Accurate Representation

Jacinto -- I think stereotypes have become standard convention.

Pecker -- Whose shit would you have around your neck?

Oh, Simpsons recently had a twist on the old "Surprise! She's a man!" joke. Basically Springfield's now allowing gay marriage, and Patty's getting married. The surprise is that the other bride is a transvestite.

An early 1980's German film is Taxi Zum Klo ( Taxi to the Toilet: there is a glory hole scene, hence the title).

The film concerns two men who live together, but their lives are quite separate. One is a school teacher who lives a dual life. At night, he is on the prowl, quite voraciously, through gay Berlin while his lover cooks and cleans and keeps house: all the while dreaming of their future life in a nice house with a white picket fence.

The two worlds collide at the Berlin Queens Ball.

The two principal actors were a couple in real life: the voracious one was the director.

It is very gritty, and funny too.

It is a very long way from a Hollywood movie in its portrayal of a gay couple. Don't expect Hollywood-style production values though.

RunnerSF: Beautiful Thing did an amazing job of showing how nerve wracking being gay and a young person can be. I've watched it several times and it always brings out deep emotional responses relating to my own coming out. Very good film.

:)
I'm glad you like BEAUTIFUL THING, too.

If you combine that film with THE SUM OF US, you really have
my own personal gay experience in many ways.

i absolutely loved Beautiful Thing -not only was it a great representation of what its like for many people to grow up and find themselves and come to terms with your sexuality, etc, but it was also a really well done film in general.

queer as folk has come to be one of my favorite shows. at first, i thought the first season was over the top, but i think that it has improved immensly, and i think it represents a lot of serious issues that go on in the gay community as well as some of the serious issues between heterosexist american culture and the gay community. i think that it often borders on softcore porn a bit much, but i think that it hits the right issues every once in a while. its entertaining at the least.




i think that the issue presented here is that all of these people are just doing their jobs: acting. its hard to portray anything perfectly, and even if the actor is gay and has a personal connection to the character, its hard to make that connection visible to an audience. as an actor, i know from experience that a lot of times its impossible to portray a person perfectly.

beautiful thing is great- they nailed everything, and i connected with a lot of it, but even then there were things that were missing. i think that most movies and tv shows out today that have gay characters either go over the top and exploit steriotypes (dont get me wrong, i absolutely love will and grace) or they convey too much of the dark depressing drama behind it (like a lot of the stuff on QAF)


ive yet to really see a show or movie that has a gay guy or girl in it where they dont focus in on it -yey you see tons of stuff with striaght people in which that person's sex life and such isnt mentioned at all, just plainly assumed.

Okay...I do remember seeing Beautiful Thing...That was a good movie from what I remember...

Well- for a really superficial response:
Anything with a gay person and a crime is Inaccurate. (and superficial)

Not true, 9 Dead Gay Guys was a hoot, although a bit distorted. I have known hustlers who were "straight", old queens who would pay for trade, couples where one member was "out" and one "in the closet", and I think everyone here has known at least one "size queen". While the movie's portrayals of these characters is over the top, the basis for them does exist. It is like I have said before in this thread, gays are just like anyone else, we run the same gamut of characters and archetypes as the rest of society.

Another good German movie is Der Bewegte Mann ( The Most Desired Man) from the mid 1990s.
It is a comedy: a straight man Axel cheats on his girlfriend; she throws him out; none of his ex girlfriends will accomodate him. He ends up staying with a gay man who has been through some disastrous relationships. So the very handsome straight man is taken to gay clubs by his host, and friends end up being competitive for his attention.
There are some very funny scenes involving various misunderstandings and characters: my favourite is probably one of the minor characters- the gay room mate: he is a vegetarian butcher with a taste for horror/slash movies.

I've seen it say three or four times, and enjoyed it. Yes, it does play upon stereotypes, but it is a comedy; it also uses some conventions of farce.

It is based on a German comic strip, and the actor who plays the handsome straight man, Til Shweiger, later went to Hollywood, but I have not seen those films -I just remember his name appearing in a cast list.

Since writing the above, I did a quick search and was quite surprised to see what he has been up to:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001709/

There are a few photos there from the Most Desired Man too.

I was talking to a friend about " Death in Venice" and he then mentioned "that funny German film you showed me( ie The Most Desired Man)'. All he remembered was the scene in a cinema when the main characters went to a screening of " Death in Venice". Three skinhead punks arrived expecting to see "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and a fight broke out between the skinheads and the gays. My friend found the scene hilarious.

I think The Broken Hearts Clubis an accurate representation of the gay community due to the fact that all of the characters represent different aspects of it. No, of course it is not a complete representation. That would be impossible to do. One of the things I love about it is that no one has HIV or AIDS and there aren't any drag queens (well not really). It's a wonderful movie and if you haven't seen it then please do so. I also really like Relax, It's Just Sex too.

Thanks Jeep! Have just ordered them through amazon.

Thanks Jeep! Have just ordered them through amazon.
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I hope you enjoy them dude! :D

Well, I wouldn't say it's that inaccurate. There are gay criminals, and guys in prison seem to fuck each other a lot.

Oh, I got to see the new Degrassi. They have a gay character, Marco. He can be a giant flame at times (especially his love of Bollywood musicals), but he's still better than some gay characters I've seen on TV. There's even a funny episode where Spinner's worried Marco has a crush on him; when he finds out Marco doesn't, he's complaining that Marco has poor taste in men!

I love Bollywood! My current favourite is Saathiya .

When I was in India I would often just drop into a cinema just by chance: only rarely was I disappointed.

BTW what does " He can be a giant flame at times" mean? I understand it is disparaging-but the idiom is new to me, and I ask because of the parenthesis!