Homoerotic cinema club
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IdleRich
IdleRich
I don't remember that in Pusher at all... might be me though. Valhalla Rising yeah. Mads Mikkelson in both but totally changed.
Actually he's not as big as I remembered in VR - I guess he just gives that impression.
With pusher films, it's been ages since I watched them, but just the way the camera is employed, all those shots of them walking and running in real time, plus the violent scenes. Maybe due a rewatch, I enjoyed those films at the time, I seem to recall a well characterised buff also over the top turkish (?) drug boss.
I suppose he's more concerned with masculinity in general, rather than homoeroticism, but the fact that he's so into masculinity as a theme, and because of the way he shoots, with the focus on the body, I think it is present, but pusher and VR rather than the others, which to me are much weaker films anyway, and less tight.
Not seen those. I was interested in him for a while, but the films just got really crap. Bronson falls apart completely, has nothing to keep you interested and he couldn't have got 70s Britain more wrong. Drive is sort of stylish but sort of weak in terms of character. And only god forgives was just a joke from start to finish.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
these are the same ones I've seen and I would agree
his films are usually concerned with masculinity, but his male protagonists are never objects of desire
they also lack any kind of queer sensibility, everything's pretty straightforward
I guess you could read sexual undertones, or metaphor, into the relationship between Gosling and the Thai police lieutenant in Only God Forgives
tho also there's a kind of Oedipal thing going on between him and Kristin Scott Thomas (great against type performance btw)
version
Well-known member
I had no clue it was her until seeing it mentioned somewhere months after I'd seen the film.
IdleRich
IdleRich
He's Serbian I think.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
whether Refn's films are "good", I mean...it's almost an irrelevant consideration
I liked Only God Forgives. of course it's ridiculous, and indulgent.
but like, he fucking goes for it. the ridiculous - the stylization, all of it - it's right out there in the open.
I take it as basically his version of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
I liked Only God Forgives. of course it's ridiculous, and indulgent.
but like, he fucking goes for it. the ridiculous - the stylization, all of it - it's right out there in the open.
I take it as basically his version of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
IdleRich
IdleRich
Bleeder is a very odd film in my memory. Also surreal to watch after Pusher cos it's got virtually the same cast but with their roles all changed round - for example I think the terrifying Serbian drug lord is now a mild mannered shopkeeper or something. The film itself, I seem to recall, is about some kind of plot to infect someone with HIV using blood stolen from an infected homeless man. Or something. I remember it as a bit of a mess - whereas I love the focused madness of the Pusher ones.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I really like his stuff as a whole. Did anyone except me actually watch Too Old To Die Young all the way through? Anyway, I don't see much homo-eroticism... maybe in TOTDY with the torture scenes and the weird relationship between the pretty boy cartel leader and his victim, and then with his (own) wife.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
in re masculinity and homoeroticism, obviously there's overlap but they shouldn't be conflated
that 80s action stuff, it's unwitting, but what makes it homoerotic - besides the rampant subtext of sexual tension - is that objectification
the camera lingering lovingly over a shirtless, oiled-up Swayze doing kata in Roadhouse
none of Refn's films have anything like that
that 80s action stuff, it's unwitting, but what makes it homoerotic - besides the rampant subtext of sexual tension - is that objectification
the camera lingering lovingly over a shirtless, oiled-up Swayze doing kata in Roadhouse
none of Refn's films have anything like that
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
there's a completely insane scene - one of many - in Pumping Iron that, tho it predates his action stardom, takes all that subtext and just makes it text
Arnold has some of kind of official visit (who knows) to a prison, and he takes off his shirt and flexes a bunch for the prisoners
some of whose reactions are...
it explains the homoeroticism of 80s action in two minutes. here you go. he seems totally clueless himself.
Arnold has some of kind of official visit (who knows) to a prison, and he takes off his shirt and flexes a bunch for the prisoners
some of whose reactions are...
it explains the homoeroticism of 80s action in two minutes. here you go. he seems totally clueless himself.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I agree. There has to be the possibility of non-homoerotic masculinity.
In TOTDY you have extended scenes of the bad guy wearing just tight pants exercising all sweaty and glistening and then (I think this is the right order) goes out and whips his prisoner who is also stripped down and tied to a post.