Pride Season Special
The Celluloid Closet
Pride Season Special en collaboration avec queer loox
Characters outside of the mainstream because of their sexual and/or gender identity – whether they identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or in another way – have for decades been almost invisible on our screens. Almost – but not entirely, as the influential 1996 documentary The Celluloid Closet has shown. Based on Vito Russo’s influential study, the film has the advantage of not only showing interviews with leading experts but also to richly illustrate the proceedings with clips from the relevant movies.
While the project has since been criticised as a very U.S.-centred narrative, this particular focus actually helps to explore one nation’s evolving relationship with its queer citizens, both fictional and real. This retrospective showcases several films examined in The Celluloid Closet in full as well as two films released after the film was made: Araki’s Nowhere and Almodóvar’s Todo sobre mi madre, which both highlight what can happen when openly queer filmmakers get to tell queer stories. The centrepiece of the retrospective is a screening of The Celluloid Closet followed by a discussion with Professor Richard Dyer, one of the film’s interviewees, to discuss the film and what has changed in the years since its release.
Ciné-Débat
For Pride Month, the Cinémathèque and queer loox are opening the vaults of queer cinema history, with a special screening of The Celluloid Closet followed by a discussion with renowned film academic Richard Dyer, moderated by Isabel Spigarelli (Culture Editor, Tageblatt; author and literary scholar).
Released in 1996, this groundbreaking documentary utilises key texts in cinema history to examine how the entertainment industry has shaped the perception of queer people in public opinion over the course of the 20th century. Dyer as well as other experts touch on this and more in the film. An equally interesting topic of conversation for Dyer’s post-screening debate: in the almost 30 years since the film was released, have attitudes changed at all, or are queer people still hiding in the dark space between the lines?
Ma 18 | 06 à 19h00 : The Celluloid Closet
USA 1996 | Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Freedman | documentaire | vostFR | 102’ | 35mm | Cast : Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Dyer, Gore Vidal
Followed by a discussion with Richard Dyer, Professor Emeritus, King's College London, and Professorial Fellow, University of St Andrews. Conversation moderated by Tageblatt’s Isabel Spigarelli (in English)
Programme en Juin et Juillet
Lu 03 | 06 à 18h30 : Nowhere (USA 1997 | Gregg Araki | vostFR | 82’)
▸ BFI London Film Festival, 1997
Je 06 | 06 à 20h45 : Cabaret (USA 1972 | Bob Fosse | vostFR | 123’)
▸ 8 Oscars including Best Director, Best Actress (Minelli), 1973
Di 09 | 06 à 17h15 : The Color Purple (USA 1985 | Steven Spielberg | vostFR | 153’)
▸ 11 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, 1986
Lu 10 | 06 à 18h30 : The Children’s Hour (USA 1961 | William Wyler | vostFR | 106’)
▸ 5 Oscar nominations, 1962
#Ciné-Débat
Ma 18 | 06 à 19h00 : The Celluloid Closet (USA 1996 | Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Freedman | documentaire | vostFR | 102’)
▸ Followed by a discussion with Richard Dyer, Professor Emeritus, King's College London, and Professorial Fellow, University of St Andrews. Conversation moderated by Tageblatt’s Isabel Spigarelli (in English)
Ve 21 | 06 à 20h30 : The Boys in the Band (USA 1970 | William Friedkin | vostFR | 119’)
▸ Most Promising Newcomer (Kenneth Nelson), Golden Globes 1971
Ma 25 | 06 à 18h30 : Tout sur ma mère (Todo sobre mi madre Espagne-France 1999 | Pedro Almodóvar | vostFR | 101')
▸ Best Foreign Language Film, Oscars 2000; Prix de la Mise en scène, Cannes 1999
