The Celluloid Closet (1995) |
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The Celluloid Closet (1995) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Documentary |
Audio Commentary-Vito Russo Featurette-Rescued From The Closet Gallery-Photo Trailer-Kurt & Courtney, To Be And To Have, Facing Windows Trailer-The Return Theatrical Trailer |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1995 | ||
| Running Time | 100:00 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By |
Rob Epstein Jeffrey Friedman |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Twentieth Century Fox |
Starring | Lily Tomlin |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $24.95 | Music | Carter Burwell |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Screen, not known whether Pan & Scan or Full Frame |
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | Unknown | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | None | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
In the wake of Brokeback Mountain and the controversy it created, it is an apt time to watch The Celluloid Closet, a 1995 documentary about the history of gays and lesbians in cinema. It is important to note that this is not a study of gay cinema itself but rather an examination of the way that homosexuals have been depicted in the last 100 years of Hollywood.
Narrated by Lily Tomlin, The Celluloid Closet is based on a book of the same name by Vito Russo who unfortunately died of AIDS five years prior to the release of the documentary. However, a lecture he gave has been included on the disc as a commentary track.
The film was put together by Rob Epstein who won an Oscar for his gay themed documentary The Life and Times of Harvey Milk and Jeffrey Friedman who shared with him an Oscar for the AIDS documentary Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt. Their skill is in their passion for the subject and clever balancing of tone and ideas. The film features interviews with numerous people in the film industry, some gay and some not, and also contains excerpts from over 100 movies. The documentary is most fascinating when it examines the changing attitude towards gays in society and the reflection of that in the cinema of the time. Early on we see an excerpt from a Thomas Edison movie of 1895 showing two men dancing. We are then introduced to the "sissy" who was the figure of fun in early cinema. It is easy to forget that, despite the reputation of Hollywood for its permissiveness, the 1930's Hays Code allowed the Government censors the power to edit scripts and remove offending sexual references well before the films were to be released.
The effect was that Hollywood had to be far more subtle in conveying meaning. This led to some interesting situations where some of the most "manly" actors in Hollywood were given lines to say without realising their double meaning. For example, Ben Hur screen writer Gore Vidal relates that he wished to introduce the background of a past homosexual relationship between Masala and Ben Hur. Director William Wyler was happy for some of the scenes to be changed to reflect this past love but refused to let Vidal tell the proudly heterosexual Charlton Heston .
Watching The Celluloid Closet is something of a revelation. For example, excerpts from 1950s and 1960s films such as Rebel Without a Cause show that although homosexuality was more explicitly referred to, the public image of gay relationships Hollywood presented was that: A: finding love was not possible and B: gays usually met with a nasty end. Cabaret script writer Jay Presson Allen relates how desperate gay people in the U.S. were to see themselves and their relationships depicted on screen that they would often get calls from friends saying "You have to come and see this movie, it's got a love scene with these two beautiful women... ok they're vampires but...".
Victim in 1971 with Dirk Bogarde was the first film to have a major Hollywood actor cast as a gay character and The Boys in the Band in 1970 did its best to present gay men as having stable lives. Of course, that was at a time when homosexuality was still illegal and gay bars were routinely being raided.
Throughout the 70s and 80s gay relationships that got prominence on the screen tended to be more aggressive and dangerous, as in the Al Pacino movie Cruisin. Coupled with this change was the rise in the use of the word "faggot" in popular parlance. The Celluloid Closet includes a montage of popular movies from the time where the word is used to create cheap humour. In 1982 Harry Hamlyn appeared in Making Love which included a gay relationship and a nervous distributor demanded and got a screen prior to the titles warning the audience that what they were about to see may be shocking!
Although the commentators are disparaging of Hollywood's treatment of the subject over the years this is not an angry documentary by any means. It shows how much things have changed and yet in some ways how they have stayed the same. Although gay cinema itself continues unabated, mainstream cinema still has difficulties dealing with homosexual relationships. The Brokeback Mountain furore is only confirmation of the fact that mainstream cinema is still cautious about movies featuring gay characters. As one commentator said "its not enough to have gay heroes in the cinema, we would like one who lives at the end of the movie". The Celluloid Closet is a real joy, combining great movie moments with insightful comments from a group of intelligent actors, directors, writers and others. The overall effect is assisted greatly by a sterling nostalgic theme from Carter Burwell that sounds as if it were made to be played on Oscar night.
The Celluloid Closet combines interviews, apparently shot on 35mm , and excerpts from films across the span of the history of cinema. The film makers have done a great job to combine all of the above into a 4x3 image with minimal letterboxing. It is really no great loss that the transfer is not rendered in widescreen.
The print itself is fairly clean looking. There is some grain on the interview scenes, however, the movie snippets appear to have been cleaned up and look quite beautiful. Although the quality of the source prints are obviously varied there are no real problems with artefacts or aliasing and generally this is an attractive documentary.
There are no subtitles on offer.
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The Celluloid Closet is brought to DVD in Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kb/s). Although a number of the movies sampled had gorgeous surround sound tracks on DVD (for example Ben Hur), the stereo mix is perfectly adequate and suits all purposes.
The dialogue, whether it be interviews or in the film excerpts, is clear and easy to hear. I have previously referred to the music of Carter Burwell. It bears repeating that the music throughout the documentary is enjoyable and the main theme is particularly memorable, conveying nostalgia, importance and nobility.
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In place of a director's commentary we are treated to a 1990 audio recording of Vito Russo giving a lecture on the subject. His death deprived the world of a passionate and insightful commentator who displays an encyclopaedic knowledge of all cinema and a genuine wit. The lecture does not correspond more than coincidentally with the images being shown but it doesn't matter as the lecture is so fascinating. The stories he relates are both fascinating and frightening, such as the time when a movie with gay themes was shown in the 30's and a psychiatrist was present to explain homosexuality. The only sadness is that Russo didn't live to see the change in television with shows such as Six Feet Under which feature normal gay relationships. He describes men kissing on TV as the last taboo. The lecture goes for over an hour and is time very well spent.
The DVD also features a series of interviews which did not make it into the final cut. Far from being obvious deletions these are just as interesting as the documentary itself. The scenes are divided into chapters dealing with numerous aspects of gay representation in Hollywood cinema. There are also a few interviewees who did not make it into the movie at all. Perhaps it is due to the desire to represent mainstream cinema that the legendary Kenneth Anger (whose 1963 Scorpio Rising featured a p**** shot that immediately saw him charged) and Gregg Araki of Totally F***ed Up and Mysterious Skin fame are omitted. No matter - their comments are interesting and add to a quality set of extras. One word of warning - the additional interviews are rough cuts and not of the standard of the finished documentary, however the picture is adequate and the sound quite good
This is a series of stills from a number of movies featured in the documentary.
There are a series of other trailers included on the DVD.
This is a fun trailer emphasising the humour of the film and scored with a jaunty big band theme. It is nothing special although the final title card saying "Coming Out Soon" did make me chuckle.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 1 release is a Special Edition which includes a commentary with Filmmakers Robert Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, Lily Tomlin, Producer Howard Rosenmann, and Editor Arnold Glassman. It also includes an interview with Author Vito Russo of about four minutes duration. Until a Special Edition is released in Region 4 the Region 1 release is preferable.
For any cinema lover The Celluloid Closet is a must see. It pops up on the ABC from time to time but the DVD is worth buying for the extra features. It is one of those rare cinema documentaries that actually changes the way you look at films. The image quality of the DVD is not superlative but it does amply suit its purpose.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Onkyo DV-SP300, using Component output |
| Display | NEC PlasmaSync 42" MP4 1024 x 768. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. |
| Amplification | Onkyo TX-SR600 with DD-EX and DTS-ES |
| Speakers | JBL Simply Cinema SCS178 5.1 |