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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). But gay linages did flicker on the screen
tltis year. and tlley weren't always pretty.
TIle festival-a nd the complamts-ki cked offwitll the
costlU1le drama \ ·alel. featllling Gerard Depardieu and
L'ma 111llnl1Lm. 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. 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.
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.
Modem gay iInagery got aI11usmgly spoofed m Fa
mous, a U.S. mockun1entary directed by GIiffin Durme
about two young actors chasmg stardom. The two are
played by cowriters Nat DeWolf and Laura Kirk.
DeWolf is Tate, who's preparing a one-man off
Broadway show, Hate Crirnes and Broken Hearts. 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.
Getting ready to face tlle media at Carmes, DeWolf
told tlle producers to make it clear that he's openly gay.
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.
I don't know. I could be making a huge mistake. 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.
THE ADVOCATE 120 I JULY 4. 2000
C'est la Cannes
CANNES HAS NEVER BEE the gayest film fes
tinu (the scene on the Croisette is more about starlets
than Speedos). But gay linages did flicker on the screen
tltis year. and tlley weren't always pretty.
TIle festival-a nd the complamts-ki cked offwitll the
costlU1le drama \ ·alel. featllling Gerard Depardieu and
L'ma 111llnl1Lm. 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. 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.
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.
Modem gay iInagery got aI11usmgly spoofed m Fa
mous, a U.S. mockun1entary directed by GIiffin Durme
about two young actors chasmg stardom. The two are
played by cowriters Nat DeWolf and Laura Kirk.
DeWolf is Tate, who's preparing a one-man off
Broadway show, Hate Crirnes and Broken Hearts. 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.
Getting ready to face tlle media at Carmes, DeWolf
told tlle producers to make it clear that he's openly gay.
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.
I don't know. I could be making a huge mistake. 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.
THE ADVOCATE 120 I JULY 4. 2000