The history of gay culture in Britain is explored in the life story of one drag artist in this affecting documentary
This sweet, affecting documentary profiles the eponymous actor/drag queen/activist Bette Bourne (Peter Bourne), now a grand dame in his 70s with a lavender rinse in his hair, a fetching array of oversized brooches and a great store of anecdotes.
Prompted by co-director Mark Ravenhill, who pootles about London with him, checking out old haunts and meeting ageing friends, Bourne narrates the story of his life. It's practically a microcosm of 20th-century gay culture, covering the closet culture of the 50s, the gay liberation movement, Bourne's success with his cabaret company the Bloolips, and the arrival of Aids.
As a documentary, it is hardly radical or ground-breaking (although the archive material is ace), but it's an engaging oral history, about a lovely person who gives good quip. The...
This sweet, affecting documentary profiles the eponymous actor/drag queen/activist Bette Bourne (Peter Bourne), now a grand dame in his 70s with a lavender rinse in his hair, a fetching array of oversized brooches and a great store of anecdotes.
Prompted by co-director Mark Ravenhill, who pootles about London with him, checking out old haunts and meeting ageing friends, Bourne narrates the story of his life. It's practically a microcosm of 20th-century gay culture, covering the closet culture of the 50s, the gay liberation movement, Bourne's success with his cabaret company the Bloolips, and the arrival of Aids.
As a documentary, it is hardly radical or ground-breaking (although the archive material is ace), but it's an engaging oral history, about a lovely person who gives good quip. The...
- 2/13/2014
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Shock And Gore | British Airways Silent Picturehouse | Pride film festivals | Mogwai + Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
Shock And Gore, Birmingham
Like all good horror festivals, this is a mix of old classics and new blood, the latter led by James "Saw" Wan's Amityville-like The Conjuring. Talking of blood, Xan Cassavetes makes her fiction debut with modern vampire flick Kiss Of The Damned, while a post-dinner dare game gets horribly messy in Would You Rather. For the more civilised there's Coppola's Dracula, and for the sincerely debauched, Saturday is an all-nighter, with films, parties, horror-director guests and offbeat awards such as Best Death and Worst Nicolas Cage Movie.
Various venues, Sat to 25 Jul
British Airways Silent Picturehouse, London
Cementing the relationship between movies and air travel, BA transforms the arched caverns of Vinopolis into a sumptuous cinema lounge this week, where you can choose between five films playing simultaneously (in different...
Shock And Gore, Birmingham
Like all good horror festivals, this is a mix of old classics and new blood, the latter led by James "Saw" Wan's Amityville-like The Conjuring. Talking of blood, Xan Cassavetes makes her fiction debut with modern vampire flick Kiss Of The Damned, while a post-dinner dare game gets horribly messy in Would You Rather. For the more civilised there's Coppola's Dracula, and for the sincerely debauched, Saturday is an all-nighter, with films, parties, horror-director guests and offbeat awards such as Best Death and Worst Nicolas Cage Movie.
Various venues, Sat to 25 Jul
British Airways Silent Picturehouse, London
Cementing the relationship between movies and air travel, BA transforms the arched caverns of Vinopolis into a sumptuous cinema lounge this week, where you can choose between five films playing simultaneously (in different...
- 7/20/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Palace, Manchester; Globe; Rose Lipman Building, London
Manchester international festival has always been theatrically lively. This year's programme looks the strongest yet. It opens with a celebration, almost a flaunting of international experiment. Inspired by the absurdist gifts of Daniil Kharms, The Old Woman brings together, under the least flamboyant of titles, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Willem Dafoe and Robert Wilson.
There is no making sense of Kharms. That is his point. The Russian ironist and dandy, who hated old people and pets and was fascinated by Sherlock Holmes, wrote elliptical stories, often tragic in content and comic in expression, sometimes only a paragraph long. An author of children's books who disliked children, he was a victim of the Soviet Union's antipathy to the avant garde. Rounded up by the secret police, he died in a prison hospital in 1942. He was 36.
There is, it turns out, a way of making his work vivid,...
Manchester international festival has always been theatrically lively. This year's programme looks the strongest yet. It opens with a celebration, almost a flaunting of international experiment. Inspired by the absurdist gifts of Daniil Kharms, The Old Woman brings together, under the least flamboyant of titles, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Willem Dafoe and Robert Wilson.
There is no making sense of Kharms. That is his point. The Russian ironist and dandy, who hated old people and pets and was fascinated by Sherlock Holmes, wrote elliptical stories, often tragic in content and comic in expression, sometimes only a paragraph long. An author of children's books who disliked children, he was a victim of the Soviet Union's antipathy to the avant garde. Rounded up by the secret police, he died in a prison hospital in 1942. He was 36.
There is, it turns out, a way of making his work vivid,...
- 7/6/2013
- by Susannah Clapp
- The Guardian - Film News
Maintaining truthfulness and avoiding stereotypes are the major challenges when playing racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities.Consider the daunting task that Tamer Aziz faces in tackling a character who is gay, Iranian, and Muslim in Jay Paul Deratany's fact-based play "Haram Iran" (now at the Celebration Theatre in Hollywood). Or the issues that black actors deal with in enacting a brutal racist episode within the context of a minstrel show in John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical "The Scottsboro Boys" (currently at New York's Vineyard Theatre). Justin Huen also has his work cut out for him playing Oedipus in Luis Alfaro's play "Oedipus el Rey," a retelling of Sophocles' tragedy set in a Los Angeles barrio (playing the Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena, Calif.). Jennifer Lim grapples with a fully assimilated and not very sensitive Asian American in Lauren Yee's satire "Ching Chong Chinaman" (now at New York's...
- 3/31/2010
- backstage.com
Info Meme
Jon Stewart is set to appear on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Wednesday. They know they have ratings gold, and actually plan to split the interview up over Wednesday and Thursday. Stewart hasn’t trekked over to see Bill on his own turf since 2004. Hopefully related: The 8 Greatest Jon Stewart Pwnages. Please let the list go up to eleven by the weekend.
I’ve been known to toss spare change to the homeless, and I harbor no illusions as to what they did with the money. But if I’d seen any of these guys, I would have bought them a steak dinner just for the honesty and creativity.
Lionsgate and Crest Animation are going to give Pixar a run for it’s money with Norm of the North, about a polar bear whose melting environment causes him to take refuge in an arctic research station until...
Jon Stewart is set to appear on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Wednesday. They know they have ratings gold, and actually plan to split the interview up over Wednesday and Thursday. Stewart hasn’t trekked over to see Bill on his own turf since 2004. Hopefully related: The 8 Greatest Jon Stewart Pwnages. Please let the list go up to eleven by the weekend.
I’ve been known to toss spare change to the homeless, and I harbor no illusions as to what they did with the money. But if I’d seen any of these guys, I would have bought them a steak dinner just for the honesty and creativity.
Lionsgate and Crest Animation are going to give Pixar a run for it’s money with Norm of the North, about a polar bear whose melting environment causes him to take refuge in an arctic research station until...
- 2/3/2010
- by lostinmiami
- The Backlot
Seen on: June 19, 2009
The players: Director: Stephen Frears, Writer: Christopher Hampton, Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Rupert Friend, Bette Bourne, Felicity Jones
Facts of interest: Stephen Frears also directed "The Queen."
The plot: A famous courtesan's plans to reture are shattered when she launches into an affair with a much younger man.
Our thoughts: Director Stephen Frears reunites with his “Dangerous Liaisons” actress Michelle Pfeiffer in his latest drama “Chéri,” based on the popular 1920 novel by French author Colette. The result, though not as intriguing as some of Frears’ other recent works, is certainly watchable, with Pfeiffer and co-actor Rupert Friend delivering a pair of compelling performances.
The players: Director: Stephen Frears, Writer: Christopher Hampton, Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Rupert Friend, Bette Bourne, Felicity Jones
Facts of interest: Stephen Frears also directed "The Queen."
The plot: A famous courtesan's plans to reture are shattered when she launches into an affair with a much younger man.
Our thoughts: Director Stephen Frears reunites with his “Dangerous Liaisons” actress Michelle Pfeiffer in his latest drama “Chéri,” based on the popular 1920 novel by French author Colette. The result, though not as intriguing as some of Frears’ other recent works, is certainly watchable, with Pfeiffer and co-actor Rupert Friend delivering a pair of compelling performances.
- 6/26/2009
- by Franck Tabouring
- screeninglog.com
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