Director John Schlesinger makes overt the subtext of his previous film, the Oscar-winning Midnight Cowboy and this follow-up’s relative mainstream success and awards recognition only justified its bold demands to honestly address the fluid, complex realities of modern relationships. Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) Sunday Bloody Sunday.įorever known as the first British film to showcase a gay kiss, this love triangle drama - stars Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson knowingly share Murray Head’s much younger male lover - still seemed ahead of its time for its mature, non-judgmental look at love, loss and loneliness. Compassionate and courageous, careful yet very clear in its condemnation of bigotry, Victim is often credited with helping decriminalize British laws on homosexuality, its heartfelt objection most definitely sustained. Though never publicly acknowledging his own sexuality, he did potentially risk his career in this groundbreaking thriller, playing a lawyer who, after a young man’s untimely death, finds himself embroiled - and implicated - in a plot to out prominent gay men. Victim (1961) Dirk Bogarde in Victim.ĭirk Bogarde was a bona fide British matinee idol and, during his lifetime, a closeted gay man.
In honour of this week’s London Pride festival, here are some of the films that helped fight society’s real perversions: prejudice, ignorance and intolerance. What’s reassuring is that, even before grudging legal acceptance, British cinema had - carefully at first - pleaded the case for greater tolerance and, later, even proudly demanded it.
Before then, as in the world over, being “gay” was treated as, at best, a sickness, or, worse, a perversion deserving ostracism, even physical abuse. More recently, a director like Céline Sciamma constructed a bracing picture of an intimate female relationship with “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” though looking back at her career, she’s long explored the nuances of female sexuality.įrom the 20th Century up until just this past year with Sweden’s Best International Feature Oscar submission “And Then We Danced,” below is a sampling of some of the best international LGBTQ cinema out there - including alternative entries from popular filmmakers you may have missed.Homosexuality was decriminalized by British law in 1967 – only in private between consenting adults aged 21 or over, and only then in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland finally came out in favour in the 1980s).
It has been updated on March 15, 2022.Īmerican movies and TV are making major strides in LGBTQ representation, but storytellers abroad are in many ways ahead of the curve, exploring sexuality and relationships with groundbreaking technique, and in ways often coded and ahead of their time.įrom Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Pier Paolo Pasolini, the fluidity of human sexuality has long fascinated international filmmakers unafraid to bust taboos. Editor’s Note: This list was originally posted on February 27, 2021.