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 POLITICAL
FILM SOCIETY WEBSITE RECEIVES AWARD
On February 22, 1999, the Political Website of the Day
organization awarded the Political Film Society an award as
"Website of the Day." In addition, an alternative website
address is now available: http://PFS.cjb.net should be easier
to keystroke. (What does "cjb" stand for? Think of "cinematic
justice broadcasting"!)
GAY
HOLLYWOOD FEATURED IN GODS AND MONSTERS
The film Gods and Monsters, which won an Oscar
for best screenplay, portrays the true story of the last days
of James Whale, the director of the first few Frankenstein
movies, based on Christopher Bram’s book Father of Frankenstein.
The title is a line from the film Bride of Frankenstein,
one of many clips from Whale’s films during the movie. Whale
(played by Ian McKellen) has had a stroke recently and is
convinced that he does not have long to live. Despite efforts
of his moralistic and protective housekeeper Hanna (played
by Lynn Redgrave), who would lose her lucrative job if Whale
dies, he insists on living life to the full to the end, which
came through suicide in 1957. However, since he is gay, Whale
directs his attention to seducing males. He asks a gay biographer
to strip, but the man is too campy to be of interest. Whale
next ogles at gardeners on his property, and the money attracts
one in particular, Clayton Boone (played by Brendan Fraser),
to pose topless. Although the gardener is unaware that his
face is strangely like Frankenstein, he soon finds out that
Whale is gay, and he draws the line at sex with Whale while
becoming his friend at a time when his heterosexual relationships
are going sour.
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For Whale,
this is a sign of the gardener’s latent homosexuality, and
the gardener does not realize that he least providing Whale
with enticing male companionship and unusual dialog, perhaps
all that Whale could handle anyway.While the person-to-person
plot develops, which is perhaps the essence of the film—a
final seduction, however unsuccessful—, we learn that Whale’s
openly gay lifestyle resulted in ostracism within Hollywood,
whereas gay George Cukor (director of A Star Is Born
and more than sixty other films) keeps his lifestyle in the
closet Mondays through Fridays, has naked studs over for weekend
swims, and prospers. Whale’s revenge at Cukor consists of
bringing his gardener to a reception held by Cukor, who drools
at the sight of Whale’s apparent "kept boy." Gods and
Monsters parallels the film version of Thomas Mann’s
Death in Venice, wherein an elderly man goes
on vacation knowing that his lifeforce is receding but enjoying
his last days by flirting with a young boy at the beach, albeit
without the satisfaction of having a single conversation exchanged
between them. Moviegoers will perhaps better understand in
more depth from Gods and Monsters than from
any film yet made the tragedy that befalls a decent human
being when he is cast in the role of "dirty old man" by conventional
society. MH
NOMINATED
FILMS FOR 1998
DEMOCRACY:
Enemy of the State, Four
Days in September, Primary Colors,
The Siege, Wag
the Dog
EXPOSÉ:
Bulworth, A
Civil Action, Four Days in September,
Regeneration
HUMAN RIGHTS:
A Civil Action, Enemy
of the State, The Siege, Wilde
PEACE: The
Boxer, Regeneration, Saving
Private Ryan, Savior
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