Description

Set against the stifling conformity of pre-World War I English society, E.M. Forster’s Maurice is a story of coming to terms with one’s sexuality and identity in the face of disapproval and misunderstanding. Maurice Hall (James Wilby) and Clive Durham (Hugh Grant) find themselves in love at Cambridge.In a time when homosexuality was punishable by imprisonment, the two must keep their feelings for one another a complete secret, even though Clive refuses to allow their relationship to move beyond the boundaries of "platonic" love.After a friend is arrested and disgraced for "the unspeakable crime of the Greeks," Clive abandons his forbidden love, marries, and enters into the political arena.Maurice, however, struggles with questions of his identity and self-confidence, even seeking the help of a hypnotist to rid himself of his undeniable urges.But while staying with Clive and his shallow wife, Anne, Maurice is seduced by the affectionate and yearning servant Alec Scudder, (Rupert Graves), an event that brings about profound changes in Maurice’s life and outlook.Sparking direction by James Ivory, a distinguished performance from the ensemble cast, and a charged score by Richard Robbins all combine to create a film of undeniable power, one that is both romantic and moving, and a story of love and self-discovery for all audiences. ... Read more

Reviews (69)

Haunting, Transcendent
Merchant-Ivory have often been made fun of for being stuffy and repressed. I don't agree but I understand why they've been parodied. In Maurice, however, the team created something very special--an incredibly lyrical, heartfelt love story. This movie haunted me long after I saw it when it was released, and it's just as haunting now. The performances are simply grand. I wish Hugh Grant would do a dramatic role again to get rid of his mannerisms. Wilby is particularly fine, when you consider this was his first film. I've never seen Graves give a bad performance. I'm so glad to see this on DVD. Would this film be a bigger hit in the theaters if it were released now? I think so.

Forster would have approved!
This is the one of the most faithful novel-to-film adaptations that I have seen. American director James Ivory has a wonderfully British sensibility, and the movie vividly recreates late Edwardian England in muted autumnal colours. In particular, it gives the 21st century viewer a very real appreciation of what it must have been like to be gay in such a society.

The cast is uniformly excellent. James Wilby was not Ivory's first choice for the central role of upper-class Maurice (Daniel Day Lewis and Julian Sands were earlier contenders), but he gives an outstanding and totally plausible portrayal. Equally good is Hugh Grant, years before he found fame as the archetypal British twit. Grant's role is a difficult one; he must at first engage our sympathy and fondness, then gradually lose our respect as he seeks to enter "respectable" society. Ultimately, we come to despise his cowardice. Grant achieves all of this without descending into caricature - a considerable feat.

Rupert Graves makes a fine Alex Scudder, the lusty undergamekeeper who seduces and transforms Maurice. Apart from a slightly inconsistent accent, he, too. seems entirely plausible and fans of DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover should note that this full-blooded lad pre-dates Lawrence's own gamekeeper by many years!

An outstanding supporting cast of seasoned pros includes the late, great Denholm Elliot and Ben Kingsley in small, but pivotal roles as, respectively, a bullying doctor and a hypnotist, both of whom Maurice unsuccessfully seeks help from.

This movie has a superb period atmosphere, a leisurely but rewarding pace, plenty of understated passion, memorable music and great script-writing. Kudos to the scenarists for being so faithful to the spirit of Forster, while at the same time adding scenes to remind viewers of the real dangers for gay men in Edwardian England.

Outstanding.

Obsessed!
I mean ME - I am truly obsessed with this film! I have fallen in love with beautiful Cambridge (so masculine and steeped in tradition), with the romantic Edwardian era, with the beauty of the story and especially with Maurice, the title character. Beware... if you're "susceptible" to romantic movies and is a highly sensitive person, chances are this movie will "get" to you in ways I can't fully describe. It doesn't matter if you are gay or straight - against your will, scenes and images from the film will replay in you mind, stay in your heart and affect your mood and feelings (for days, in my case - which is not a good thing because I have a major examination coming up and half my mind is still on "Maurice"!). At times, I wished I was born male like the characters, and have the privilege of a Cambridge education... wishful thinking really (though I've a girlfriend who went to Cambridge on a scholarship, to my eternal envy really).

This film is a faithful adaptation of Forster's novel and brilliantly brought to life by the winning team of Merchant Ivory. The stellar cast comprises James Wilby, Hugh Grant and Rupert Graves; all 3 share great screen chemistry and there is no doubt that the actors gave it their "all" for this film.

This is the story about one man's journey of self discovery about his sexuality and having to live with the prejudices of the times including class distinction (which balks at intimacy with a social inferior, in this case Maurice's desire for Alec). Many reviews have already been written about the story so I would just like to share some of my thoughts and observations of the film:

1) the DVD (R1, released Feb 2004) is beautifully packaged and is chockful of special features including more than 10 deleted scenes, one of which is a most sensual scene involving Maurice and Alec (an "extended" scene of their first night together). The production notes/booklet also provides a treasure of information on the film.

2) James Wilby plays "Maurice" most beautifully and sensitively. He is imperfectly handsome but is still very attractive-looking. The thing that strikes me most about Wilby's "Maurice" is that he has the MOST beautiful hair color - it's practically "golden" - not the usual blond. The color contracts nicely with the black suit he usually wears. In the novel, Maurice has dark hair, but I think a golden-haired Maurice is just perfect - a great contrast too to Clive's and Alec's dark locks!!

3) Clive (Hugh Grant) is older than Maurice by a year. When they get together, Maurice is around 21 years of age. By the time they break off, Maurice is nearing 24. Nothing is mentioned in the book/movie about Alec (Rupert Graves)'s age - but I gather he is the youngest of the three (although most certainly the lustiest!!).

4) Maurice's character is passionate, loving, vulnerable and super-loyal. If Clive had not rejected him, Maurice would have been "his for life". What's with Clive anyway? He's got this idea that a relationship between 2 men should be strictly platonic (no kisses or caresses, even). Thank goodness for the appearance of Alec later on, who is Clive's very opposite!

5) In the novel, Maurice is horrified by his lust for and intimacy with Alec, who is only a servant. But one reason they are perfect for each other is because (in Forster's words): "chance had mated it (i.e. Maurice's body) too perfectly". The 2 characters' growing feelings for each other are a joy to watch.

6) For those who question the ending i.e. whether it is even possible for Maurice and Alec to stay together what with all the difficulties surrounding them, well, let me write that Forster intended the ending to be a happy one (and who would know better than the author himself?). In the "Terminal Note" at the end of his novel, Forster wrote: "A happy ending is imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense Maurice and Alce still roam the greenwood..." Super, isn't it?

7) The final scene ("In the Boathouse") is wonderfully romantic and is alone worth the price of the whole DVD, so to speak.

I don't want to forget this beautiful movie, and I can't forget it anyway. It is quite simply the most touching film I've ever seen. It deserved an armful of Oscar awards (although in reality it didn't do that well, receiving only Art Direction and Best Costume nominations). I've seen most of Merchant Ivory productions and "Maurice" is hands-down, the BEST. Don't miss it!

"May I Ask Your Name?"--An 'Easter Egg' for MAURICE
There is no need to repeat the praise others here have heaped upon MAURICE and the DVD package. This is the way any film of quality should be treated.

For those who will surely find it entertaining, there's a very nice EASTER EGG on this DVD:

Go to Disc Two--select Deleted Scenes, page 2--select "May I ask you name?" and then right-arrow. A small icon will appear in the lower right hand corner of your screen. Click on that and enjoy a hidden deleted scene.

Exquisite Masterpiece
One common complaint of the critics of this film is that the ending is rather unrealistic - that two homosexual men in English Edwardian society wouldn't *in reality* be able to fall in love and continue their romance as depicted in this mesmerizing film because of the unfortunate obstacles of being from different social classes and being completely different in their interests and unbringing. Although I feel that these critics are correct, I overlook that detail because I recognize that this film was obviously made with love by director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and the cast. Another case in point: my favorite film is Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 masterpiece, "Vertigo," which depicts a retired police detective falling in love for the first time in his life and becoming obsessed with a woman whom he only meets only because of a murder plot she had agreed to take part in. Is that plot so realistic? Not particularly, although it *could* happen, just as this romance *could* have happened. Just because the plot does not immediately strike one as "realistic" does not mean that the beauty or the power of a film like "Vertigo" or "Maurice" is diminished. The film is very well cast with the two best performances coming from James Wilby as Maurice Hall and Rupert Graves as Alec Scudder. In reality, as shown on the second disc containing lengthy interviews with the filmmakers and the lead actors of this film, the three lead actors playing the homosexual characters, James Wilby, Rupert Graves and Hugh Grant, are heterosexual. Consequently, it is admirable that they are so convincing and uninhibited in their roles. In addition, the score by Richard Robbins is very memorable: it is indeed one of the two most beautiful I have ever heard, the other score being composer Bernard Herrmann's work of art - his score for "Vertigo." 10/10. A. ... Read more

Reviews (74)

Forbidden Fire
"It was amazing that a film which explores choices, desires and the people who are victims of people who are victims of tradition, would cause such an uproar." -Deepa Mehta, the director of Fire

The beauty of this movie is more in the questions it asks than the erotic relationship between two women who resort to a lesbian relationship due to their husbands finding satisfaction everywhere else besides their marriage bed.

Are all sins equal? Is adultery not seen in the same light by religious people as desiring a person of the same sex? Why are people who desire love in the way these two women do seen as more sinful than those in society who commit adultery? Does God turn his eyes and not see one and see the other?

This movie asks questions that are difficult to answer because all of us possess desire. We all want to be loved, understood and feel the compassion of others. We don't want to live our lives feeling lonely, unloved, rejected sexually. Radha (Shabana Azmi) and Sita (Nandita Das) are forced to choose between a loveless life with their husbands or a caring and compassionate life with one another.

Ashok (Kulbushan Kharbanda) has chosen a life of celibacy. But he is married to Radha. This makes no sense and in her rejection, Radha reaches out to Sita who is newly married to Jatin (Jaaved Jaaferi) who has never let the love of his life out of his sexual domain.

To complicate matters, Mundu (Ranit Chowdhry) is not respectful of his elders and also seeks revenge. He wants to see his brother Ashok shamed because he has been shamed. In the middle of this family, the mother Biji (Kushal Rekhi) is forced to watch all her children's lives go to ruin before her eyes and she cannot speak due to a stroke.

After watching this movie, I understand to some degree why this movie was rejected by certain groups in India. It asks too many unanswerable questions, which might lead to a general frustration. Perhaps the frustration boiled to the surface as a certain realization fell over the audience. That maybe what they want and what they are expected to want is in conflict.

In a country where arranged marriages are still a common practice and woman light themselves on fire to escape marriage, I think this movie might help to awaken a sense of responsibility in men and help women to see they do have choices. In that choice is perhaps their power. Not that they should make a similar choice, but perhaps they should be more willing to ask for what they need, or demand fair treatment from their husbands. Maybe women should say they will only marry a man they love. Then there is always the possibility of divorce later.

There is a somewhat "rude awakening" to the concept of duty throughout this movie. What does it mean to you personally? Would you be willing to rebel against tradition and your religion to gain what you truly love? Sita says that the "concept of duty is overrated." Is it? Does your religion keep you from your desire or does desire keep you from religion? By the end of the movie, I was dizzy with the questions the characters actions ask.

But is there fair treatment in an arranged marriage? Would a "forced" union not breed contempt? And why do people still allow themselves to be forced into marrying someone they don't love? This seems to me to breed a rebellion. How can one defend such an unfair practice? In this situation, our sympathy is naturally for the women involved.

I think many saw this movie and feared that it would cause women to question their own place in society. This movie explores taboo. Men cheating on their wives might be seen as more acceptable than two women finding love in one another's arms. Why?

The relationship of Sita and Radha almost seems more of a metaphor of choice than a promotion of homosexuality. Naming these two characters after two of the most revered goddesses in Hindu mythology may have been going too far and many probably saw this as being disrespectful of religious beliefs.

You do probably have to be fairly open minded to enjoy this movie. For me it was more of a warning in many ways.

1. Think about who you are going to marry in a deep way.
2. Consider that if you do decide to get married, you might feel pain when you want
to be with someone else. Are you willing to endure that pain?
3. Be prepared at that point to be willing to make a decision in favor or against duty.
4. Don't be forced into marriage by anyone. This is your life.

This movie asks eternal questions. Questions about life, love, longing, desire, religion, marriage, duty, divorce, sexuality, acceptance, right, wrong and many others. I felt it was a beautifully filmed movie with a somewhat tragic concept intertwined around burning passion.

It is difficult to live in this physical world without the spiritual beauty of love. You have to be very strong to resist the power of love or to feel alive without desire.

-TheRebeccaReview.com

Fire, fire burning bright...
When I went to see this film at the cinema I was uncertain as to what I was letting myself in for. However I am glad that my friend persuaded me to give it a chance. This is a beautiful film, about a taboo subject in India, and it is handled magnificently by the director and cast alike. It follows the story of two sister-in-laws (Azmi and Das) who dare to fall in love with each other. Not only do they fall in love but they conspire to leave their inadequate husbands. Azmi is married to a man who is unable to consummate their marriage, and Das' husband is unfaithful to her, desiring his Chinese mistress over his chosen bride. Azmi and Das are living in an unforgiving world. The path they have chosen to follow is fraught with intolerance and danger and they have no allies save each other. As their relationship deepens so does the need for escape. This is not just an artsy movie, it is funny, sad and genuinely moving. It also has some darkly funny moments, watch the scene with the family servant, and the porno movies, it has to be seen to be believed. Leonard Maltin saw this film as a male bashing Lesbian chick flick, claiming that the male characters in the film were nothing more than "simplistic chauvinist pig[s]." It is obvious that Mr. Maltin has not lived in India where more often than not men rule and women obey and should you want to be different then God help you because no one else will. This film is ultimately about love, hope, redemption and purification; fire being a purifier and therefore when Azmi survives her husband's attempt to burn her to death she proves to the viewer that she is pure, and the Gods do not disapprove of her sexuality. This is a wonderful film, well acted and superbly directed. It's worth seeing especially now as you will be able to buy or rent it on DVD.

An absorbing, believable lesbian love story
I thoroughly enjoyed "Fire" for several reasons. It's a believable love story about two women who live in a culture in which homosexuality is not accepted and choose to be with each other anyway. The characters are genuine, and the glimpse into the cultural struggles they faced was heartmoving. It was not cheesy or cliched, which is refreshing. Highly recommended!

Fire lit up my evening
I thought the filming was wonderful and the cinemotography was beautiful. There was a great balance between the storyline of the two falling in love with each other and the storyline of the caste system in India and repression of female desires by males in their society.

3 1/2 Stars
This film was really quite good, but there were a few things that made this film far from perfect. While the content and message of the film was powerful, I didn't really feel comfortable with the lesbianism that took place between Rhada and Sita. Their physical exchange didn't seem authentic. They seemed to turn to each other because they longed for touch, a touch that might have been satisfied if their husbands had truly cared for them both emotionally and physically. Furthermore, I didn't like how the film seemed to portray lesbianism as the outcome of two women caring for each other. This is not always the case. Female friendship doesn't have an inherent element of lesbianism. In addition, I didn't particularly care for the cinematography. I found it to be a bit static, and unpoetic, whatever that means.

On the other hand, this movie was very powerful due to the idea that women can imagine something different for themselves, despite traditional structures that are oppressive, and despite what some might consider the insidious influences of patriarchy. This is why the film constantly returns to Rhada's attempt to envisage the ocean. So long as she can't imagine the ocean, she can't imagine a situation different for herself. The most powerful scene in this film was when Rhada declared that she "desires to live." Similarly, Sita seems to imagine something different for herself when she dresses in Jhatin's clothes. Wearing his clothes seem to empower her in a way that wearing her sari does not.

While some might tout this end of this film as a triumph for Western values, I really think this film took the approach of Third World feminism, that there are other ways to create a woman friendly situation. ... Read more

Description

"Beefcake," Thom Fitzgerald's (The Hanging Garden) provocative blending of fiction and documentary, tells the story of Bob Mizer, the pioneering founder of the Athletic Model Guild, a company which produced still photographs and short films extolling the beauty and chiseled physiques of men. The fiction story follows photographer and enterprising businessman Mizer, who teamed up with his mother in 1945 to film his beefy star-wannabes around his sun-drenched pool. It is here that Neil, a naive, right-off-the-bus teen is lured into using his handsome looks to become a model. The wide-eyed Neil soon learns about the world of sex and prostitution. But a police raid and ensuing criminal trial soon threaten both of the men's worlds. Interspersed with the story are rare archival footage and interviews with former co-workers, customers and models. ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Phony baloney!
The most frustrating thing about this film is the lackadaisical way it moves back and forth between engaging interviews and authentic 50s/60s film footage and the silly, flacid narrative about a physique magazine photographer who involves his unwitting (?) family in the creation of benign bordello/porn factory. Clearly, the beefcake pictoral magazines depicted were intended to be erotically provokative in an era of censorship when postal regulations prevented anything more graphic from being distributed. But the filmmaker seems devoid of a point of view. The film is little more than a blown kiss to a blessedly bygone era. Any perspective setting comes from the talking heads, the former models (like Joe Dallesandro and Jack LaLanne) and photographers who reflect on what it was like to be in the business back then. Also, frustrating was the failure to address the issue of the prevailing double standard; at a time when Hugh Hefner was taking female nudity into the middleclass mainstream, why was the male body such a persistant taboo? As clever as the intercutting of new and vintage footage is, the vintage films are best appreciated when run in their entirety as DVD "extras" (there are six in all, including one involving alien spacemen with antennas!). Watching them provokes a lot of questions. But alas, the viewer is left to come up with his or her own answers. This could have been the "Atomic Cafe" of gay erotica, but instead it's an after-school special with a little eye candy thrown in.

Please Pass the Beef
First of all, for those of you out who like straight-forward plot lines with twists and turns throughout, object to male nudity and get bored if something doesn't blow up in the first 15 minutes - then do not watch this movie.

As for the rest of us, who can appreciate intelligent mock-u-mentory styled films, "BeefCake" is a fabulous way to spend a Sunday evening. Through flashback sequences, photo clips and interiews with ex-hustlers/models from the 1950's, we receive the story of Robert Henry Mizer and his Athletic Model Guild. The movie jumps around a bit between Mizer's history with his pulp art magazine, his legal troubles for running escorts as well as the interviews, which makes one wonder how scatterbrained director Thom Fitzgerald really is. But the acting is good, the scenes are funny/interesting and there's plenty of male nudity to go around. Where can you go wrong?

Just OK.
An interesting film, respectful and with a touch of humour. Not a "must see" material but nothing I felt sorry after buying it.

With a title like Beefcake...
...you don't expect Shakespeare! But what you do get is an incredibly entertaining look at the birth of gay society's fascination with the male form. If the viewer can tear his attention away from the bountiful eye-candy he/she will also get a glimpse into the hardships and very real dangers that these seemingly cheesey photographers and publishers went through just to give us a glimpse of the body beautiful. Part movie, part documentary...all delightfully delicious!

Nudity galore!
Beefcake is a light-hearted, semi-documentary about the life and times of a muscle-magazine, Physique pictorial. Published during the puritanical 1950ies, it made quite a stir.

PP was the original hunk-o-rama, with hundreds of smiling, tanned and muscled young men flashing their goods at you. Of course, it was not strictly a nude-mag (the models wore small pouches in front of you know what..) but the gay readers had a field time anyway! The publishers also made short films featuring their hunky stars. It was all marketed as "promoting health and physical fitness in young minds"

Looking back at those "innocent" times from this liberal day and age, we can only smile at the cunning and bravery that went into it. The brains behind PP, Bob Mizer, was actually jailed and fined several times on charges of renting out his models as escorts to rich men. Still, the mag continued into the 60's and 70's.

Watching Beefcake is like flipping through those pages of PP, stopping occasionally for some reconstructed dramatic scenes. But the best parts are watching the guys modelling, doing some amateur acting in front of Mizer's camera and generally horsing around. Great fun!

There are several interviews with the guys who posed for the mag, one of them, Joe Dallesandro, apparently did his posing mostly nude! There is, in fact, copious nudity in Beefcake, and the men are all fabulous looking.

There are some great contemporary songs on the soundtrack, as well. A good time movie for the (mostly) gay crowd. ... Read more

Reviews (42)

Shattered Realities
'For A Lost Soldier' is one film which I have watched several times! It deals with a volatile topic, the story of a very young boy who finds love in the arms of a young Canadian soldier in World War II. Since the story is based on an autobiographical book, it is not the whimsy of a script writer but rather a glimpse into one man's childhood memories. The director took some liberties with the book, both in the introduction and again at the end, but otherwise stayed fairly true to the story. The movie challenges one's ideas regarding consensual sexual relationships which involve an adult and a minor. If anyone was seduced in the film, it was the soldier. The boy is in control and very aware of what it is that he wants from the soldier at all times. The event happened during the liberation of Holland and the liberation theme is tied closely to the young boy's own special liberation. The film also gives a vastly different view of life in Holland under German occupation. While 'The Hiding Place' portrays the horrors of Nazi power in a large city, this film shows what life was like in a remote village. The boy's ration card, so carefully guarded at home, is not even recognized by his 'adoptive' family. They appear to eat well and the village is only guarded by two German soldiers. The soldiers are so bored, they attend the local church service on Sundays, even though the minister is raining down hellfire and brimstone on the German forces in his sermons. One movie with two new concepts to explore, make the film a basic to any good collection.

Requires an open mind, but surprisingly a fine movie
Because of its extremely risky subject: A friendship that develops into a romance between a 20-30-something Canadian soldier and a 12 year old Dutch boy, “For A Lost Soldier” is no doubt destined to remain in the very obscure, little-seen foreign film file, which is unfortunate. The first half of this film is reminiscent of other great coming-of-age war films like John Boorman’s “Hope and Glory”, but takes a very offbeat twist when the boy, Jeroen, meets Walt, the somewhat melancholy but friendly soldier. While some may be unsettled with the idea of a boy and a man having a romantic relationship, the story really focuses more on the friendship and the rites of passage of a boy growing up. World War II must have been a terrifying experience for many of the children of Europe, especially when you are sent far away from your family and surrounded by people and places you don’t know. Never being graphic, this sometimes haunting film delicately deals with themes of love, loneliness, friendship and abandonment. An enjoyable mix of light-hearted moments and touching, poignant moments as well. Directed with grace and class, there’s a lyrical beauty and lush tone to this film which is subtle and under-stated. The audience is invited into the sleepy Dutch countryside and the simple lives of a peaceful, tolerant people. This movie is much more than an offbeat, foreign “gay love story”. “For a Lost Soldier” is a charming and captivating film that will stick with you long after you’ve seen it. It deserves to be seen.

On Exploitation
I've thought very hard about this movie after reading these reviews.
I couldn't, and no matter how hard I try, can't distinguish the soldier's behaviour towards the boy from pure self-gratification - an exercise in narcissism, projected from 1st person to 3rd.

The boy's regard for the soldier, I suspect would be entirely familiar to any boy who ever had a crush on an adult.

but Love?

I found it a thought provoking movie, because it used the cinematic conventions of a love story to tell a story about neediness. Sure, neediness is necessary to love, but sufficient? Hardly.

I don't have a problem with a movie portraying sexual exploitation, but felt uneasy that the treatment here skirted perilously close to sanctification and propagandisation. It was certainly not 'portrayal' in any way I could make sense of.

It has an uneasy resonance, for me, with a strong tendency in the community of men who exploit boys: they mistake the undoubted readiness of certain boys to form attachments, and their curiosity about sexual development, for love and/or sexual desire. I believe this impression is largely formed and reinforced by powerful expressions, like this movie. The problem is that such expressions almost certainly represent the wishful thinking of adults, rather than the authentic experience of kids.
Even when the story is autobiographical, as I believe this to be*, it makes sense to me that the dishonesty could represent a sexualised variation on the self-replicating damage we see in schools and military institutions, where each incoming group "grows up" from being exploited and abused to perpetrate the same on the next intake. There's some sort of "empathy bypass" which seems to be inherent to the mechanism.

*From reading the review of the book on which the film is based, the film has definitely been sanitised and perhaps crosses the line into fiction : in the book, the soldier forces sex with the kid, and his general behaviour towards him is even less consistent with love than is depicted in the film. I didn't know this when I wrote the preceding, and I somewhat sickened to reflect that the movie's promos and reviews ever led me to believe this was a film which might uplift me.
The whole thing starts to feel like a triumph of romanticism over honesty, perhaps in the tradition of the "Olympia" films of Leni Riefenstahl, where the beautiful bodies and movement of athletes, and the considerable arsenal of artful cinematography, were conscripted in the glorious service of something horrible about to engulf Europe.

I don't require my movies to condemn. In fact, I prefer them not to make moral judgements of any sort. It disturbs me, however, when they use misleading packaging to inveigle me into taking an interest, and then once I'm inside, use an essentially dishonest "insemination by imagery" process to surreptitiously advance a moral judgement - in favour - of the frankly indefensible.

I defend your right to see this movie and make your own judgement, but I'm glad I can exercise my right to warn you about it.

Appealing only to those who actively seek such media
The ostensibly "tender" portrayal of a 12-year-old boy's (Jeroem) sexual relationship with a Canadian soldier (Walt) in World War II. Apart from barely developing the kid as a believable character, there's hardly any redeeming quality to Walt. The man is openly a predator, using candy and promises of adventure to seduce his way into Jeroem's pants. There's only one real "sex" scene between the two, and the director handles it with as much taste and class as one can handle a grown man deflowing a preteen. In a scene where Jeroem's adoptive father confronts Walt about what he knows is going on, the man wilts under the fact that he owes his freedom partly to the Canadian army's driving Nazis out of their land, and his resolve crumbles. All in all, it's a pretty bland and full of half-hearted narrative excuses. I will give the film one kudo, tho: they didn't fall back on the cliché of abusive father-figure driving the boy into the pedophile's "loving" arms.

I'm Conflicted
Oh, my. What to say about this movie? It is, after all, about a young man having sex with a 12-year-old boy.

First, the easy part . . . . The movie is well-crafted, structured around flashback, a deft mix of subtitled Dutch and English in reflection of the idiosyncratic communication that evolves between the main characters, and beautifully filmed in the soft light of northern Europe. As a piece of cinematic craftmanship, I'd give it 4 stars.

But then there's the story itself. Can sexual relations between an adult and a child ever be excused by love or circumstances? Before this movie, the answer for me was a resounding no. After this movie, I simply don't know. The man here is not a sexual predator in that he is not attracted to the boy by virtue of his youth. Instead, he is a gay man doubly isolated by his sexual orientation and by being on foreign ground at the end of a world-shattering war. And, coming across a gay boy likewise isolated from his home at the end of the same war, a bond is forged that did not have sex as its initial aim and came to include sex only after love was so deeply established as to have rendered age irrelevant.

Or did it? After all, the soldier is first attracted to the boy by his looks, not by anything he knew about the boy or his circumstances. And can age ever be irrelevant to sex involving minors? Do 12-year-olds ever know enough of themselves, their world, and its risks to be informed participants?

If nothing else, this movie accomplishes something by making the question tenable. But does it, in the end, make this love affair all right? I simply don't know.

This movie stands up as a thought-provoking film. It should not, however, be read as an unambiguous justification for adult/child sex. Since it, however, implies more than presents the ambiguities and could leave some thinking they've just watched an argument that child sex taboos are nothing more than unwarranted modern western uptightness, I discount it to 3 stars. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

'Nico and Dani'
When viewing 'Nico and Dani' I was keeping in mind:'This a foreign film'...This is a foreign film'...It has some trademark 'roadtrip buzz scenes' found in American movies.However, the little moments between Nico and Dani make
up for routine--'I got a secret, I gotta tell somebody,' independent films have to offer. Teenage crushes are usually more exciting
to watch because younger people are more opened minded about sexuality than most adults. I think that is why not too many adults appear in the movie.
The movie gives you insights like if someone was narrating their diary to you of what happened one summer and not leaving out those 'juicy details'your younger sibling was dying to read,and the emotional rollercoaster ride that goes with this age group.
It has good cinematography values; interesting/private conversation topics between best friends; and uptempo music from the country it was shot in--Spain and beautiful it is.

i mean what i say
a really sweet coming of age story from a different culture's perspective. set in sunny barcelona, its cast of characters are two boys and two girls hanging out at the beach (and bars where the fourteen year old gets served!), with the intent of one day getting it on. i found them all to be extremely beautiful people in their honesty and openess, and the depth of emotion that the director conveyed was astonishing. he took his time developing the characters in a curious way, i feel like i have four new friends. okay, i went and saw the thing twice, i loved it. i usually like movies that challenge my mind, but this one was totally different than anything i've seen. the feelings this film conjure up are what make it. the soundtrack is extremely well placed, with some songs in english. there are subtitles, but if you know a little spanish, the movie can be quite endearing.

Frank, honest, and realistic and a story to identify with
If you had asked me what I had thought of the movie half way through, I would have said I was slightly uneasy with it as a whole. What I mean to say is that there are just a few parts that you might catch your mind rejecting as too frank. I found myself identifying completely with the characters on my screen, and yet at the same moment feeling uneasy for some reason...

Luckily, I didn't stop half way through and the story worked itself out and developed into something to be remembered. As soon as the credits began to roll, I realized the reason I had an uneasy feeling was because the acting was so natural and real that I felt as if I was there, and since this is a coming of age story it brought back the same feelings I felt when I was going through the things I saw on screen.

The story is well written as a whole and portrays every character as actual people, even those with a smaller role. Nothing is over dramatized, and nothing is boring. It's life, shown in a way you usually don't see on film and showing an important part of life.

Another reviewer didn't see much in the cinematography, but I enjoyed it. Many times, the unique "set ups" and irony that you see when a play is performed on stage is lost when it is made for cinema, but the director did an excellent job of preserving it. Make sure and watch the "Special Features" after the film and you'll see what I mean. Not necessarily things you will consciously notice while watching the film, but they work to make the film what it is.

Others have said it is homophobic, which is true to a point. But I -like most- don't look back on my experiences as an adolescent and think how reaffirming everyone was and how sure I was about everything that I did. Homophobia is a reality for many people in their life and this movie doesn't brush that under the carpet for atmosphere.

If you've seen a lot of gay cinema, you will be pleased to know this is anything but the "same old thing" and I recommend it with 4 stars. If you're just exploring gay themed movies, you might should add this one to your wish list and check back after you've seen Beautiful Thing, The Priest, The Trip, etc.

oddly homophobic story of gay love
Dani, who belongs to an affluent family somewhere on the southern coast of Spain, gets a summertime visit from his old friend Nico. They hit on some girls at Nico's insistence without giving up their old pastime of krampack. When Dani realizes that he is in love with Nico, he begins acting like an idiot: he grabs at Nico's privates when he is having sex with a girl, tells the girl that Nico is really a maricon, then pushes himself onto the local mature, sophisticated writer but runs out before they hit the bedroom.

What I find insulting about this film is that the boys never say the "gay" word, but they express their hatred of "maricones" quite often. I don't mind the director trying to pretend that gay history and culture don't exist, but it is offensive to tell a story about same-sex love that simulataneously preaches hatred of gay people.

thoroughly enjoyable
there's nothing bad about this movie. the actors are adorable, and they bring an honest feel to their characters. the plot's not much, but the emotions are genuine. there are moments for every imaginable reaction. i laughed, smiled, and teared-up. i believe that the most fulfilling thing about this film is reaffirming that american teenagers don't set the standard for teenagers everywhere (thank god - i AM an american teenager, and even i don't like us), and american movies don't set the standard for movies everywhere. if you can find this movie, see it. otherwise, rent it. or buy it. whichever you prefer. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

disappointing film
I was all ready to love this movie. I've been a fan of Shawn Hatosy since his debut role in "In and Out", and I thought he did a great job in the litle-seen "Outside Providence". In fact Shawn does a great job playing the lead in this movie, as 16 year old Brendan Behan, the Irish drinker with a writing problem on whose autobiographical novel this movie is based. Behan cut a wide and boistrous swath through literature and tv talk shows before dying in the 60's at age 41 of alcoholism. The message of this movie, which seems to be that it is better to love than to hate, is far too simplistic, and i'm pretty sure Behan is laughing loudly at it up in the celestial pub. As i said Shawn Hatosy proves once again what a great actor he is, although his character here does have a stutter that comes and goes at odd times. The main problem with the movie is the utter unrealism of it. After being caught smuggling explosives into liverpool from Ireland as an IRA operative, Behan is sent to an English reform school for boys because he is underage. There he encounters numerous movie cliches, including the big game, the seemingly out-of-reach love interest, the escape plot, and the we-all-can see it coming why can't they disaster (a clearly visible landmine on the beach). That last is especially egregious, because first-time director Peter Sheridan puts the scene into almost unending slow motion, complete with soldiers waving the unfortunate and seemingly blind victims away. The best scene is when Behan and his best mate finally kiss. But this is a mainstream movie, so we have to make Behan also fall in love with the headmaster's beautiful daughter, who preposterously mixes unsupervised with the inmates. (She is nowhere to be found in the book, folks.) Shawn Hatosy is the best thing in this movie; he is very believably as a 16-year-old Irish boy. I'm sure he will escape unscathed from this silly movie.

Wonderful movie but a dissappointing DVD package...
"Borstal Boy" is based on the book written by Irish playwriter/novelist Brendan Behan about his experiences in a British reform school (borstal) in 1930's. During this incarceration, as potrayed in the film, we see the young writer transformed from a creature of hate to one who realises that "love is much stronger than hate".

I especially like the use of silent moments that convey more emotions that any line of dialogue. Special mention has to go to the main lead, Shawn Hatosy, who briliantly played his character. His potrayal of Brendan exudes quiet nobility as well as a touch of the rouge in the main protagonist. Definately his best performance so far and an indication of the potential of this young actor.

The DVD package itself is quite simplistic with trailers of other Strand Releasing DVDs in as additional material on the disk. I wished that they would have a subtitle/captioning option as the movie uses a lot of Irish and British accents that are hard to make out sometimes.

The sound quality is a bit on the dissapointing side as this DVD transfer only had mono sound on it. It's very distracting trying to figure out what they are saying especially when they don't have captioning. Good thing that the picture quality is clear and sharp for this transfer.

My final grade for this movie is 5 stars for the film but 3 stars for this DVD package.

This DVD is definitely a keeper for those who enjoyed reading "Angela's Ashes" as well as "At Swim, Two Boys". If you have the chance to see this release in a theater, don't miss it as the sound experience is much better than this DVD. Or else you have to just make do with a dissappointing DVD package of a great movie.

Pretty much like the book (of the same title)
I was assigned Brendan Behan as a subject for a term paper. I read a number of books, 2 written by him about his life, and 1 biography by another author as well as the movie(which I loved). Given that some events in the movie appear to have been slightly altered or dramatized for effect, I thought the movie to be a fair representation of that period of his life. If the movie is at times confusing, it is no less so than his own account of that time in his life. I recommend this movie for it's actors, as well as subject matter.

Shawn Hatosy Comes of Age in Borstal Boy
In a touching and powerful performance, Hatosy demonstrates once again that he is a very talented actor. In a role that required him to step forward with a convincing accent for a character with a mild speech impediment, Shawn Hatosy is a believable, brooding young Irishman, who undergoes a metamorphosis as an outcome of exposure to a new environment, new ideas, and new experiences. Supported by an excellent cast, Hatosy and this story are engrossing and take the viewer through an emotional thunderstorm.

Stunning return of the reform-school film.
In wartime England a reform school headed by a benign warden harbors troublemakers of different nationalities. The IRA rascal, brilliantly played by an American, Sean Hatosy, is just one of the boys whose antics propel Sheridan's film through comic scenes to a finale of loss and sadness. Sheridan's cutting is quick and deft, and, except for the last 10 minutes the plot skillfully avoids the pitfalls of sentimentality.

Warning to new directors: pop songs on a movie soundtrack can be injurious to your film, as it is here, along with a peculiarly stagy ending in an Irish railway station, where the hero vanishes into clouds of steam.

Otherwise the film is very moving, and certainly one of the best investigations ever into the rightness of feelings of love. Defying the long and awesome tradition of Irish verbal art, Sheridan demonstrates that sometimes silence is the best way to express the feelings that attend separation. The inmates' production of Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a small triumph. The entire film is a huge triumph for director Sheridan. See it in a theater with a good sound system: sometimes the Irish-accented English can be hard to grasp. ... Read more

Reviews (34)

Australian Beauty
When Australia tackle a movie subject such as homesexuality they either totally miss the plot, as in "The Sum of Us" or make a film that sets the benchmark for all others to follow.
Head On falls into the later.Alex Dimitraides performance is brilliant as the Young Gay son of Greek imigrants that cannot accept his place in modern Australian society as a gay man.
His rejection of his own sexuality leads to his sexual gratification without emotion,the end result being that he misses a chance of a meaningful or at least caring relationship.
A comment made by the director in thanking Alex for his performance was "he gave every inch of himself to the role"
A challenging, disturbing but brilliant film from Australia

The Angry Young Man Down Under
It's wonderful to be able to recommend a gay-themed movie that doesn't pour on a lot of pc platitudes about the nobility and martyrdom of misunderstood gays. Or that doesn't try to envelop us in propagandistic sickly sweet sentimentality that attempts to show how the gay world is one big happy, touchy-feely family of "normal" types. Reality, as this film shows, proves the opposite to be true.

The star of this independent film, and really the only reason for seeing it, is Alex Dimitriades. He plays a darkly handsome, heavily sensual male gigolo waiting for his sugar daddy. He's so believably screwed up, however, that he never gives anyone a chance to get near him. You can see the angry edginess in his eyes--he's too smart to accept the bourgeois dream of marriage, a serious work ethic, and life in the suburbs that his traditional Greek parents wish for him--he won't even bother to get a job. He'd rather spend his days stoned and sated by the furtive, sleazy sexual encounters, usually in alleys, he indulges in. The rest of the time he rails at everyone within reach for their shoddy dreams and for selling out to conventional morality. And yet he's traditionally macho in spite of himself--when his sister's virtue is compromised by a rival Lebanese youth, he tries to beat him up--while at the same time being ashamed of his Greek background and particularly his traditional strict father, who won't even bother to speak English. And when Alex finally does get a chance to be with a guy who wants more from him than anonymous sex, he screws that up too. He turns his back on family, friends, and love. He's committed to the shadowy, superficial life of gay sex in the fast lane, even though deep down he wants something more but he can't bring himself to be open to it. He's a romantic in spite of himself.

Unfortunately, the movie surrounding Alex Dimitriades' performance falls short. None of the other characters seem to be as believably fleshed out as he is, and some scenes just seem unnecessary. The director may have been trying to do too much. She does pull off a few bravura effects, including a striking finale with Alex miserably consigning himself to a life of promiscuity on the margins of society followed by his performance of a traditional Greek dance. It's lyrical, romantic and despairing all at once. This character is fully tragic--he realizes his limitations all too well and yet can't stop wishing for more. He's too smart to hope. Alex Dimitriades' performance rings so many bells about what it's like to be young, gay, smart and going nowhere and hating yourself for it that it puts all other so-called serious gay cinema to shame.

This is NOT for everyone
I must admit to being sadly dissapointed in this movie! I had been told a lot of good things about it by people, and read a number of reviews for it before finally purchasing it. Having watched it I must say it was not good, but not terrible. I gave it three stars just for the good acting, and because I love a good Autralian accent. lol The plot is, to say the least, lack luster, and is just as muddled and pointless as the main characters life. It was downright boring at times, and that is never good, when the viewer feels compelled to pick up the remote and fast forward. Yikes. While the main Character is attractive, he's on the cover of the box, that is not enough to carry the film, and his taste in men is apparently for the unattractive. The ending is just insane, I mean maybe I've been acclimated to happy endings by U.S. films, but this ending was neither happy, sad, nor even poignant it was just ended. I would suggest not buying this movie. Rent it then buy it, that is the safe bet.
Denzil

An Excellent Must See Movie
Rent it, buy it - borrow it. This is an excellent movie.

WELL CONCEIVED FILM
i ordered this movie on a total hunch having no idea what it was really about or without having heard anything about it. i would like to say that my gamble paid off. this movie is very interesting because it reaches out in so many levels. first you have the main character, ari ( i hope i spelled that right), who is a young man in a strange place. he is a greek living in australia b/c of immigration. he has grown up there but the culture does not accept the greeks. he is gay and a drug user and likes to have anonymous sex. he, in his view, is living his life the way he wants. he has no apparent direction to his life, but he has high plans for the future. he has a friend who is a drag queen and they go out and have an interesting night. ari does not get along with his father, loves his mother and his family. all of these aspects come into play throughout the movie. it is a brief glimpse into his life, but the glimpse is very vivid and telling. he is closeted to all but his family, but acts like he could care less for them to find out. he never thinks clearly mostly b/c he is usually high on some sort of drug. the movie moves very fast b/c it is supposed to be an effect, like seeing the movie thorugh his eyes as if you were watching the film on drugs. in the end you ultimately feel sorry for ari because he does not know what to do with his life. he is a lost soul with no one to help lead him. he desires love and affection and above all acceptance, but the contradiction is that he will not let anyone near enought to offer him the support he desires. this is a very good coming of age film and is useful in showing how a life can spin out of control. great film, i highly recommend it. ... Read more

Description

"Damiana" was filmed in October of 2002 in the hills near Austin, Texas.This is an erotic movie with scenes edited artistically to match the original musical score by Fistful of Voodoo which is a blend of ethereal electronica, industrial and tribal drums & bass that's broken only by occasional sensual narratives. It has a mystical quality that blends with the erotic aspect to create a compelling visual panorama. The models/actresses are beautiful and passionate in their performances.

Enter the world of a pagan girl in the Hill Country of Central Texas. Follow her on a day of that starts out by herself wandering the woods and undressing to feel the Autumn sun.Later she is visited by two intimate girlfriends who strip while shooting guns and rifles and firespin naked to the sound of African drums. ... Read more

Reviews (30)

'Wild Reeds' bends and does not break!
For cinema buffs, this film is probably Andre Techine's best (although 'Thieves' comes close). Released in 1994, the movie won four Cesar Awards, including Best Picture.

That said, it's a great film anyway! Techine incredibly evokes--and captures--the landscape and atmosphere, the tonal integrity, the dynamic symmetry of the French countryside, his actors, and time sequence in a way that few can. Certainly, this film is a tribute to film-making, regardless of nationality.

Set in 1962 when all France was abuzz and alerted to the Algerian war and crisis, Techine micromanages the time/place/conflict into a boarding school setting. And while, indeed, it is a "coming of age" story in good form, cinema as art is not lost on Techine (nor generally the French!).

Featuring praiseworthy performances of Iodie Bouchez and Gael Morel, the film dwells on, but not exclusively, their relationship--which is not without its trauma, drama, and poignancy. The two boys

acknowledge their deep-rooted relationship, which is beauty itself. Unfortunately, love does not conquer all, as the romanticists would have us believe (and the vicious politics of the time rears its ugly head too often). Clearly, Techine's juxtaposition of their relationship--sexual and otherwise--is beautifully and sensitively done. The soundtrack, too, is worthy of praise (even the American pop music lends to the film's credence). Viva la France. And Techine.

(Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

Beautiful movie, Talented cast
This enagaging coming-of-age French movie revolves round a sort of unrequited/forbidden love triangle (or quadrangle?) between four adolescents at boarding school in southwest France. This 1994 multi-Cesar Awards winner made stars of its talented young cast, notably the two cute lead actors, Elodie Bouchez and Gael Morel. Who, like their characters here, are good friends also in real life and have worked together on a number of movies since. For me, the intimate-yet-platonic relationship as "best friends" Francois and Maite is really frustrating. As in my opinion they make such a cute couple. (Luckily, Gael and Elodie make amends for this by jumping into bed together in "Le Plus Bel Age", the film they acted in together after this one.) Anyway, by the end of this movie, you feel like you have grown up a little bit with these young teenagers, and a sense that their innocent age has passed by. The soundtrack is also nice, with Johann Strauss's Voices of Spring waltz, Barber's Adagio for Strings and some well-known 1960s American pop music. And thank goodness this video keeps the original French language soundtrack, especially as subtleties and expression of dialogue always get lost in translation.

Excellent ! ! ! !
A must see coming of age story set in France during the Algerian War. Gaël Morel was perfect. Stéphane Rideau is shown young and absolutely gorgeous in some risqué scenes of the film. My only complaint is the DVD's inability to remove the English subtitles.

It goes where "Jules and Jim" didn't dare
One girl and three guys--it does J&J one better. I always wondered why Jules and Jim bothered with "the girl" at all when they were obviously one another's true soul mates. Although WILD REEDS is not a gay film, it does have one gay character who has a couple of classmates who seem to be either bisexual or open to experimentation. The four adolescent leads in this movie are struggling with their sense of being an outsider, which seems to be a universal for boys and girls, straights and gays alike. At the same time that they are trying to come to terms with their sexual natures, they are developing a sense of their place in the world. Each of them is affected by the political issues of their day (the war in Algeria), the struggle against authoritarian school teachers, and the expectations of their families. What I found appealing about the way the characters were portrayed and developed is that each one seems to receive equal treatment, has an equal share of grief and confusion, and is equally susceptible to normal human foibles. To wish that the story lines were more resolved at the end of the film would be to ask that this thoughtful little movie be something it was not meant to be--a splashy, big-budget Hollywood film totally ungrounded in human reality.

A MUST have glimpse at the innocence and discovery of youth.
This film carries you along the journey from the innocence of youth to the beauty of first time (...) discovery. It's captivating to empathize with the boys as they struggle through their socially deviant (...) attraction for their young classmates. The film is set in a boys school in picturesque southern France and stars the gorgeous and exceptionally talented Stéphane Rideau and Gaël Morel. The DVD is high quality however you can't remove the subtitles. A must have. ... Read more

Reviews (19)

LITTLE TOUGH ON THIS ONE
After viewing this film I have to honestly say I now understand why so many gay films cast straight men for the gay roles. The acting in this movie was by far the worst I have ever scene, it was almost sickening at times. In spite of that, I am giving this film 4 stars because of other reasons. I like the storyline, it was well developed. I like the look of the actors, they are all stunningly beautiful. The erotic scenes were that, erotic, not pornographic, very tender, and very well done. So if you are expecting the next Tom Cruise to come out of this group of actors, you won't! However, the film merits review just the same. At the same time, I see potential in several of the actors in this film, hopefully they will continue to study film and acting and my advice, "become a part of the parts you play," as I felt all they did in this film was "play the part." I didn't feel they became a part of the film at all. I didn't see them molding the storyline to fit their personalities and that is what good acting is all about.

A ANTHROPOLOGIST LOOKS AT RAF MOVIES
(...) The production company has released four films. The first in 2001 with "Traveling to Olympia". They followed with Murder in Portland", Gods of Olympia and the last one Revenge in Olympia. All of these movies take place in the Pacific Northwest with three of four in the state capital of Washington. Four films in three years is quite a feat from a independent production company. Are they of Hollywood quality, no but they are as good as any straight or gay low budget independent film company. And make no mistake these are low budget films. What make the concept work is that they are made for the DVD release. There is no pretense that these are going to a theatrical release. They release these productions on both the internet and lesbian and gay books stores. With the thousands of films released for distribution and after checking web sites, I only found a few bad reviews. And all of these reviews sounded the same. It seemed that the same person wrote all the comments. It also seemed that they all were the same type of person. Someone who with the power of the review can make a unfair statement in the community. I am guessing this is a person who never gets cruised at the bar and has had a hard time getting a date. So he goes back to his small apartment and takes it out on RAF. Everyone has the right to speak, it is some who speak with authority and others from picayune. I would expect that the first film was a learning experience for RAF. I thought the films got better and all had great stories. I learned something from each movie, the stories were original and historically correct. Remember no one made you spend the first 29.95, and if you did not like it why spend more for the other three. It seems you are not admitting you buy the movies not for the story but for the cute sex scenes. That is fine, I am sure the producers have that as part of their markenting plan.

GOOD MOVIE, LOTS OF HISTORY IN IT
All three of RAF's films take place in Olympia, WA. I watched "Murder" first and then, in a single afternoon, the first two as well. Their formula varies little, and includes: unusually cute young men (at least one of whom is troubled, new in town, and/or needs help); a sex scene or two (in the context of loving partners); a variety of characters of all ages and persuasions (their apparent use of street people is reminiscent of Gus Van Sant); a healthy dose of sex-ed and gay politics; good music. It works. The stories are interesting (even touching), the characters are winning (often beautiful), and the endings are positive.

"Murder" centers around a young and extraordinarily handsome 'straight' cop (not credited by role so I don't know his name, malheureusement), who is recruited to investigate the killing of two gay men. To say he learns MUCH about the gay community he infiltrates would be rather a zenith in understatement. Suffice it to say, he is dedicated to his work and goes 'under cover' in more ways than one to solve the crime.

All the RAF films have plenty to offer if you just look beyond their low-budget parameters and drink in the actors, characters, stories, and message. I can't wait for the next one, along with the pleasure of a sweet, funny, character-driven movie in this age of macho, jingoistic nonsense.

A L MUST SEE FOR ALL GAYS
Reviewer: tadzio69 from Victoria, Australia
I can't give this movie 5 stars overall, because sometimes the production values are not ultra-good (wheezy soundtrack). But if you're young, in the closet, or being hammered by a family in some church or other sort of moral majority, it might show you what to do for release in small-town America (or small minded communities anywhere).

Five stars for what the guys in the movie say - how they talk out, and about, - and act out their gay identities. It ain't glitzy - it happens in diners and coffee shops, in the street, not nightclubs or smooth apartments. Amateur but committed actors provide a rich gallery of interesting characters to get family life, identity, work, learning (especially the importance of learning) into a gay perspective you might not have yet, Chuck - Jose - Dean - Jason: whoever you are.

Sex is not avoided - it's there on the screen if you haven't tried it yet, but so too is cruising (do you know how to cruise?) Best of all, a diverse model of how to start and maintain gay friendships. See how these guys value each other - how they relate, how important closeness and touch are - and one day you might get going on your gay life, knowing, balancing life and sexuality, and closer to happiness than you are now. Watch them, but above all listen to them - learn from them.

Bits of the story you might find wacky (I did) but having written several books on what at-risk youth (including gay boys) need, I'm very impressed by the honesty and clarity of this approach. Forget the production values - LISTEN HARD AND WATCH CLOSELY, and know you are not alone. Maybe there's a gay-friendly diner in your small town - worth looking. Good luck

THE BEST OF RAF'S FILMS
The larger one shows Johnny, a slight 19-year old (played by Justin McFarlane), leaving a reform school in Chehalis, Washington, hitchhiking north to Olympia and eventually moving in with a hunky lawyer-lover, Joel (played by Michael Harboush), in Seattle. Assisting are the popcorn king's young son, Chip (played by Donald Allen), and his new lover, Washington State Senator Matthew Bradley (played by Dennis T. Kleinsmith). This is a story of how gay people can help one-another come out and overcome obstacles on the way to true love and social justice.

The smaller story is told almost completely in pantomime and music. An unnamed actor (possibly Michael S. Parker) comforts and cleans up a fellow caught up in a hate bombing of a gay youth center. The fellow runs off later with another one, leaving the actor alone. In the next installment, he is able to find someone else and make a successful go of it in an emotionally satifying way.

One can criticize the lack of extras on the DVD and the script's demand that so many characters provide their personal and family histories. The characters are more psychological profiles than real people.

I would have liked the Jeff character (who was not linked to an actor's name) to have had a bigger role since he had the looks and the ability to deliver lines well.

The movie is low budget, the acting is fair, but the movie's heart is in an unusually positive and constructive place, showing people's resiliance well. The movie depicts a variety of normal, but nice-looking people, not just the denizens of the local gym. The many skin shots are well done. Uplifting but not deep. ... Read more

Description

Chat room fantasy becomes unexpected reality in the Big Apple with roommates Jason and Chad.Jason, a.k.a. "hook up boy" is the typical online groupie searching endlessly for the next encounter.The game of "hook up" leads him to seedy porn theatres, hot phone sex encounters and chocolate romp on the dinner table!When Chad comes across "hook up boy" in an Internet chat room the story begins to take a whole new twist.A hot sexy love story filmed in New York City! ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Dreadful
Quite possibly the worst film I have seen since Disorderlies starring the Fat Boys. The acting is awful, the script could have been written by a 10 year old and the score is so bad that it sounds like it was written on a Casio keyboard from Wal-Mart. There is not even a decent message to take away with you. Who doesn't know that chat rooms are not the key to finding love? This film (and I use that term lightly as the picture quality suggests videotape) is so rushed that it is over by the time you get back from the bathroom and even a child would be able to figure out the entire plot within the first 5 minutes. Simply dreadful and not worth wasting your time or money.

Good looking guys
If anything this movie is worth it simply for looking at the good looking guys. The story line is a little preachy but still entertaining. "Chad" is particularly attractive and has a classical theatrical quality.

Charming and Sexy
Since this movie was filming in New York and I LOVE NEW YORK CITY I have to already give it credit. The story revolves around a guy who cruises chatrooms and how he isn't satisfied... His roommate a cutie blonde thinks hooking up should be the traditional way. It's not hard to figure out what happens but ya know sometimes I like knowing what happens - HELLO any Julia Roberts Movie... also MAKE sure you check out the commerical the company 10percent productions put in the extras menu - it's the hottest and gayest commerical i've ever seen - think calvin klein meets queer as folk! I'd recommend this charming and sexy story.

After-School Formula
Two good-looking gay guys are roommates in Manhattan. One likes to arrange dates in internet chatrooms; the other wants to get to know the other person first. The former gets "dates" - in a back area of an adult theater and with an 18-year-old nominally straight guy who plays baseball; the latter pines away at home. The roommates claim not to like each other. An underutilized, cute friend of the reserved roommate shows him how to get on the internet. Both roommates end up in the same chatroom. Try guessing the rest.

To its credit, this very earnest film flies through its motions in about 65 minutes. Snickers help one get past the wooden script and acting lulls. There are lots of skin shots, and the casting is attractive, though some of the sex scenes may not convince. (Maybe the two interviews in the extras section help explain that - both actors say they are straight and have never done this sort of thing before.)

While the movie clearly wants to show why getting to know someone before sex is better than a quickie through the internet, the roommate who holds back is not shown succeeding at getting much more than computer advice from a friend, who is told in turn that friendship is not enough to get any sex. The payoff for the slow-going roommate seems no better than the web-shopper's. It is not even clear the roommates will continue to tolerate each other.

Worthy, but trite... ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Great Film, Terrible DVD
Don't buy this DVD! Very poor copy (fuzzy, weak color) of film (transfered from a VHS tape?). The subtitles (NOT removable) hard to read. No chapter stops. No extras except some equally fuzzy previews for other Cinevista products. Very disappointing cheap issue at a high price. Hopefully some other company will issue a proper version some day.

Amazingly graphic film blending fiction and reality
My motives for this review are selfish, since my life changed the day I saw this film (January 5th, 1984). Sitting in the theatre as an adolescent, enthralled by this film, I came out to myself and started the process of letting the rest of the world know who I am. I recently watched the film again, and realized that what is most amazing about this film is the blurring of the boundary between drama and documentary. We see Frank Ripploh enacting significant events in his life, even hooking up (and breaking it off again, this time for the camera) with his ex Bernd Broaderup for the sake of cinematic verissimilitude. It is sometimes harrowing, if not downright disturbing to watch, not because the sex scenes make most people (especially straight people) uncomfortable, but because the viewer feels like a voyeur. Everything about this film is "amateur," in the sense of being done for love instead of profit. We tend to disdain things "amateur" in our society, but a film about real people and the lives they lead cannot be "done" by professionals (Hollywood doesn't GET this). I think this is an amazing film, and none of the usual criteria for "reviewing" this film apply.

Gritty, fascinating, and why we watch foreign movies
Frank Ripploh's largely autobiographical film takes two fairly schematic themes -- boy meets boy and all that that entails; and man deals with utter dislocation between job and private life -- and turns them into a fascinating look at a modern Germany that just as easily could be Taipei (think Ang Lee) or Rome (think Vittorio de Sica).

Frank is an elementary school teacher by day, and a sexual adventurer any time he is NOT at school. On one of his forays into the demimonde, he meets Bernd (played by the very appealing Bernd Broaderup) and falls in love. What follows is fairly typical of any love story, but it is in the details that Ripploh takes his audience into another world. Frank's love story is punctuated by sexual escapades that would have horrified Jane Austen. Added to this, Frank must come to terms with the increasing tension between his respectable job and his not so respectable but very exciting sex life. How Frank resolves this tension is simultaneously amusing and horrifying.

This film is not for prudes or the squeamish. The sex scenes are graphic and sometimes hard to watch. Also, it is obvious that the film was cheaply made, with gritty camera work and spotty sound quality. Still, the details draw the viewer in; you actually see how these people live (and where else do you see an old Karmann Ghia these days?). It is also eerie to see such lack of sexual restraint in a world on the brink of the HIV horror (Taxi zum Klo was released in 1981).

I was fascinated with this film in 1981 and I remain so in 2003. The only reason I gave this movie 3 stars instead of 4 is that the subtitles have an annoying tendency to disappear into the scenery. A passing familiarity with German would help fill in some of the gaps in legibility, but you will probably need several viewings to get all the plot points.

One comes away from this movie with feelings that only foreign films can provide. While Ripploh is no Kurosawa, de Sica, or Inagaki, he equals them in taking you to another world.

"Taxi!!"
Believe it or not this piece of German filmography translates as "Taxi to the toilet". It's basically a no holds barred account of the life of an "ordinary" gay man in a not so ordinary leather scene in 70's Deutschland.

Some of the scenes are a little shocking for the time and even now too, however the harder images are carefully filmed and work well with the general running of the movie.

To summarise: Actually quite a good, well acted, film but definitely for a mature audience.

(The DVD is in German language with removal English subtitles.)

hot & cold
It's difficult to rate this film. It conveys well the spirit of gay life in the late '70s and early 80s. But it has some scenes that are disgusting to watch, and it isn't the sexual ones. Also it made me realize that good pornography that has been cosmetically enhanced and done with photographic artistry makes sexual matters much more appealing than the rough, raw stuff in this film. If I could, I would give it 2stars for its appeal to me, and 4stars for the intentions of the artist, Ripploh. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

gorgeous
This compilation contains some of the most impressive shorts i have seen in years!!!! Just wonderful and so sexy...
De Furne is going to become one of worlds biggest!

Bravo Bavo!
Very charming films from a young promising director. These are great little short films about gay love and loss. It is a delight to see the gorgeous cast in Bavo's bittersweet art films. Bavo's website has news about a first feature, I can't wait for it to be released. These films are classic but not at all mainstream, a real must for anyone expecting something special.

A painful example of how not to shoot a film
Don't bother with this painfully awful example of poor craftsmanship, unless you really like to laugh at the campy effects, bad acting and lack of real storytelling.

"Campfire" should be tossed in the Bonfire!
Talk about a waste of money! I too continued to watch, also trying to convince myself that this just might be an art film and I was, perhaps, just too dense to "get it." No. The fact is, the writers didn't get it. The directors didn't get it. And the actors didn't get it. And I hope after you read this, potential buyers won't get it either. What a waste of money. eBay, here it goes! I should have shared the copy Matt Price from Houston bought and least I might have had a good time!

A Big Mistake!
An absolute waste of my time and money. I kept trying to justify my purchase by telling myself that this was a collection of "art" films, but after watching the last one, I decided that it was just a big mistake! ... Read more