Segunda piel

The only things recommending this film are Javier Bardem's buttocks, Jordi Molla's eyes and Cecilia Roth.

The music is appalling, the emotions overwrought, the characters annoyingly one dimensional and the ending a massively deflating cop out that allows little closure on the films themes.

Still, it has Javier Bardem's buttocks, Jordi Molla's eyes and Cecilia Roth.

Steer clear.

3... 2... 1... Poof! It's the Melbourne Queer Film Festival

I'm about to head off to the Astor, Melbourne's beautiful art deco cinema, to hit the opening night film of the 17th Melbourne Queer Film Festival.

I can't say that I ever really enjoy the opening night. The films are usually MOR, there are a few too many homosexuals crammed into the foyer and a few too few drinks to go around.


Tonight holds a little more promise though. The film is Infamous (the other white meat Capote film), so it is a little stronger than most of the crowd-pullers they usually serve up to open the festival (even if Donald augers otherwise). The numbers have been limited (I think), and hell, I'm not paying for is so I am not going to complain.

I thought I'd collect in one place all of the reviewlettes that I've written that have been published on The Program or in MCV.

Looking at the list, it appears I have seen half the festival.

20 Centimetros
Backstage
Fabulous: The History Of Queer Cinema
The King And The Clown
The Line Of Beauty
Rainbow's End
Eternal Summer
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros
No Regret (slightly expanded)
Tanlines
Far From Sunset Boulevard
Boy Culture

Never fear, I am still going to see y'all at the fest. I've got tix to see Meth, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis and Dead Boyz Don't Scream and I have two more tix to squander somewhere.

MQFF

The Melbourne Queer Film Festival always seeks to balance the crowd, pleasing “bums on seats” popcorners with some more challenging fare. But if you’re not feeling too adventurous, there are a few films to test the waters of the not-quite-so-shallow end.

I've started with Tan Lines / Far From Sunset Boulevard / Boy Culture over at The Program but there are more to come...

Tix are on sale now!

Krampack (or, Nico and Dani)

This was the film we watched instead of sitting through the end of Breakfast On Pluto.

I'd seen it plenty of times before but Andrew hadn't and he's trying to improve his Spanish at the moment, which is why I bought it for myself in the first place.

I first saw Nico and Dani in Cordoba. I'd been enticed in by the poster and when the Spanish title, Krampack wasn't in my phrasebook, I looked it up on imdb.com. The details were scant but it confirmed that it was gay so I went along. No subtitles on the print. No Spanish in my brain (I'd only been there a few weeks). No understanding of what was going on at all.

In retrospect it shouldn't have been all that difficult. The story is pretty basic. Two young guys spend a week together while their parents are away. Young guys, alone, you know the drill. The complication is that there are girls on the scene as well and one of the boys is, well, confused.

Like I said, pretty basic. But that is part of the film's charm.

To keep it real, the kids in the film really are kids (though their ages were upped from the original play). They make impulsive decisions, stupid comments and have all the anxieties that we had in those days of yore.

It is a fun summer movie without the campy shallowness of many gay flicks. Check it out.

Breakfast On Pluto (or, Next...)

It doesn't happen often but I couldn't sit through this Neil Jordan's latest film. Actually, I probably could have but Andrew was feeling as underwhelmed as I was so we decided to ditch it.

It all started promisingly with a couple of quirky robins commentating the action. Nice camera work and an off-kilter sensibility all said all systems go. But it didn't ever take off.

Cillian Murphy whisps his way through a series of adventures as the cross-dressing protagonist. He is an interesting, if somewhat one-dimensional, creation and his Cillian's acting is impressive but he is given nothing but inconsequential diversions to deal with: a glam rocker, a magician, a womble (yes a womble). It all becomes a bit too much.

Yes, I admit it, I hate road movies and Breakfast On Pluto has everything but the road. It is episodic, characters pop up and disappear for no reason, you know the drill. Tedious. Not even the cream of Ireland's acting talent could save it.

I'll no doubt finish it one day. For the moment though consider it, or at least the first hour and a half of it, not recommended.

Bedrooms and Hallways (or, Let's run the sexual gamut)

I've been a big fan for Rose Troche's "pansexual" comedy for a long while now and, watching it again the other night, I thoroughly believe it is holding its own against the ravages of time. The acting is still charmingly over-the-top, the direction just off-centre and the script assuredly navigates the terrain between flippant comedy and too-meaningful drama. Bedrooms and Hallways seems as fresh and clear skinned as it ever has, the only thing that seems to have changed is me.

I remember when I first saw it; on top of finding it cheekily witty, I also found it quite unsettling. The idea that a centred and self loving gay man could enter into a relationship with a woman I found disturbing and unrealistic. I suppose, after fighting for so long to be comfortable with myself, the notion that all that hard work could be undone was incredibly challenging.

And I have often thought about it since.

Seeing the film again recently, I have to say that my view on the matter has changed. In the past few months I have had a good many friends, and friends of friends, broach the topic with me. I even know of one or two who have made the jump. Speaking today with a new friend, who has been on both sides of the proverbial fence but refuses to use the label "bisexual" because labels always leave a sticky residue, she used a very similar rational to the characters in the film: the person is more important than the bits.

Byron says, "If it walks like a duck..." but I tend to side with the no-labels camp. I can understand that the preconceptions that stick to the sole of bisexuality would be even more severely misleading than prejudices many in the gay community feel are wrapped up in "gay", especially if it is truly a love of a specific person that is at the core of the relationship. Troche's pansexuality comes to us residue free. Hoorah! Use it with glee for a few years before the community at large gets a hold of it and sullies it with their pernicious pre-conceivities (do you like that one? I just invented it myself).

My point?

I guess, I have just come to the realisation that I don't find the idea challenging anymore. I don't think I'll be making the jump any time soon but I wouldn't feel confronted if one of my friends did. I still think our struggle to be comfortable with ourselves as sexual beings leaves an indelible mark on us as individuals, and to turn away from that battle in some way belittles it but, looking back now, I don't think that that was my issue way back when (when? 1998).

Back then, it was the ramifications the switch would have on all the gay trappings that led me to be disturbed. If someone was no longer gay, would they have to change themselves, their personality? We collect our sexuality around us like with songs and clothes and parties and friends. The "gay" lifestyle, if you will.

Were those trappings so incidental? So disposable?

Yes.

And that was a scary thought because I thought of those things as more important than they are.

I don't need a badge to be me.

And I certainly don't need a label.

Now that I am happily myself; now that I am comfortable that the different aspects of my life are not draped around me as identifying marks of my sex life, I am comfortable that I would still be me even if I fell for a woman. And being comfortable in that makes me comfortably trust that anyone else could do the same.

I got all that from a fluffy little film. Well, I never.

MQFF

Okay, so I am not in Melbourne to do my yearly binge of film festivalling this year but I thought I would give you all a heads up anyway. Program's out, web site's up (and looking pretty flashy this year) and the regular fare of mediocre American indie "bums on seats" fare is floating around. As always, in amongst all the muck are some films that look like they have potential.

While the new website is a whole lot better than anything they have put up in the last few years, they have been a bit lazy with their links so I have popped some in for you to go to the official film sites to check out the trailers (where available).

Let's start with the schlocky American stuff. Adam and Steve looks completely unremarkable except that it has Parker Posey in it and she alway bumps films into the "have to at least take a look" category. There's a thriller based on serial killers and gay vid chat called Open Cam and a full on horror slasher pic called Hellbent , which hasn't posted a trailer yet but I am sure Tristan will fly down to catch it. Finally, I would love to see eXposed, a doco about the making of one of my favourite porn films, Buckleroos (did I just say that out loud?).

Somehow they have managed to pull Reinas, a film I was sure was going to get a general release in Australia. The cast is like a who's who of "las chicas Almodóvar", Carmen Maura, Veronica Forque, Marissa Paredes. Looks like a lot of fun. Another Almodóvar-esque film, El Favor, looks at the hijinks surrounding two girls conning a guy into impregnating them. Fun, fun, fun!

And yes, Rick, there are some "curry" films even though you still think there are no gay men in India. My Brother Nikhil looks quite good and there is a sumptuous looking film called The Journey.

There is a fair dose of gritty, issues-based films this year. The first British DOGME film, Gypo, is showing (though from the trailer it doesn't seem to be adhering too strongly to the rules) and there is an Iranian film Unveiled that looks quite good. Good Boys a film from Israel looks at street hustling (again) and there is a Fillipino film, Masseur that follows the life of a masseur (surprise, surprise) giving massages (surprise, surprise) with benifits (SURPRISE, SURPRISE) intercut with the funeral of his father (oh, downer!).

There is lots of other good stuff; singing sex changees, German black and white lesbos from the birth of sonic cinema and a truly wild Japanese flick called Yaji And Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims which I am sure would be an absolute blast!

Go forth and sit in a cinema! Get back to me on the good, the bad and the ugly.