THE A 0 V 0 CAT E REP 0 R T C'est la Cannes CANNES HAS NEVER BEE the gayest film fes tinu (the scene on the Croisette is more about starlets than Speedos).</p><p> But gay linages did flicker on the screen tltis year. and tlley weren't always pretty.</p><p> TIle festival-a nd the complamts-ki cked offwitll the costlU1le drama \ ·alel. featllling Gerard Depardieu and L'ma 111llnl1Lm.</p><p> Depardieu stars as a chef charged witll prl'paring for a \isit by King Louis A1V. tlle rum featlu-es a subplot about Louis's brotller, known as "Monsieur ," who fancies a ce11am houseboy. (He doesn't get hml.) Clities clied homophobia but director Roland Jotfe cried, ":'vloi?" "For anybody to detect homophobia in the film," Joffe told Tile Arl roca Ie. "they would have to have it in them.</p><p> Monsieur is treated with immense sympa thy." That might be stretching it, but this gay charac ter is no nastier than his straight cOlmterpaIts-and he does manage a good deed or two. yleanwhi le, in another century, a band of rugged sanlurai get hot and bothered by a beautiful new male recruit in Cohatto, the new film from Japanese mas ter Nagisa OshiI1la Returning to the globalliInelight after a 14-year absence and recovering from a stroke, OshiIna scored a commercial hit in his own country while contmumg his longtime tradition of breaking sexual taboos on-screen. (His 1976 In the Realm of Ihe Senses is still an erotic landmark. ) "It wasn't lllltil I made Cohatto that I realized [sexual] taboos have not been fully demolished ," OshiIna told the press at Carmes, where tlle film stirred a flurry of con troversy. "This is an iInPOltant problem m Japan." Festival kudos also went to the Blitish gotta-dance ciraIna Dancer, about a boy who KIRK AND DEWOLF: BRIDGET BESAW·GDRMAN From left: Laura Kirk and Nat DeWolf want to get Famous; Uma Thurman contemplates her corset in the French costumer Va tel. rejects boxmg for ballet despite fanUlial pressure.</p><p> Featuring stirring dance routines and a straight hero's nonjudgmental friendship with a gay classmate, this film promises to be a sleeper hit when Universal opens it m the United States in the fall.</p><p> Modem gay iInagery got aI11usmgly spoofed m Fa mous, a U.S. mockun1entary directed by GIiffin Durme about two young actors chasmg stardom.</p><p> The two are played by cowriters Nat DeWolf and Laura Kirk.</p><p> DeWolf is Tate, who's preparing a one-man off Broadway show, Hate Crirnes and Broken Hearts.</p><p> Nat urally, as in all gay one-man shows, it mvolves hiIn snip pmg down to his underwear. "It's unbelievable how strange this week has been," says DeWolf, who found out orily a few weeks before hand that Famo'us was commg to the festival.</p><p> Getting ready to face tlle media at Carmes, DeWolf told tlle producers to make it clear that he's openly gay.</p><p> But despite tlle crush of reporters and endless round table discussions , "no one has asked me.so far," he says, laugl1ing. "1 think people have a responsibility to be out.</p><p> I don't know.</p><p> I could be making a huge mistake.</p><p> But I can't [be m the closet], it would just be too much work." Master Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima returned to Cannes after a long absence with the sexy and controversial samurai drama Gohatto.</p><p> THE ADVOCATE 120 I JULY 4. 2000
