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Siskel & Ebert: "Changing Attitudes Towards Homosexuality" From 1982

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#1

Siskel & Ebert: "Changing Attitudes Towards Homosexuality" From 1982

Posted: 9/10/11 at 2:14am

Listening to these two talk about this "new trend" in Hollywood from almost 30 years ago is historically fascinating. I'd never even heard of a couple of the films they discussed (and probably with good reason) but I think I might try to track them down now.

http://www.ebertpresents.com/episodes/episode-208/videos/269

#2

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 2:23am

And for you film buffs out there, here is a short film from 1912 called ALGIE, THE MINER. It runs a little under 10 minutes long and is one of the first gay films ever made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCYYa0WxLXA

#3

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 2:24am

Thanks for sharing jordy! I love this stuff.

....but the world goes 'round

#4

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 8:34am

Never heard of STAIRCASE with Richard Burton and Rex Harrison. Can't even find it to rent or buy. I think the film would make me really angry but I like both of them. Rex is just to over the top in that clip. I really like Roger Ebert and they both were ahead of their time. This was a pretty risky topic to do an entire show on back then.I really am finding these vault series of At The Movies fascinating.Thanks for posting!

'There are three sides to every story. My side, your side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each one differently' -Robert Evans-

#5

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 12:38pm

Staircase is based on a play by Charles Dyer that was on Bway in 1968 starring Eli Wallach and Milo O'Shea. And yes, it will make you angry but it's fascinating that even got produced back then. It was about the same time that Boys In the Band was produced.

#6

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 12:42pm

Well I do want to see it. And whether or not it makes me mad or not, its part of our gay history.

#7

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 12:51pm

You can get the script from Samuel French.

#8

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 1:43pm

Siskel & Ebert:

#9

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 2:12pm

Stanley Donen directed this? The One Sheet alone pisses me off. A Sad Gay Story? Sounds like something Maggie Gallagher would say.

'There are three sides to every story. My side, your side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each one differently' -Robert Evans-

#10

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 6:47pm

Stanley Donen (and Gene Kelly--and most men who worked in film musicals, for that matter) had a lot of complicated feelings and attitudes toward homosexuality back then--attitudes we would find homophobic or self-hating. "Sad gay stories" were the only gay stories anyone would tell then--and people like Stanley Donen probably believed they were true. (Sadly.)

We'll never know the truth about whether any of them were actually gay. (I've heard unfounded stories that Donen and Kelly were lovers.)

Even Liza Minnelli gets apoplectic when anyone mentions her father's homosexuality. It was truly the love that dare not speak its name.

#11

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 8:37pm

Another great Siskel and Ebert bit. If you haven't seen PERSONAL BEST, do check it out. Stupid Netflix still won't carry TAXI ZUM KLO.

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#12

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 11:34pm

PERSONAL BEST is a fantastic film. I'm very curiuos about TAXI ZUM KLO as well and wish I could track down a copy. As for STAIRCASE, after doing some research on it I'm even more fascinated by it after reading this -

"Rarely seen on television, the film was broadcast by Turner Classic Movies during its June 2007 tribute to gay cinema. Noting this broadcast, a month later film critic Armond White called the film "a rare Hollywood movie to depict gay experience with wisdom, humor and warmth", and "a lost treasure."

#13

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 11:42pm

TAXI ZUM KLO is readily available on DVD. Netflix just doesn't carry it, for whatever reason.
Taxi Zum Klo

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#14

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 11:44pm

Oh, thanks!!!!!

#15

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 11:47pm

Netflix does have Taxi Zum Klo available for streaming, even though they don't offer the physical DVD.

#16

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/10/11 at 11:49pm

LOL. Ok, that's weird. It didn't even show up for me a few minutes ago when I searched and now there it is!

#17

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/11/11 at 11:58am

Had no idea that Dudley Moore scored Staircase. I wonder if he scored any other films (yes, I'll check with imdb).

#18

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/11/11 at 12:23pm

According to IMDb, he score several other movies, including his own BEDAZZLED and INADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#19

Siskel & Ebert:

Posted: 9/11/11 at 9:25pm

I rented Staircase from somewhere. Was enjoyable but Burton's fussiness got on my nerves. Modcinema.com may have it for sale.

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