son's relationship with Oscar and eventually has him arrested and tried for gross indecency. Sentenced to two years' hard labour, Wilde is eventually released and the film ends with his attempt to reconcile with Bosie. Throughout the film, portions of the Wilde fairy tale "The Selfish Giant" are woven in: first by Wilde telling the story to his children, then as narrator, and finishing the story as the film ends with his tragic death.

Wilde: I do believe in anything, provided it is incredible. That's why I intend to die a Catholic, though I never could live as one.
Robbie Ross: I've given in and become a Catholic. I find Confession wonderfully consoling.
John Gray: I can't go to Confession when I want to kill Bosie... and myself...

The cast also includes: Vanessa Redgrave (Lady Speranza Wilde), Gemma Jones (Lady Queensberry), Judy Parfitt (Lady Mount-Temple), Zoë Wanamaker (Ada Leverson), Ioan Gruffudd (John Gray), Matthew Mills (Lionel Johnson), Jason Morell (Ernest Dowson), Peter Barkworth (Charles Gill), Robert Lang (C.O. Humphreys), Philip Locke (Judge), David Westhead (Edward Carson), Jack Knight (Cyril Wilde), Jackson Leach (Cyril Wilde, aged 4), Laurence Owen (Vyvyan Wilde), Benedict Sandiford (Alfred Wood), Mark Letheren (Charles Parker), Michael Fitzgerald (Alfred Taylor), Orlando Bloom (Rent Boy), Bob Sessions (Mine Owner), Adam Garcia (Jones), and many others. Arthur Sullivan and Debbie Wiseman composed the original music. Julian Mitchell wrote the screenplay from Richard Ellmann's book. Brian Gilbert directed.

In her review in the New York Times, Janet Maslin called the film "a broad but effectively intimate portrait", and added, "Playing the large dandyish writer with obvious gusto, Stephen Fry looks uncannily like Wilde and presents an edgy mixture of superciliousness and vulnerability." In the Los Angeles Times, Kevin Thomas stated the film, "has found a perfect Oscar in the formidably talented Stephen Fry...Coupled with Julian Mitchell's superb script...and director Brian Gilbert's total commitment to it and to his sterling cast, this deeply moving Wilde is likely to remain the definitive screen treatment of Oscar Wilde for years to come." In the San Francisco Examiner, David Armstrong wrote the film, "benefits from its lush period costumes and settings but gains even more from an accomplished cast of British film and stage actors . Gilbert's direction is sturdy but uninspired, and Ehle's part is underwritten. To her credit, Ehle movingly conveys the sad frustration that Wilde implanted in his lonely wife; but Ehle has to do the work, playing her feelings on her face, with little help from Julian Mitchell's screenplay."

La Cage aux Folles (1978)

"La Cage aux Folles" is a gay French/Italian farce about Renato Baldi (Ugo Tognazzi) and Albin Mougeotte (Michel Serrault) who run a transvestite club in Saint-Tropez. Renato's son Laurent (Rémi Laurent) comes home to inform him he is getting married. Because his father lives a very openly gay lifestyle with Albin, a drag queen who performs in his club, Laurent is concerned that his father make a good impression on his fiancée's conservative family, who are involved in politics and very concerned about negative publicity. The fiancée, Andrea Charrier (Luisa Maneri), has lied to her family by claiming Laurent's father is a cultural attaché. The lie is ultimately exposed when the families meet. The groom's father invites the mother, Simone (Claire Maurier), to come, but then Albin decides to dress up as a woman and pretend to be the mother, and the result is classic farce. When the truth is out and the bride's parents start to storm out in anger, they discover that the press are outside waiting. The only way they can leave is by way of the gay club they hate and do it in drag to escape detection. Simon Charrier (Mechel Galibru), father of the bride, who has been fuming all day about "the honor of his party", is suddenly forced to dress up like a woman. When he confronts his conniving chauffeur (Venantino Venantini), who has been accepting bribes to give tips to the press about his employer's whereabouts, he punches him in the face.

"La Cage" (subtitled "Birds of a Feather" on the American poster) was for years the most successful foreign film to be released in the US. It's an adaptation of the 1973 play by Jean Poiret. Michel Serrault as Albin also starred in the original stage production. The film score was composed by Ennio Morricone, Frances Veber wrote the screen play and Édouard Molinaro directed. A 1983 Broadway musical titled "La Cage aux Folles" based on the play and the film was quite successful. In 1996, an American remake entitled "The Birdcage" was released, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.

"La Cage aux Folles II" (1980) is the very funny sequel. Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault reprise their roles and this time take on the secret service in a cross-country and cross-dressing adventure. To make Renato jealous, Albin waits in a local café dressed as a woman hoping to be picked up. He gets more than he bargains for when a spy uses him as an courier of secret microfilm. On the run from ruthless agents, Albin and Renato flee to Italy where they hide out on a farm with Albin posing as Renato's wife. Once again scripted by Francis Veber and directed by Édouard Molinaro.

"La Cage aux Folles 3: The Wedding" (1985) is a disappointing second sequel. Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazzi reprise their roles in the French/Italian sex farce series. The plot is about the gay night club facing financial ruin. Their only hope is an inheritance from one of Albin’s wealthy relatives. Unfortunately, the inheritance is conditional upon Albin getting married and producing an heir within 18 months. It's funny, entertaining, and enjoyable, with atrocious dubbing. It lacks charm, good jokes, is filled with clichés, and the wit and magic are gone. Scripted by Michel Audiard and Christine Carère, it was directed by Georges Lautner.

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

This movie is set in the London Asian community during the Nazi Thatcher years. Omar (Gordon Warnecke), the son of a Pakistani journalist, runs his uncle's laundrette. His car is attacked by a group racists, including an old friend of his, Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis). Johnny helps Omar, and they resume a love affair that was interrupted when they graduated from high school. With Johnny's help The laundrette becomes a success, but Omar's alcoholic disgruntled father (Roshan Seth) is unhappy with his son's occupation and asks Johnny to persuade Omar to go to college. Omar decides to take over two laundrettes owned by a friend of Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey), with the help of Salim (Derrick Branche). Johnny's friends attack him for supporting the Asian community, and beat him savagely until Omar saves him. Omar dresses his wounds, and the two bond. The film ends with them splashing each other with water while topless.

Originally made for TV, this film was later released in cinemas and eventually became an international success. The screenplay by Hanif Kureishi depicts London life in the Thatcher Era through the complex and often funny relationships between members of the Asian community. It tackles many issues such as homosexuality, racism, and England's economic and political policy during the 1980s. The soundtrack was written by Stanley Myers and Hans Zimmer. Non-original music includes the waltz Les Patineurs by French composer Emile Waldteufel, and excerpts from Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Picture quality is watchable but not the best.