Movies - The Celluloid Closet

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	Movies - The Celluloid Closet

The Celluloid Closet is the title of a 1995 documentary film directed and written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The film is based on the book of the same name written by Vito Russo who researched the history of how motion pictures, especially Hollywood films had portrayed gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters. It was given a limited release in select theatres in 1996.

The documentary interviews various men and women connected to the Hollywood industry to comment on various film clips and their own personal experiences with the treatment of LGBT characters in film. From the sissy characters, to the censorship of the Hollywood Production Code, the coded gay characters and cruel sterotypes to the progress made in the early 1990s.

Vito Russo wanted his book to be transformed into a documentary film and helped out on the project until he died in 1990. Some critics of the documentary noted that it was less political than the book and ended on a more positive note. However, Russo had wanted the documentary to be entertaining and to reflect the positive changes that had occurred in the 1990s.

DVD

In 2001, the DVD edition of the documentary includes a crew audio commentary, a second audio commentary with the late Russo, an interview Russo gave in 1990, a link to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and some deleted interviews put together into a second documentary.

Impact

Russo was one of the first people to persuade gay and straight people to examine the role that popular culture plays in shaping our attitudes about sexual orientation and gender identity. It started a genre of research that examines how movies, television shows, comic books, and video and computer games depict LGBT people.

The Gay and Lesbian Activist Alliance Against Defamation has since given awards to openly gay or lesbian people within the Hollywood industry that advance the cause of fighting homophobia.

Credits

The following people appear in the documentary.

Lily Tomlin
Tony Curtis
Susie Bright
Arthur Laurents
Armistead Maupin
Whoopi Goldberg
Jan Oxenberg
Harvey Fierstein
Quentin Crisp
Richard Dyer
Jay Presson Allen
Mrs. Gustav Ketterer
Gore Vidal
Will H. Hays
Farley Granger
Paul Rudnick
Shirley MacLaine
Barry Sandler
Mart Crowley
Antonio Fargas
Tom Hanks
Ron Nyswaner
Daniel Melnick
Harry Hamlin
John Schlesinger
Susan Sarandon

Films Discussed and Shown

Dickson Experimental Sound Film
(1895)
Algie, the Miner (1912)
A Florida Enchantment
(1914)
Behind the Screen
(1916)
Manslaughter (1922)
The Soilers (1923)
Wings
(1927)
The Broadway Melody
(1929)
Morocco
(1930)
Their First Mistake (1932)
Call Her Savage (1932)
Ladies They Talk About (1933)
Our Betters (1933)
Dancing Lady
(1933)
Myrt and Marge (1933)
Queen Christina
(1933)
Wonder Bar (1934)
Tarzan and His Mate
(1934)
The Gay Divorcee
(1934)
Bride of Frankenstein
(1935)
Top Hat
(1935)
Dracula's Daughter
(1936)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Rebecca
(1940)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Lost Weekend
(1945)
Gilda
(1946)
Crossfire
(1947)
Rope
(1948)
Red River
(1948)
Young Man with a Horn
(1950)
In a Lonely Place
(1950)
Caged
(1950)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
(1953)
Calamity Jane
(1953)
Johnny Guitar
(1954)
Rebel Without a Cause
(1955)
Tea and Sympathy
(1956)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
(1958)
Some Like It Hot
(1959)
Pillow Talk
(1959)
Ben-Hur
(1959)
Suddenly, Last Summer
(1959)
Spartacus
(1960)
Boys Beware
(1961)
Victim
(1961)
The Children's Hour (1961)
Lover Come Back (1961)
Walk on the Wild Side
(1962)
Advise & Consent
(1962)
The Fox
(1967)
The Detective (1968)
The Killing of Sister George
(1968)
The Sergeant (1968)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(1969)
The Boys in the Band
(1970)
Vanishing Point
(1971)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
(1971)
Cabaret
(1972)
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
(1974)
Freebie and The Bean
(1974)
Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)
Car Wash
(1976)
Midnight Express
(1978)
La Cage aux Folles
(1978)
The Warriors
(1979)
North Dallas Forty
(1979)
Windows
(1980)
Cruising
(1980)
Fame
(1980)
My Bodyguard (1980)
The Fan (1981)
Continental Divide
(1981)
Personal Best
(1982)
Making Love
(1982)
Victor/Victoria
(1982)
Partners (1982)
An Officer and a Gentleman
(1982)
Night Shift
(1982)
48 Hrs.
(1982)
Lianna
(1983)
The Hunger
(1983)
Silkwood
(1983)
Repo Man
(1984)
Another Country
(1984)
Heaven Help Us (1985)
Teen Wolf
(1985)
Desert Hearts (1985)
My Beautiful Laundrette
(1985)
The Color Purple
(1985)
Parting Glances (1986)
Hairspray
(1988)
The Chocolate War (1988)
Torch Song Trilogy
(1988)
Dream a Little Dream
(1989)
Heathers
(1989)
Longtime Companion
(1990)
Wild at Heart
(1990)
Poison (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs
(1991)
Thelma & Louise
(1991)
The Hours and Times (1991)
Edward II
(1991)
My Own Private Idaho
(1991)
Fried Green Tomatoes
(1991)
Swoon
(1992)
Basic Instinct
(1992)
Mo' Money (1992)
The Living End (1992)
Glengarry Glen Ross
(1992)
The Crying Game
(1992)
The Wedding Banquet
(1993)
Mrs. Doubtfire
(1993)
Philadelphia
(1993)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
(1994)
Go Fish (1994)
Boys on the Side
(1995)

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