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Showing posts from April, 2012

Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes (French) [Water Drops On Burning Rocks]

I am not very sure what was the point of the director behind this film. I mean this could have been an excellent play (which I believe it is based on) but from a theme perspective, it was a little confusing. The film is a commentary on relationships and sexuality. It did shows how a self-indulgent bisexual man restructures the lives of 3 people as he introduces them to new sexual adventures. 50 year old suave businessman Leopold picks up a shy 19 year old boy Franz and brings him back to his house. They both indulge in a verbal game of seduction. Their motive is clear but they play with words. Franz tell Leopold about his girlfriend Anna and how they are going to get married and Leopold tells him about his fiance. Act 1 concludes with Franz lying naked waiting for Leopold. Act 2 shows the 2 men living together, just like a married couple, fighting over every little thing. Franz is in stay home wife mode taking care of Leopold. Meanwhile Leopold is clearly a tyrant in his own plac

Noordzee, Texas (Dutch) [North Sea Texas]

It has been a while since I saw a really touching and heart warming, tender and electrifying, gay coming of age story done with such sensibility and sensitivity. An engaging story with superb performances, his movie stayed with me much longer after the film had ended. Pim, is a 15 year old boy living in a coastal town with his fading beauty queen mom. He is friends with a neighboring family and he is totally in love with Gino, 18 year old son of the family. Pim is a shy guy who doesn't talk much and lives in his own world where he like to paint and draw. He takes care of his mother and other household activities. Having played as kids together, Pim and Gino had been involved in some kid sex moments but things change when one night they get an opportunity to sleep together. They slowly start falling in love, at least Pim does. They do a lot of excursions on Gino's bike and make love to each other. Gino's sister Sabrina has a total crush on Pim. Totally oblivious of

Gohatto (Japanese) [Taboo]

Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. This is a fascinating film about the danger of beauty : to sum it up, a young "ephebe"'s ethereal beauty spreads like a plague, infecting a whole company of iron hard men in the process. In this film the forbidden subject of homosexuality among Samurais is tackled and I can't even imagine how traditional people perceived the film. After a strenuous scrutiny, Tashiro, a low-ranking samurai and Kano , an effeminate 18-year-old rich man's son, join the conservative samurai military unit loyal to the Shogun. Deceptively demure at first, the boy Kano quickly proves his acumen for killing when ordered to execute a wayward samurai. Tashiro, struck by Kano's feminine beauty and odd power, seduces him and they become talk of the group although they are never shown together. Kano's silent, almost frail, pretty-boy ways conceal demonic i

Gay Short Films : 11

My Name Is Love (Sweden) When 'Love', a young college student, spends the night with another man, he surrenders to manipulation. Sebastian mocks Love for being a virgin and tells him to get out of there, as he has no interest in having sex with someone who doesn't know what to do. Love then affirms that he is willing to do whatever Sebastian asks of him which ends up Love being raped by Sebastian. What can happen when 2 strangers (denying homosexuality) come together for pure carnal desires. (4/10) Night Swimming (US) Otter and Darcy are best friends. Otter has a thing for Darcy but he just got selected to a college. On their way to a music concert, their car breaks down and they are forced t o spend sometime in the woods. After swimming naked in the river, things happen between them at night which will change their friendship forever. 2 best friends who could never be away from each other, now have this awkwardness. But this helps Otter to take a major decision.  (

Camp

This is probably a great movie for teens but for people my age, this was not fun; at all. There were things which just did not make any sense, they did not keep you entertained and finally when everything is being given a closure , a lot of explanations are just not given. I have never attended a summer amp but maybe this is how the camps are. Weird things happen. This camp is different in the sense that this is for misfits, gays and drag queens. Camp is story of Vlad, a straight boy who likes attention and love; of Michael, who is a wanna drag queen and was bullied in school and denied access to his prom because he was in a dress and a couple of other misfits in the process. But central character is Vlad. Story is simple as to how kids interact during camp, play games with each other, even to hurt others but ultimately everyone here is to find their own identity. Nothing specific in trims of story. Vlad is used by a beautiful girl, she is mean to every other girl, Vlad will do anythi

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Like every film Clint Eastwood makes, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is fascinated by the mystery of masculinity: what it means to be a man, and what you have to do to be the kind of man you think you need to be. Based on a book by the same name, the film recounts a complex tale of murder, involving characters who seem your everyday people but carry deep difference underneath. Set in the beautiful town of Savannah, Georgia, the film focuses on a murder and the subsequent trial of Jim Williams: self made man, art collector, antiques dealer, bon vivant and semi-closeted homosexual. John Kelso a magazine reporter finds himself in Savannah amid the beautiful architecture and odd doings to write a feature on one of William's famous Christmas parties. He is intrigued by Williams from the start, but his curiosity is piqued when he meets Jim's violent, young and sexy lover, Billy. Later that night, Billy is dead, and Kelso stays on to cover the murder trial. Along

Guter Junge (German) [A Good Boy]

Now this could be a controversial film in terms the content. This films on the borderline of gay cinema or regular cinema but either way the subject of the film is pretty controversial. The good thing is that it is handled with maturity and sensitivity. After his mother's death, 17-year-old Sven moves in with his dad Achim, a taxi driver, who had divorced his mother several years earlier. Sven hardly speaks to his father and prefers doing things on his own in his room. It is not easy for Achim to get used to an adolescent around the house. Achim has a girlfriend Julia who tries to come close to Sven but fails. After a while Julia starts wondering as to why does Sven always hang around young boys and not people of his own age. She suspects that maybe Sven is gay but the truth, when it comes out is much more chilling. Sven has pedophile tendencies. Proof is soon found on videos that shock and sicken Achim. Sven himself is shattered and regrets his actions. Julia suggests therapy, b