Friday 03.29.13
Mode in France
William Klein is a brilliant fashion photographer, but who knew he also made movies? French television commissioned him to direct this sexy film about “the new creators of couture.” ‘Mode in France,’ is a gleefully irreverent survey of high fashion in the 80’s. The flic includes works by Gaultier, Montana (oh that queen), Kenzo, Alaïa and the like. Do a bump or 2 and go check it out. —MOSSY
This film is playing tonight at the Museum of Art and Design at 7PM, Get tickets.
Thursday 03.21.13
Support ‘Let The Record Show’
Hey guys, our dear friend Penny Arcade contacted us to let us know about this extraordinary documentary that needs our financial support to be finished. It’s called Let The Record Show. It’s about “the group of visual artist who created The Red Ribbon Project, Day Without Art and other actions.” Primarily it tells the story of the many artist-activists who responded to the AIDS crisis. They don’t need much money, they only need a couple thousand to get this done. DONATE!
Wednesday 03.20.13
Film: SPRING BREAKERS
We went to see Spring Breakers on Sunday night (as did Anderson Cooper and his bf—yeah we saw you two sitting up front). We had high expectations for Harmony Korine’s latest movie, especially after the NY Times gave it such a rave review. Taking cues from Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void, Spring Breakers features no shortage of neon and bright colors, both in the film’s lighting and in the bikinis the girls wear IN EVERY SCENE throughout the movie. Rachel Korine (Harmony Korine’s wife) gave my favorite performance, followed by the sexed up Vanessa Hudgens (we get it you’re a woman—Disney be gone!). Selena Gomez is OK as the good girl turned mildly bad, but she barely takes any risks in this role. James Franco is fascinating to watch as a corn-rowed Florida gansta who likes guns, pussy and saying “ya’ll” A LOT. While I wouldn’t call Spring Breakers a masterpiece, it is masterfully shot, art directed and edited. Spring Break forever ya'll!
Tuesday 03.19.13
Little Joe Magazine
A chat with Sam Ashby, the creator of the best damn film magazine in the whole wide world.
What are some of the worst queer films you’ve seen? Sometimes worst equals best. I love bad films. Especially on aeroplanes.
What’s a couple of best? I can’t define what is best, but recently Rosa von Praunheim’s City of Lost Souls proved to be an overlooked classic.
When was queer cinema at its peak? The early-mid-90s, a time when a talented group of young queer filmmakers found themselves with a subject (AIDS) and an anger which found its voice in some incredible films that are now collectively termed ‘New Queer Cinema’. Those are the films I grew up with that changed my view on the world. Todd Haynes‘s Poison, Tom Kalin‘s Swoon and Gus Van Sant‘s My Own Private Idaho are still faithful companions of mine but I have recently been enjoying the work of John Greyson, whose Zero Patience I screened in London recently. I don’t think people were ready for an obscure Canadian AIDS musical about ACT-UP and debunking the zero patient theory, but I adore it and it deserves reappraisal.
What were 3 of your favorite movies as a kid? Stand By Me, Pretty Woman and Dirty Dancing. I have three older sisters so was exposed to these films earlier than perhaps I should have been.
Where did you grow up? Rural Hampshire
Where do you live now? London
When did you start Little Joe? We launched the first issue in Spring 2010, but I had the idea a couple of summers before that. …
Friday 03.15.13
IRA SACHS
We visited the director at his office in Soho for a chat about film, the closet and Hollywood.
Where did you grow up? I was born in 1965 in Memphis, Tennessee
When did you come out? I came out at 16, my senior year of high school in 1982. But I think coming out is a long process, and partially what Keep the Lights On is about is the fact that, coming from my generation, it took me decades to actually get to the point where I was honest with who I am with other people—so the closet, you step out of it, and then in other ways you step right back in— it’s an ongoing process…
What was your favorite film of last year, besides yours, Keep The Lights on? My favorite… I was extremely moved by How to Survive a Plague, the documentary about Act Up which I was involved in.
It should’ve won the Oscars for best documentary… Well you know I liked Searching For Sugarman also, but I really loved the film; I loved Julia Loktev’s film The Loneliest Planet with Gael Garcia Bernal, wonderfully made and just emotionally very rich.
What was your favorite film as a kid? Kid is a complicated word, at what age? That’s a good question. I mean I had films that changed my life like Imitation of Life by Douglas Sirk, Nashville by Robert Altman and Shadows by John Cassavetes. These were films that transformed me.
In what way? There was a before and there was an after, somehow seeing those films gave me insight both personally but also as an artist about what was possible with film. …
Friday 03.08.13
Film: Caravaggio
On the first morning, on my first trip to Italy my Roman host took me inside an old dark church, pressed a 50 lire coin in my hand and told me to place it in a metal slot. Moments later a light came on illuminating a painting—it was by Caravaggio, and I was NEVER the same. Needless to say I had to watch Derek Jarman’s hauntingly stunning film about the life of the 17th century Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. The story begins at the end as Caravaggio lies dying of lead poisoning then abruptly jumps back to his adolescence when things get juicy. The young painter gets taken under the wing, (and into the pants) of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, who becomes a life long benefactor, yes the Vatican. We witness Caravaggio paint a litany of melodramatic religious subjects in his daylight studio employing the underground as models: contortionists, hustlers, drunks, prostitutes and the like. He drinks, he brawls, he paints, he smokes, he keeps the Vatican happy and their money flowing. The emotional crescendo of the film involves a super sexy street fighter named Ranuccio, and his girlfriend Lena played by the luminous Tilda Swinton. As one critic noted “the more closely you look at the film the more there is to see.”
Monday 02.25.13
Weirdest oscars ever
A GAYLETTER look at the 2013 Academy Awards
Where to start? Firstly, last night’s Oscars was one of the weirdest we’ve ever seen. It was like the bizarro Oscars. And it officially sealed the deal on our dislike of Seth Macfarlane. His jokes were lame, misogynistic and not very clever. The whole thing felt very surreal, almost cynical. But we’re not here to talk about the show, let’s get straight to the looks.
We asked illustrator Devin Wallace to draw some of the most memorable moments of the night. He didn’t illustrate any of the men because most of them looked the same — white men wearing the usual Oscar uniform of a black tuxedo, nothing new, some fit, some didn’t, blah, blah blah.
At least Tarantino was wearing a leather tie, but that’s still not interesting enough for us to show. So on to the ladies!
First off — K-Stewart? Apparently she cut her foot on some glass earlier that day (sounds shady) which is why she needed the crutches. When she walked out on stage with Harry Potter, limping with messy hair, our first thought was that her and Potter had clearly just had some rough sex on top of a sound board backstage. Girl even had a bruise on one arm. The Reem Acra gown is pretty though. Very expected, but on trend for the night — being strapless and all.
Then there was Anne Hathaway. Apparently her pale pink PRADA gown was not her first choice. …
Have You Ever Seen a Transsexual Before?
Videos by Chris E. Vargas
This Tuesday Dirty Looks is hosting the first ever survey of work by Chris E. Vargas at the Anthology Film Archives. Vargas is a Bay Area film and video maker whose work focuses on queer radicalism, transgender hirstory, and imperfect role models. I love how Vargas’ work is both searingly political and absolutely hilarious at the same time. In the video from which Tuesday’s program got it’s title, Vargas exposes his trans body in a guerrilla campaign for FTM visibility to some well, and some not-so-well known American landmarks, each time enquiring: “have you ever seen a transsexual before?!” The video then transitions to a utopic vision of what I can only describe as queer zoological surrealism.
There will be several other videos screened at the event, including Vargas’ fabulous collaboration with Eric A. Stanley, Homotopia, an anti-homonormative manifesto full of bathroom sex and wedding crashing. You’ll also get to see several examples of Vargas’ recent work reinterpreting queer pop culture and history, including Liberaceón, in which Vargas impersonates Liberace humorously imagining an alternate history that politicizes the flamboyant closeted icon. Don’t miss this chance to see a survey of Vargas’ work with the artist himself in attendance — we promise it will be fierce!
Still from Homotopia, 2006, Chris Vargas and Eric Stanley
Still from Liberaceón, 2011, Chris Vargas
$10, 9PM, Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave. NY, NY. …
Friday 02.22.13
Get out the vote
I love, love, love awards season. I love it so much that this year I actually got a cable subscription just so I could watch all the awards live…I know, what a fucking nerd, but I get a real kick out of shouting out who I think is going to win before they open the envelope (I have a pretty high average…if I don’t say so myself.) So you can imagine how excited I was to learn that New York Mag‘s Vulture site has an online Oscars Ballot. The person who picks the most winners gets 500 big ones, as in ca$h, money, money.
I’m in the process of casting my ballot (I’ve been working on it for the last week…I told you I take this shit seriously.) Now it’s your turn.
And the winner is… —TOM
Wednesday 02.20.13
Film: Life Is But A dream
I went to the premiere of the new Beyoncé film and was NOT prepared for the brutal honesty she serves up in this full-length doc that B co-directed, edited, stars in, executive produced and provided the catering for. The 16-time Grammy award winning superstar lets her hair down, or shall I say takes her hair off (and make-up too), plops down on the sofa and gets into her business. She discusses her childhood in Houston, the dynamics of her painful breakup with manager, and father, Matthew Knowles, a devastating miscarriage, the joys of motherhood, the stresses of being a perfectionist...and that’s just for starters. Some of the more astonishing and confessional moments B shot on her laptop, almost in a hushed whisper. But for me the most touching moments in the film are when she’s discussing her family — Blue Ivy, Jay Z, her nephew and Mom. These rare glimpses into their lives are pure bliss. Now don’t get me wrong there’s also plenty of jaw dropping performance footage, full throttle, in your face, Sasha Fierceness that made the stripped down version of B seem even more extraordinary.
Sunday 02.17.13
FILM: FOUR
I saw a screener of this film last summer and really wanted to share it with you, but couldn’t because it was not playing in NYC yet. Now I can finally tell you about it. Aren’t you lucky? This Sunday the Film Four directed by Joshua Sanchez is playing at BAM Rose Cinemas as part of the New Voices in Black Cinema series.
The film goes like this: “Joe is a black, middle-aged, married man out on an Internet date with June, a white teenage boy. Abigayle is Joe’s precocious daughter, out herself with a hot, wisecracking, Latino basketball player named Dexter.” Do I need to say more? Go and see this film, it’s all very real and interracial. —ABI
Wednesday 02.06.13
Film: YOSSI
Israeli film director Eytan Fox can do no wrong by me. His new film Yossi, a 10 year follow up to his ground breaking hit Yossi and Jagger is a slow meditative look at a man emotionally paralyzed by the loss of his lover killed in battle, (he dies in his arms). Roll the clock ahead a decade and we find Yossi as a successful cardiologist in need of a vacation. He aimlessly gets in his car heading south and picks up some HOT soldiers — we soon learn one is gay. Yossi decides to stay in the same hotel as the soldiers in a town called Eilat. What follows is a touching series of events....let’s just say Yossi gets his groove back with the gay one. I know it sounds convoluted, just see it, Eytan is a brilliant storyteller and the ending is so poignant it gives one great hope about aging.
