THR's chief film critic David Rooney muses on three decades as a gay reviewer
). Queer figures from history often ended up veiled in sexual ambiguity or muddied by straight plot pivots .
Those were breakthrough years for queer representation in British film, notably in John Schlesinger's return home following. While the encounters of Jon Voight's hayseed hustler in that film are clouded in shame and self-doubt, the bold love triangle ofin 1971 bristled with startling candor. Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch played characters both in love with Murray Head's bisexual artist; the sizzling kiss between Finch and Head was a shocker in its day.
But anti-gay pejoratives like "fag" were freely tossed about in American movies, even in the John Hughes comedies we all loved. That casual homophobia continued well into the '90s; learning to tune it out was tough. French cinema, too, provided succor for LGBTQ moviegoers hungry to see their lives reflected onscreen. The French film I recall with most affection from pre-2000 is André Téchiné's semi-autobiographical story of sexual awakening set against the end of the Algerian War,.
The last 20 years have seen heartening strides toward greater inclusivity, albeit with setbacks. It was hard to interpret the theft of what should have been a 2006 best picture Oscar for Ang Lee's ravishingly melancholy cowboy romance,— as anything but a painful reminder of the purportedly liberal Academy's traditionally narrow gauge. Or its perhaps partly unconscious homophobia.
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