Sydney Gay and Lesbian Film Festival looks lucklustre yet again

Once again the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is almost 70% an all-boy affair. Sorry to say that this year that isn’t entirely the fault of filmmakers, some interesting-looking lesbian films have failed to appear this year from the big festival programs in the US, but that has been the case for some years now. With the Melbourne festival hot on it’s heels, I’m not sure that Sydney can actually claim to be the premiere gay and lesbian film festival in Australia, and it certainly no longer really ranks on the world stage where lesbian content is concerned.

Now that I’ve had that rant, let’s look at the headline feature films at this year’s festival.

AFFINITY
Probably the least popular of Sarah Waters’ amazing series of Victorian novels, Affinity is nonetheless a powerful story of mysticism and deception. When a lonely woman becomes a lady Visitor in a women’s prison, she is drawn to an infamous psychic and is finally convinced to assist in a mystical jailbreak.

It was always going to take all of accomplished screenwriter Andrew Davies’ powers to get this convoluted tale down to movie length. He has managed it, and the film is creepy, atmospheric and rewards careful viewing to pick up on the clues being dropped subtly in every frame. I have a bit of doubt over the casting (but everyone has their own image of characters in a well-loved book) but it is every bit as good as the adaptation of Fingersmith, but not in the same league, and does not have the same bawdy appeal, as the extraordinary Tipping The Velvet.

THE SECRETS
More mysticism now, this time in the form of both the Jewish faith, and the more misunderstood traditions of the Kabbalah. At a jewish women’s seminary a devout and a secular woman form an unlikely friendship, and use the secrets of the Kabbalah to help a mysterious foreigner in trouble. It’s lovely to see films so beautifully shot, and the actresses have remarkable chemistry. I also love films where romance takes a back seat to something more meaty, and the subject matter of this film may be the most original in a lesbian film for a long time. However, be prepared for some fantasy and magic, and leave your inner cynic at the door. Hebrew and French with English subtitles.

CANDY RAIN
I know very little about this offering from Taiwan except what is in the advance press material. Supposedly a gorgeous, cute, hip film about four couples living in an apartment building. Very Melrose Place with subtitles. The quality of Asian lesbian cinema in the past few years however has been so far above the rest of the world that I’m going along just to see what they come up with next. Taiwanese with English subtitles.

DRIFTING FLOWERS
The newest film from accomplished director of last year’s Spider Lilies, Zero Chou. This is yet another of those films where you don’t get one storyline but three, a weaving cacophony of characters and emotions that makes sense only in the final third of the film when all the threads are drawn together. Like many Asian dramas this film has a primary focus on the family, and the dynamics of sisters. There is also a sad look into the life of an aging lesbian struck down with the horrors of Alzheimers.

This is not as easy film to watch at times, but it is a rewarding experience, and with the Jury competition in its second year, this gem may turn out to be the surprise hit of the festival.

I CAN’T THINK STRAIGHT
I feel like this film has been made before, and much better at that. Just like director Shamim Sharif’s last effort, the pedestrian World Unseen, this film has so much potential and falls a little flat. This is a cross-cultural romance that explores similar territory to the far superior Chutney Popcorn, where the two women are daunted by the pressures they face but are ultimately lead down the aisle through the meddling of some friends.

It has some cute moments, and is certainly the light and fluffy RomCom of the festival for people looking for that kind of thing. Also, the happy ending never goes astray, but the title gives you an indication of the corniness factor of the film itself.

THE NEW WORLD
How is two women having a baby still the new world? They’re EVERYWHERE! Two French women negotiate the somewhat-now-humdrum world actually of insemination and expanding their family. Look, if you’re not completely over the lesbian pregnancy storyline this might hold some heartwarming moments for you, but there isn’t much here that we haven’t seen done before, only here they’re doing it while speaking in French. Possibly more interesting than the baby content is the view of two busy women forced to change their lives and priorities and struggling

That’s not just the highlights, that’s pretty much the entire lesbian feature film program. Pretty weak huh?

Slaves to the Underground

Hi all,

If anyone has a copy of this film in ANY format and is willing to help me out, could you please drop me a line at nancyamazon@gmail.com? There’s a good chance I’ll have something good to trade you that you might not have seen.

Thanks

Nancy

Dreaming of Barbara Hammer

I don’t know how many people have heard of Barbara Hammer. I guess it depends on which generation you were born in and how much time you’ve spent poring over old films.

Barbara Hammer (arguably) made the first lesbian film made by a lesbian. It was called “Dyketactics” (still a great name for a website!) and it was made in 1974, the year I was born. It featured a bunch of nubile women rolling about together in a park with some bizarre pipe music going on in the background. But it was one of the most sensual film watching experiences I can remember having.

Last night I had this weird dream that I was rolling around in the park naked with my girlfriend with this weird pipe music going on. I could still hear the music when I woke up.

It made me wish that film festivals who do retro screenings would seriously make an effort to dig up some of this old footage and show it to a new generation of lesbians. Surely there are a few out there who want to know this stuff, to feel the history of lesbian film making?

All I know is that there have been very few lesbian films made in my lifetime that have inspired my dreams.

And now we’re back

Well, we’re up and running again. Sorry for the temporary glitch.

Forgive me Google. I hope you’ll learn to love me again.

Oops – site down

Hi everyone,

I appear to be having a slight glitch with the kissingfingertips.com website. Truthfully, my hosting ran out and they didn’t bother to warn me.

So I’m switching webhosts, and will upload the site again tonight so hopefully in 24 hours things will be back to normal!

Thank you to everyone who wrote to me asking what the h*ll was going on

Cheers,

Nancy

They put the “grey” in “anatomy”

The passing of Prop8 in California feels like the first step in a long, ongoing battle, one that the good citizens of the US will one day finally win. (I did however think that Prop8 might get defeated on the strength of Ellen and Portia’s super-cute marriage pics alone!) It pisses me off, but in even having had marriage rights to ban in the first place the good citizens of California have come a lot further than we ever have in Australia.

But more on topic for this blog, and central to my ire this week, is the dumping of Brooke Smith from Grey’s Anatomy. You know, I never really liked Patrick Dempsey, but he gets my respect for his back-handed ribbing of the “official” comments he was told to deliver from ABC on his appearance on Ellen this week. When asked (inevitably) what he thought of Brooke Smith being fired, he whipped out his piece of paper and told us what ABC wanted us to know about it, and left us in no doubt as to how he felt about it.

LA Times critic Mary McNamara hit it right on the head when she said “In other words, and they are words I deeply regret, Ramirez, with all her lipglossed lusciousness, may be beautiful enough to be bi, but Smith is not beautiful enough to be gay. At least not on network TV.” She’s so right, it wasn’t just about her being gay; she was bigger, stronger and more powerful than gay characters are supposed (or allowed) to be.

I do wonder though, if they were going to get rid of one of Callie or Erica, how did they choose who they were going to fire? Did they flip a coin between Smith and and Ramirez? Hardly. Ramirez is the ongoing lust object of McSteamy himself, so she at least has the potential to be redeemed. It is deeply misogynistic as well as homophobic. The ABC execs have outdone themselves this time.

And of course, the worst thing is that in order to protest this ridiculous decision we’re forced to give Grey’s Anatomy more attention and free press than they deserve.

I just wish I could be shocked anymore. I wish when gay characters die or drive off inexpicably into the sunset that it produced even a gasp of “what happened?” in me. But no, the reasons are as obvious as a fart in a car and as difficult to ignore. I’m disappointed sure, but not surprised.

This stink of a decision has the same hallmarks of the Prop8 vote, only attacking us through our entertainment, this world of “it’s only television”, is somehow more subtle. But the good news is that it has the effect of keeping us in check right when the election of Barack Obama might have made our hopes fly and our optimism rise too high. It keeps it real, in this world of division and double-standards, and reminds us that the fight has barely begun, in our laws and on our screens.

Film fatigue

I’ll admit it. For the first time in my life, I’m suffering film fatigue. When asked if I’d like to go to the movies, I reply with “No, I’d rather just watch television”. And not just any television – half hour sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother which – while perfectly diverting and full of Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders goodness – hardly classify as meaty. The idea of sitting in a cinema for more than two hours makes my butt twitch.

I put it down to my brief-yet-harrowing recent stint as a professional film reviewer. In June I moonlighted for the Sydney Morning Herald as part of their amateur writing team blogging the Sydney Film Festival. It was a fantastic experience, especially in the art of delivering film reviews to deadline under time constraints, and letting go of the “what if people hate me?” issues. But after two weeks of juggling film festival, plus full-time job, plus writing, I was plus-pooped.

Now I think of the new Brideshead Revisited with fear instead of my usual “I’d watch Emma Thompson read the phonebook” attitude. The thought of my usual December and January round of catching up on Oscar-worthy pics is daunting. Then there’s the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Film Festival just 2 months away! I’m not sure my nerves are coping.

How can I rise out of this funk and start reviewing again? Anyone got any suggestions out there for a film-loving freak with the movie blues?

When is an adaptation a good one or a bad one?

When I heard that the film version of Sarah Waters’ Affinity was headed for release, I began to wonder if the film could possibly capture the creepiness that I loved so much in the novel. It started me thinking about the nature of film adaptation in general.

 

Some of my favourite film adaptations have deviated from their source material in interesting and unexpected ways. When this happens I feel almost giddy, like not only do I have my favourite book, but now I also have this awesome film.

 

The lesbian film canon has some famous film adaptations. For Desert Hearts, the film was more raw and intense than the novel. However, I loved the novel and its  emphasis more on romance and less on sexuality.

 

Fannie Fagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes is a novel that is quite explicitly lesbian, and the fact that the lesbians were excised in the film is a sore point for many. Does that make Fried Green Tomatoes a bad film? No, but to me that film feels sadly incomplete, because you can practically feel the studio’s intent behind leaving out any explicit romance.

 

I guess that’s where the strength of adaptation really lies, capturing the spirit of the piece rather than its specifics. In an interview with the BBC, Sarah Waters admitted that she thought some of the changes made by legendary screenwriter Andrew Davies for Tipping the Velvet actually improved the story.

 

However, I thought that despite some charismatic actresses, the TV version of Fingersmith, also by Sarah Waters, was disappointing even though it was almost slavishly faithful to the book’s plot. The darkness, the underlying menace, the truly gothic nature of the book is utterly lost on-screen.

 

I’m happier if the film deviates from the story if it is adventurous in its direction, such as for AS Byatt’s Possession. I loved both novel and film for entirely different reasons. The cuts made from the novel can only be described as brutal. However, the love affair between Christabel and Blanche had more passion in the film. The screenwriter was smart enough to realise that on-screen it needed a boost.

 

The bottom line is, films do have the opportunity to value-add to concepts, not detract from them. We just need to go in with an open mind. Books contain a level of detail that films do not have the luxury of. However, films can convey in a moment what it takes writers whole chapters to define.

A lingering favourite

I never miss a chance to rewatch Personal Best. The themes are as universal today as they ever were, and for a lesbian movie I am still awed by how progressive this one was.

It’s easy to relate to Chris (Mariel Hemingway) and her reluctance to put her personal ambitions above those of the people she cares about. First it is her father, then Tory, then Terry her manipulative coach. By the end of the film she somehow manages to untangle the web of who really deserves her loyalty and affection and acts on it.

Mariel Hemingway does an excellent job at portraying inner conflict, that desire to succeed weighed against the need to feel loved, and to love in return.

Too many lesbian relationships in film and TV get casually swept aside, as if their pain doesn’t count simply because they’re gay. Not only is it important that gay cinema show lesbians falling in love, we also need to see them realistically breaking up and falling out of love.

As bisexual actress Patrice Donnelly said in the Advocate in 1998:

There were lesbians in movies before, but this was the first time that being lesbian didn’t look like a disease. Personal Best showed us as good, wholesome, clean human beings who pursue excellence. It showed being a lesbian is not about deviance but about love.

That’s why Personal Best never really grows old for me.

Kimberley Peirce – the thinking woman’s director

I had the chance at the Sydney Film Festival to attend a Q&A session with Kimberley Peirce, the director of Boys Don’t Cry, about her new film Stop-Loss.

I guess the thing I love most about her filmmaking is that she’s so good at exploring raw human emotion, and her films have an authentic edge to them . She’s also excellent at getting the most from actors who have never shown their potential before. What Pierce did for Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny in Boys Don’t Cry I think she did for Ryan Phillipe and Abbie Cornish in Stop-Loss.

Peirce talked about the process of making the film, how it evolved from IM-ing her brother in Iraq, to a documentary featuring actual war footage filmed by soldiers, through to a fiction film.

She ultimately decided on making it a fiction film because documentaries are “then” and fiction films are “now”. It makes everything so much more immediate, and the story was an amalgamation of real-life stories and experiences.

This was the same approach she used in Boys Don’t Cry, where she took evidence from real-life but made a character-driven story, rather than just a re-hashing of facts and transcripts. What I got from Peirce was a sense of her being a very cerebral filmmaker, always thinking about the implications and effects of each shot or each story point.

So she’s got the ethics and research skills of a documentarian and the gift of a storyteller. It makes for damn powerful filmmaking. And she’s pretty cute too