Colin Firth, Julianne Moore in A Single Man, directed by Tom Ford
What's a "gay movie"?
Brokeback Mountain? Midnight Cowboy? What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Milk? Top Gun? Lukas Licks Lodz?
Something directed by a gay man, say, The Philadelphia Story or Midnight or a couple of the biggest action blockbusters made in the last decade or so? Something written for the screen by a gay man, say, A Streetcar Named Desire or The Innocents? Something based on a book or play or short story or poem written by a gay man, say, Brief Encounter or In Cold Blood? Something starring a gay man, say, the 1925 Ben-Hur or Giant?
If you think about it, the label "gay movie" is pretty meaningless. (The label "gay" itself can be pretty meaningless as well.) But most people can't live without simple-minded labels; else, they'd have to think in terms of complexities, contradictions, and various shades of gray. Who the hell wants that?
We've opted for simple-mindedness ourselves in our tags, e.g., "gay movies," "gay interest"; after all, those shades of gray can get mighty unwieldy. Harvey Weinstein is apparently another one who wants to take no chances with complexities. Certainly not when The Weinstein Company has to push a movie like Tom Ford's A Single Man, which opens next Dec. 11 in key US markets.
Tom Ford has stated time and again that A Single Man "is not a gay film." I can't see why anyone would disagree with him. It's a film about human beings in crisis; the characters' sexual orientation shouldn't be the sole defining aspect of their personhood. I mean, people don't go around referring to, say, The Twilight Saga: New Moon as "that straight movie."
Having said that, if you look at the posters above would it cross your mind that A Single Man tells the story of a closeted gay college professor (Venice 2009 winner Colin Firth) considering suicide following the death of his lover (Matthew Goode)?
(In case you're wondering what Julianne Moore is doing on the degayified posters, she plays a married alcoholic who has a crush on said professor.)
Changing directions here: how would you define a "straight movie"?
How about a movie in which the homosexual side of one (or more) of the characters is completely erased so they'll come across as non-offensive heterosexuals, say, These Three (1936), Crossfire (1947), The Man Without a Face (1993), A Beautiful Mind (2001)?
Now, how would you define a "straight movie ad"?
