Nathan et Louis from Baisers Cachés

I can't stop watching this film. Who's got the time?
But it's multiple layers just keep exposing themselves with each viewing. It is so unremittingly beautiful.

Love Without Limits (Gay Short Film) 2016

Outstanding

Paradisco 2002 ( gay short film)

Mirror balls, sequins and feathers, pathos - the French manage to get it all into a faaabulous 17 mins. Touching.

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Desnudos

Gay Short Film (2013) with English Subtitles



 A fine demonstration of solidarity. And more.

LA DERADE with eng subtitles

Another fine French wine. I could taste the Bordeaux slowly making its way from the glass to my mouth and throat throughout the whole film.

Baisers cachés 2016 Gay Film

It just took one little photograph to set off a chain of reactions that are sometimes beautiful, sometimes downright scary, sometimes sad and sometimes romantic. Like lots of films about gay teenagers, it's all about the unfortunate consequences of being gay and interminably dour, but unlike many such films this one has got a big cast of fine actors performing a very well-written screenplay. The many scenes are each long enough to develop an idea, and the themes of parental and school support for children in danger are each approached from different angles. Congratulations to the director, Didier Bivel, and especially to the writer, Jérôme Larcher. And the boys aren't too hard on the eye, either.

Film not working? Try here.

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Mes chers parents - vidéo Dailymotion

One of the lovelist, warmest, 'touchuingest' short gay films I've ever seen. Believe me, I've seen zillions. An uncomprimising letter home for the oldest of reasons.


Mes chers parents - vidéo Dailymotion: Un jeune homme envoie un film à ses parents après douze ans de silence. Il veut leur montrer l'homme qu'il est devenu. Réalisateur du court métrage : Martin Amic - Acteurs : Florence Cabaret, Christel Martinez, Pierre Banderet, Julie Williamson, Patrice Boutin, Claire Caigneaux, Victor De Oliveira, Isabelle Gagnat. Sélectionnée par gaynormandie.com, le portail lgbt de Normandie : http://www.gaynormandie.com sur le blog de Fred : http://blog.gaynormandie.com/fred et le portail de la vie gay en France : http://www.guidomo.fr

Fair Haven - a very watchable gay indie feature film.

I've just watched this film and was at first a bit annoyed at its dour mood, so common in gay films. I want to scream, lighten up, at so many of them. A great tale can be told without it being a never-ending tragedy. But this film really cut it. It's sensitive and understated. The boys are lovely, and I wouldn't have minded a few more scenes of their intimacy. But it was above-all the father-son relationship under the microscope. Mother has passed away and Dad is dealing with his business, his widower status and his very un-chip-off-the-ole-block son. Do watch it.

Coming out to play

What a great title for a gay sportsman's autobiography: Coming out to play, by Robbie Rogers.

In this video, certain resemblances to Tom of England can be discerned, most notably the quiet-spoken humility mixed with a certain "I can't fucking believe my life" gratitude to a world that embraces young gay celebrity sportsmen.

P.S. Thanks Queerty for putting me onto this trail.

Bring On The Men - Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC

From the musical, Jekyll and Hyde, where it is sung by a female. Who'd've thought!

bePROUD prize

MPs get bePROUD prize for supporting minority rights

A group of two dozen MPs from across the political spectrum received the 2013 bePROUD prize for supporting minority rights. The prize was awarded in recognition of their joint effort to push through legislation which would enable gay and lesbian couples to adopt their partner’s child. The draft legislation tabled shortly before the lower house was disbanded to open the way for early elections late last year failed to win approval. The 2013 anti-prize went to psychologist Jeroným Klimeš for “spreading stereotypes and homophobic statements about the gay and lesbian community”.

Czech Radio News: Saturday, May 17th, 2014

Jeroným Klimeš is the author of A homosexual husband needn't mean divorce

Rumour mongering

This blog never set out to be, and has never been an instrument in rumour mongering. But the question of Leonardo di Caprio's sexuality came up recently and very little research takes you to names such as:

• Zac Efron
• Leo di Caprio
• Robert Pattinson
• Lukas Haas

In the Wikipedia entries on these big names, not one CTRL F turns up one hit for the words girlfriend, wife, partner, couple, marry, marriage in any of their entries. Dating seems a bit undergrad for grown ups, but these guys do date. Leonardo is roundly criticised for his string of short so-called relationships with models for the publicity's sake. 

I think that Leo is so greatly admired for his professional work and environmental support, that his days of disappointing teen mobsters is no longer a issue. If he is gay, which seems to be widely accepted, I hope his minders let him come out so that he can lead an honest life. It's many years since Rock Hudson died. It's many months since Anderson Cooper came out. 

Tom Daley did the right thing at the right time. He can't lose. And many people gain. Come on Leo, we saw those wonderful kisses in Total Eclipse, the romantic sacrifice of the great love. The erastes-eronemos relationship. One day, you'll tell us that that was the only honest film you did. 

It consumed me too

Deserved winner of many awards. A masterpiece.

I just had an email who pointed out that this little film is a rip off of Tom Tykwer's film True. The info on TT's website says that the project stalled. Not the project Paris, Je t'aime. I saw this project and I don't remember True in it, but Wikipedia assures me it's there. I was surprised that this film dealt with a wide range of loves, but there was not one gay in the village. 

Maybe Tykwer created a new "genre" that It's consuming me employs. As they say, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It often happens in art that the works created by the inventor of a genre are not as good as those which are made in its image and I think It's consuming me is a stronger, snappier and sharper exemplar of this genre. 

Another British Triumph (not talking cars here)

Only 1.5 mill hits? Wot you got 'gainst country music, boy?

In glorious B & W here, for example, or in colour should you prefer.

Bad Boy Street needs to lighten up

This is not a good film. It could have been. Despite the plot being fairly predictable, and the characters and their relationships being rather cliched, there were enough moments that could have added up to a good film, if only ... 

Personally, I am no stranger to being the older guy "rescuing" the younger guy from the excesses of a Big Night Out. I can vaguely remember a few of my own BNOs. But once we know who the younger guy in this film is, we can only sympathise with his plight and understand why he would turn to alcohol and need rescuing. Being far from his natural habitat permitted him to live as he most wants to live. In gay Paree, no less.

A relationship with a fit older guy who didn't have much going for him. Except that they did have this top-bottom thing sorted. Did I mention cliche? He was humourless, resigned to a dull existence professionally and socially. A 40 something single gay Parisian who can't even cook! Quel fromage! He has two computers on his desk at work yet can't read text messages on his phone. Mon dieu!

It could have been snappy, funny, gently ironic, prankish, surprising, impudent, audacious. A little bit of "bad boy" wouldn't have gone astray. It was ponderous affair. The film, that is. 

Clearly a low budget film. Nice enough story and acting commensurate with the script. Already in the opening minutes the need for better editing was clear. How many minutes of a film do you want to see the leading man and his best friend - she can cook - ambling home from the cinema?
The whole project could been saved by a snappy script.

On the other hand, I Quit is 20 mins of relatively snappy. 

By the way, there is a Rue de Mauvais Garcons in gay Paris, which must have a history of bad boys. Not only the mind boggles.

At the time of writing, you can see even less about Bad Boy Street on Rotten Tomatoes.

Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit

Ok, so it's only been a decade in the making, but thanks in no small part to Lulu.com, my very own soap opera, Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit, is now published as an ebook. The paper copy is coming very soon.


I originally wrote it to use as the basis of an e-learning course, but like so many projects, the 90% perspiration was never quite there to bring it to fruition.

It's set in the lovely Czech city of Brno, and includes a romantic excursion to Vienna. There is a healthy mix, or an unhealthy one, some might say, of Czechs and ex-pats engaged in all sorts of business activities and not all of them involve money exchanging hands. Sometimes it's the hands exchanging that makes it a bit steamy at times.

Bear in mind that it was written for gay guys learning English as a foreign language, not as an attempt on great literature. This also explains why each chapter begins with some vocabulary and cultural notes.

Anyway, the boys are lying in wait for you at Lulu, should such a read take your fancy. And if you are only interested in it for the cover picture, well, I can't blame you. He's a little hottie for sure. Let me know and I'll pass on your compliments.

Big Gay Musical sure is gay

Wow, this musical sure is gay, gayer than it's musical, even. Though she doffs her hat to God, a.k.a. Mr Sondheim And to Off Broadway and it's semi-professional stage, acting, dancing, audience participation, e-orchestra, and all that.

Maybe it's too long to embed here - 91 minutes. The trailer does it justice.

So here's a link to the full film with Arabic subtitles, or should you prefer, Spanish subtitles. Do let me know if you come across one with English subtitles as it would be really helpful for non-native speakers.

And there's always Wikipedia for stuff. But more than always is Rotten Tomatoes.

Lie Detector

Turing didn't kill himself? First I've heard

A few days ago, I regretted that Alan Turing had committed suicide. I wasn't the first to do so, after all he died before I was born. 

This extract from the Advocate tells us that the famous apple was never tested. 

Turing died of cyanide poisoning and a half eaten apple was found near his bed. Legend goes that Turing was fascinated with the fairy tale of Snow White and poisoned himself with an apple to end the persecution he was getting for being gay. But Copeland argues that Turing ate an apple every night before bed (something others knew as well), the apple was never tested for cyanide, and there were no indications anywhere that Turing was anything less than upbeat and forward thinking. He even wrote a to-do list for the next week.

This extract from the same article tells us why he might want to commit suicide.

Knowing Turing's history might make it easy to understand suicide, wrote BBC's Roland Pease. After all, in 1952, after he had reported a burglary, the war hero was investigated for "acts of gross indecency" because he had had a male lover in his house. Instead of prison, Turing accepted what was called "chemical castration," essentially hormone treatment to suppress his sexual desire."

And so if he didn't take his own life, how did he die? Given his war time role in helping defeat the Germans, we could always cook up a Bier und Wurst conspiracy theory, or one analogous to the Russian chemical poisoning a few years ago. But according to the article that the BBC ran three hours ago and which is quoted in the Advocate, his death is thought to have involved inhalation of cyanide, or accidentally dipping his apple in it. Whatever.


PS whilst on the BBC page, the video is to be seen.