Sunday, March 4, 2018

Homosexuality at the Box Office

1,162,275@6:40 pm
1,162,107 @ 11:51 am

Back in 1974 the sexual revolution was in high gear where "straight" couples would "swing" and there was no problem with men kissing other men (especially if you had a girlfriend tagging along...)   A late boyfriend of mine (who we only recently found out passed by his own hand after his long-time lover's heart attack...which I only bring forth because of this discussion of "the plague") told me "AIDS set the whole thing back" ( ruined the whole revolution, paraphrasing him, of course, it was 36 or so years ago when he made the comment)

Well, homosexuality is now in vogue, and the 1974 film, "A Very Natural Thing," would have heralded in a new society had AIDS not set things back by decades, to again paraphrase my drop dead handsome ex boyfriend, so good looking a certain Chevalier Theater person did a double-take when he took our tickets at the Pia Zadora show at the Opera House back in the 1980s, but I digress except that Call Me By Your Name is set in that time period and one can do a lot of comparisons of what it was like living back then, from their own life to what transpires in the film, excellently capturing the mood at the time.) 

 The "community" rumored (or theorized) that someone like a Jerry Falwell probably had some mad scientist create the disease...heck, junkies, Hatians and homos, get rid of them all with one fell swoop...except that the genie got out of the bottle and heterosexual women in Europe and other places started becoming ill...so much for controlled genocide of three populations.

The Jerry Falwell rumor, though, has great weight given the strangeness of the virus...
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Which brings us to this magnificent 2017 masterpiece set in the 1980s with The Psychedelic Furs' song "Love My Way" set as the theme, and reoccurring as a flashpoint in the film.   Heart-throb Armie Hammer ( I mean the sexual tension in The Man from U.N.C.L.E between Henry Cavill and Hammer is so glaring that straight men would re-position themselves at the theater!)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5726616/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Henry Cavill in all his glory
https://etcanada.com/news/251894/armie-hammer-tells-henry-cavill-he-has-nice-nipples/
Ed Finn and Rick Caraviello, the new sex symbols for Man From U.N.C.L.E. II ?  Don't think so...unless it is intended to be a horror flick...

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Call Me By Your Name (not to be confused with the Lesley Gore album Love Me By Name click to read my review - her reunion with "It's My Party" and Michael Jackson producer Quincy Jones)   Is as sensuous as watching a Red Sox baseball game now that the cameras take close-up body shots of the handsome players designed to keep women and homosexual men engaged in the sport...sports within sports, if you will...

Hammer (born August 28, 1986)  and his co-star lover, , (born December 27, 1995 - making him 22 at the time of the filming - not the 17 he's acting as in the film) - are both Jewish, as they are in real life, and both have their shirts off throughout a majority of the film... have the cameras stalking them with imagery subliminally focused on them bending over or on their legs and torsos ... stopping just short of pornography.

Then there's the fruit!  Fruit everywhere, including in a sex scene, of course, which is marvelously funny in which the audience just had to erupt, but on paper it would freak you out.   Keep in mind the failed attempt at sex and fruit with film newcomers Rex Reed and Farrah Fawcett in Myra Breckinridge...which was about as sexy as a doorknob! ...a buffet of fruit where Rex Reed as Myron is trying to be attracted to Maryann (Farrah Fawcett - whom  he eventually marries in the sequel, Myron, after a car hits him on purpose trying to kill him and his breasts go flying and the doctors turn him into a man again...only to jump into TV screens in the sequel to have sex with various leading men and sidemen so Maryann doesn't get hip to his..indiscretions...)



The Japanese poster has Myra showing Uncle Buck (John Huston) and his dumb lawyers (perfectly played by David and Brian Skary, the law firm of Flagler and Flagler where the son is almost as idiotic as the dad!) her scars from the sex change from Rex Reed into Raquel Welch...which had alchemists everywhere spinning...)
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But Rex Reed did buy his amazing house from the payment for being such a bad actor in the film...so there's something to be said for that.

Ok, Ok, you want me to go on about Call Me By Your Name...I will ...part II ...soon...




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Storylinehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072362/mediaindex?ref_=tt_mv_close

A poignant romantic drama examines the life of gay 26 year old, ex-monk, school teacher living in Manhattan. When he meets a man at a gay bar, they connect and are soon living together. Unfortunately their views on monogamy don't match.


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