Once upon a time, queer love was a taboo in the film industry. Movie stars lived in the closet. Heterosexual actors who took on gay roles were seen as particularly brave. But especially in recent years, there have been more and more funny, sad and beautiful stories about queer men and women. Here are seventeen streaming tips before Pride weekend, in alphabetical order: “120 beats per minute” France, 2017. Directed by Robin Campillo. “120 beats per minute”. Photo: Arthaus In concrete terms, “120 beats per minute” is about the fight against Aids, and about the demanding, quarrelsome and desperate organization that scared homosexuals and their friends had to create in order to be heard and helped by the authorities. But it is also a story of love under extremely difficult conditions, between two men, one sick and one healthy. About what kind of relationship they can and want to have, when the time for one is about to run out. “A Single Man” USA, 2009. Director: Tom Ford. Not so unexpected, perhaps, when co-creator Tom Ford is directing, but it must be said: “A Single Man” is an extremely elegant film, set in Los Angeles in 1962. In the center stands the sad and well-dressed George ( Colin Firth). Her boyfriend Jim (Matthew Goode) has died, and George is carrying a great deal of grief. It is a grief that is about to burst him from the inside, but which he must keep hidden from those around him. “Blue is the warmest color” France, 2013. Director: Abellatif Kechiche. “Blue is the warmest color”. Photo: Arthaus The year was 2013, and “Blue is the warmest colour” sent roaring waves through the Cannes Film Festival. It had to do with the film’s long and explicit sex scenes, but also that the lesbian love story intoxicated both the audience and Steven Spielberg’s jury. Kechiche and his actors eventually ran away with the coveted Palme d’Or. Afterwards, there would be a row. Kechiche was accused of filming a male fantasy, and the actors said they had felt uncomfortable during filming. Nevertheless, “Blue is the warmest color” is a sensitive, moving film, which depicts love’s deepest desperation and boundless happiness like few others. “Boys Don’t Cry” American, 1999. Director: Kimberly Peirce. “Boys Don’t Cry”. Photo: REUTERS “Boys Don’t Cry” was one of the first films about the vulnerability and inner life of trans people to find its way to a wide audience. It even made it to the rather conventional Oscar stage, when Hilary Swank won the Oscar for her role as Brandon Teena. The trans boy Brandon tries to build a new identity for himself in rural Nebraska, and for a while it seems as if happiness is within reach. Dream girl Lana (Chloë Sevigny) as well. But it’s like there’s a storm cloud hanging over Brandon’s head the whole way, and it all ends heartbreakingly. “Brokeback Mountain” American, 2005. Ang Lee. “Brokeback Mountain”. Photo: Alberta Film Entertainment “Brokeback Mountain” also showed that large audiences could flock to films that had previously been seen as marginal, primarily made for a minority audience. The film is a dizzyingly romantic and deeply moving story of gay love in a rough cowboy environment. Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis (Heath Ledger) meet and are captivated by each other, but they can only live out their love in hiding, among the flocks of sheep they herd. Good luck holding back the tears at the end “Call Me By Your Name” Italian/French/American/Brazilian, 2017. Directed by Luca Guadagnino. “Call Me By Your Name”. Photo: United International Pictures It’s about the first, big, all-consuming love in “Call Me By Your Name”. And it flourishes in surroundings that are almost breathtakingly beautiful. Elio (Timothée Chalamet), a geeky and bookish teenager, lives with his family in a dilapidated villa in northern Italy. Elio’s world is shaken when the stunning Oliver (Armie Hammer) arrives to work for his father. Elio suddenly has to find out about adult urges and feelings, and that in a world that almost explodes in sensuality around him. It will be a tender and wise look back at what it is like to be very young and have the world turned upside down. “A wonderful woman” Chilean, 2017. Director: Sebastián Lelio. “A wonderful woman”. How does it feel when the whole world would rather pretend that your great love didn’t really exist? Marina (Daniela Vega) is the trans woman who mourns the death of her lover. It is not made easier by the fact that no one else is particularly interested in treating her as a widow and next of kin. At least not his girlfriend’s family, which he left to be with Marina. Alone, without connections or financial resources, Marina fights for respect, in an unsentimental film full of repressed rage. “Fucking Åmål” Sweden, 1998. Director: Lukas Moodyson. “Fucking Åmål”. Photo: Sabdrew Metronome A charm bomb of a classic. “Fucking Åmål” vibrates with the peculiar frustration of being a teenager, full of will and longing, and at the same time being trapped in a small town where nothing happens and nothing changes. In addition, Agnes (Rebecka Liljeberg) has another significant problem: She is in love with Elin (Alexandra Dahlström), the school’s prettiest. But even in little Åmål, miracles can happen, and Lukas Moodyson’s breakthrough film is a story about how the world sometimes gives you revenge and even the most secret dreams can become reality. “Maurice” British, 1987. Director: James Ivory. “Maurice” Photo: Mary Evans Picture In the eighties and nineties came a string of British historical dramas, all bearing the signature of director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. They had titles such as ‘Back to Howard’s End’, ‘A Room with a View’ and ‘The Rest of the Day’. Perhaps it was no wonder that Ivory and Merchant had such a keen sense of the tensions between facade and reality in the old English upper class. They even lived in a secret love affair, which lasted until Merchant’s death. The beautiful “Maurice” is perhaps the one of the films that is closest to what they themselves experienced. Here the story is told of two young men (James Wilby and Hugh Grant), who fall in love but do not dare to break away from convention. “Moonlight” (USA, 2016. Director: Barry Jenkins). “Moonlight” “Moonlight” takes place in a dreamy world where there is much that cannot be said out loud. In fact, there is much that is almost unimaginable. Little (Alex R. Hibbert) grows up in a tough part of Miami. There is something in him, something softer, something different, which makes the other boys immediately throw themselves at him and torment him. One of the few quiet places is with drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali). When Little asks what “faggot” means, Juan bluntly replies: “It’s a word they use to make gay people dislike themselves.” Little grows up and becomes hard himself. He doesn’t put into words what he feels until it’s almost too late, in a poignant encounter with a boy from the past. “Portrait of a woman in flames” French, 2019. Director: Céline Sciamma. “Portrait of a Woman in Flames” What does it mean to see someone? The artist Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is commissioned to paint the rich Héloise (Adele Haénel). It’s a commissioned work from a potential suitor who wonders if he should take the plunge. But along the way, an enormous, glowing passion arises between the woman who paints and the woman who is painted. “Portrait of a woman in flames” is also a story about a world where men have the power, but are relatively invisible. It’s about the familiarity and love between women, and about the art that comes out of it, without the men who surround them ever getting it. “Pride” British, 2014. Director: Matthew Warchus. “Pride” Photo: Zuma Press Oh, come on, admit it. There is simply nothing that feels as good as seeing people who have nothing in common become friends on film. It happens to such an extent in the happy pill “Pride”. The dramatic comedy is simply a feel-good film about Aids and mining strikes. We are in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. A handful of gay activists propose to make common cause with a group of striking miners, because they share the same enemy. The miners grumble, but in the end all prejudices are overcome. “Pride” is simply a film that is impossible not to be uplifted by. “Pain and Honor” Spanish, 2019. Director: Pedro Almódovar. “Pain and Glory”. Something special happens when Pedro Almódovar, the great Spanish chronicler of queer life, brings in his old friend Antonio Banderas in “Pain and Glory”. Banderas plays the role of a gay director plagued by mysterious pains. He looks back, at everything he has experienced, everything he didn’t quite understand. Among what comes up is the love story with Salvador (Asier Flores). The two aging men are reunited, in a poetic and somewhat sad story of smoldering passion in the latter half of life. “The Favourite” Greek/British, 2018. Director: Yorgos Lanthimos. “The Favourite” Photo: Yorgos Lanthimos On a list like this there will necessarily be many tender, sensitive films. “The Favourite” is not like that. Rather, we are talking about a black and almost Monty Python-esque comedy, added to the British court in the early 18th century. Here, a real hellish, lesbian threesome drama takes place. Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is confused and perhaps mentally ill. She allows herself to be easily manipulated by her mistress, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz). The relationship is challenged by the upstart Abigail (Emma Stone), and soon a fierce battle rages for the queen’s favour. It’s about power and class travel, but maybe also, when it comes down to it, about love. “The Happy Prince” British, 2018. Director: Rupert Everett. “The Happy Prince” Photo: Shutterstock editorial The British writer Oscar Wilde was among those who paid a high price for falling in love with men. He was London’s most celebrated man, before he lost everything after confessing in court that he was gay. Wilde has meant a lot to the British actor Rupert Everett, who both directed and starred in this poetic film about the last period of Wilde’s life. Everett himself was destined to become a big movie star in the nineties, but lost the opportunity to play straight leading roles when he chose to be open about his orientation. The deep understanding he has for Wilde runs like a stream throughout “The Happy Prince”. “The Kids Are All Right” American, 2010. Director: Andrew Haigh. “The Kids Are All Right” Photo: Scanbox Entertainment AS Among all the stories of longing and forbidden passion in the queer film canon, “The Kids Are All Right” is a rarer plant. This is a dramatic comedy about a stable lesbian family life and cohabitation, which is suddenly shaken. The children of Nic and Jules (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) decide to find out the sperm donor who created them. This leads to the shabby and charming Paul (Mark Ruffalo) bursting into the family, and soon everyone has to find their roles again. The result is a both cheerful and serious affair about everything that can happen when you don’t think it’s going to happen much more. “Weekend” British, 2011. Director: Andrew Haigh. “Weekend” Photo: Filmweb Russell and Glen (Tom Cullen and Chris New) don’t really have problems with society as such. They are surrounded by acceptance and good friends. But they too are faced with a nut when they have what is almost a read-out and agreed-upon one-night stand. And what do you do then, if you are a worldly young man who understands the norms and rules, but who nevertheless notices that you want this to become something more? “Weekend” is a nice, realistic little drama about difficult love. It’s about how demanding it is to be honest and vulnerable, when there is someone you like very much, but don’t know if they like you.
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Let yourself be carried away by these queer love films this weekend – news Culture and entertainment
