Oremland, Paul

1986

“I came from a place where you either get a married and get a mortgage, or die on a motorcycle before 18,” admits Andy the furniture maker in an aside that's a cue for “Summertime” on the soundtrack and the beginning of a brilliantly upbeat sketch on sex and rebellion. Andy gives equal time to its subject's life and work. His stubborn, austere furniture is celebrated, historically and anecdotally. Oremland's film caused a small censorship scandal at Channel 4, not so much for its subject as for its sex-positive attitude. Andy is the ideal TV tease—"a bit lippy"—with one eye always scanning for offscreen reaction. "Being a rent boy boring? It's fucking tedious. I don't get an erection when someone wraps a 20 pound note around it. Takes a bit more than that to get me excited." Hypnotic.

Stenzel, Susan

1985

DeKuyper, Eric
Verstraeten, Paul

1985

A Strange Love Affair is the story of Michael, an American film instructor working in Holland. Michael's area of expertise is the Hollywood melodrama, and we first see him showing clips of Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar and giving a lecture on love to his students. Taking a particular interest in the professor's teachings is a young, robust Dutch athlete. Soon the two are having romantic dinners at Michael's house listening to the soundtrack of Now Voyager, during which an extended volley of meaningful glances are exchanged. The relationship established, the couple ventures off to visit the student's parents where Michael finds a love he lost fifteen years ago.Stunningly photographed in wide-screen black-and-white, A Strange Love Affair owes much of of its appeal to the camera work of Henri Alekan, who photographed Cocteau's The Beauty and the Beast and won an Academy Award nomination for his work on William Wyler's Roman Holiday.

Rogowski, Michael

1985

A slick, visually magnificent story of a handsome young advertising executive's break-up with a longtime lover and his comic and realistic look for a new companion. Using a round bed placed in a church converted to a home as a central image, Sleepin' Round presents a poignant look at the trauma of losing a lover and the frustration of trying to start over with someone new. The hero in this Australian film begins a new, intensely romantic relationship with his milkman only to find himself repeating the same dismal patterns that led to the failure of his first relationship. Filmed in vivid color, this is one of the most original and creative short films about gay love seen in years.

Treut, Monika

1985

Kuri, Pamela
Bonacello, Chlesea

1985

1985

A Plague on You is a sharp and defiant critique of the British establishment's representation of AIDs by a London-based lesbian and gay media collective. An ambitious work, it attempts to separate the real from the unreal in the presentation of AIDS in England.

Carlton, Wendy Jo

1993

A charming account of the life of an STD.

1985

Spetsiotis, Takis

1985

In Meteor and Shadow Greek director/writer Takis Spetsiotis has avoided the clichés of the typical film biography. Instead he has fashioned a fascinating portrait of the poet Napoleon Lapathiotis (1888–1944) that both celebrates his life and stylishly depicts his tragic fall and eventual suicide. A romantic, charming leftist homosexual, Lapathiotis created a scandal in Athens when he refused to follow the rules of conservative Greek society. Turn-of-the-century Athens is conveyed rather than reconstructed in a bold departure from traditional period films and Spetsiotis makes great use of the junkies, gays, and avant-garde singers that surrounded Lapathiotis during his life as a poet. An unusual, striking film that won awards for best actor, set design, costume design, and make-up at the prestigious Thessaloniki Film Festival in 1985. Takis Spetsiotis was born in 1954 and studied film and English in Athens and London before beginning his filmmaking career with the short films Lisa and the Other and Beauty. In 1982 he created a half hour television film called “Napoleon Lapathiotis” that served as the inspiration for the feature-length Meteor and Shadow.