With just over three months to go before Neil Patrick Harris takes center stage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood for the 87th annual Academy Awards, Peter Debruge, the chief international film critic for Variety.com, takes an incisive look at the upcoming foreign language film contenders and what it says not only about the state of film-making today but how Hollywood, the land of the perennial white, heterosexual male narrative, deals with sexuality.
“Considering the Academy’s historical reluctance to reward films with queer content (exceptions being Boys Don’t Cry, Brokeback Mountain and Milk), it’s surprising to see five countries submit pics that, were they competing in other categories, show little precedent for nominations. Such a move suggests that regardless of how Oscar voters might feel, a group of key influencers in each country sincerely believes these films are the best they have to offer.
For example, Brazil picked Daniel Ribeiro’s The Way He Looks, a coming-out story centered on a blind teen. Portugal went for Joaquim Pinto’s first-person documentary What Now? Remind Me, in which the HIV-positive director reflects on living with the virus. It was awarded the Fipresci prize at the Locarno film fest. Switzerland’s selection, The Circle, from director Stefan Haupt, blends scripted re-enactment and non-fiction interview segments to convey a sense of the country’s nascent post-war gay scene. Finally, France is sending Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent, a Cannes-anointed biopic on the influential fashion designer that doesn’t shy away from its subject’s sexual proclivities.
Given that Hollywood has had over 100 years to deal with themes of a gay sexual nature, they have done a remarkably poor job of recognizing, let alone acknowledging, films that deal with the LGBT community. Sure, Christopher Plummer won (for a supporting role, no less) for Beginners and Tom Hanks took home the ‘Best Actor’ prize for his role as an HIV-positive lawyer in Philadelphia. But Hollywood has had a far longer, far uglier trajectory of boxing in sexual minorities as spinsters, pedophiles, murderers and murderesses and other societal outcasts.
Perhaps we will have to take some consolation in knowing that, with Harris, Hollywood has now had two LGBT masters of ceremony.
Hooray for Hollywood!
