We Remember: The Celluloid Closet

Originally posted on www.differentscene.co.uk

Over the decades there have been numerous films that have openly centred on gay people and gay themes, then there are those that explored it more covertly with undertones of homosexuality.

One film took a look at a huge selection of these films, from early Hollywood cinema that enforced the production code that labelled homosexuality under the bracket of sex perversion preventing the display of gay themes, to more recently where a number of films have been able to explore homosexuality.

The Celluloid Closet began its life as a book back in 1981 and was written by Vito Russo. Then in 1996 it was turned into a documentary film narrated by the ever-talented Lily Tomlin.

The film takes a look at 100 hundred years of Hollywood cinema and explores the way in which they tackled homosexuality, from the beginning of cinema with the often present effeminate male character, that although was never openly stated as being homosexual, relied heavily on a stereotype that was developing in society. To the days of the production code that didn’t allow a man and woman to be shown in bed together, never mind two men. This is where homosexual themes in cinema went underground and became more covert, up until the 1960s when the gay rights movement began and the production code was finally disabled, allowing homosexual themes to be explored more openly.

The film is a great documentary for anybody who is interested in film and anyone who is interested in the representation of homosexual characters within film history. It gives you a great insight into how a number of negative representations began surrounding homosexuals and how these started in the medium of film, and helps you see how being gay in not only cinema but in society has come a long way since the early 1900’s.

I think it’s a great documentary, and is extremely important when discovering the history of LGBT cinema. The film should be seen by everyone in order to help them understand how the powerful movie companies repressed homosexuality and how this had a lasting effect. It also helps you see that although it was repressed it is still there in an enormous amount of films, and shows the viewer that gays in cinema have come a long way, even since the 1980’s never mind the 1930’s.