“The Three Hidden Faces of Cinema”
“There are only two things more beautiful than a good gun--a Swiss watch, or a woman from anywhere. You ever had a Swiss watch?” A powerful line like the previous statement from the 1948 film Red River already suggests that, ever since the rise of the film industry in the Hollywood scene, the society already knows the concept of labels—of who is gay and who is not. However, the stereotyping of every character in the film as a gay person or not during the early times is very much boxed within the limited knowledge about gender and identity. Film critiques or even audiences were not as knowledgeable and critical at that time as compared to the modern critiques and audiences who observe film in almost all of the possible angles or lenses.
With thorough analyzation of the films presented in the documentary Celluloid Closet, I have come up with the three not-so-hidden faces of cinema—of queer cinema to be specific: first, the characters are blatantly presented as gays; second, the characters are real straight guys, but can be studied further with underlying meanings; third, the characters are blatantly presented …show more content…
Fancy as it may sound, the term sissy has a lot of understatements such as the lack of courage, strength, male libido, and coordination which are highly associated with masculinity during the early times. Thus, being called as a sissy is tantamount to having an effeminate behavior, being physically weak, and being a homosexual which absorbs so much negative connotations. As an example, the film The Gay Divorcee (1934) presented sissy in which the characters are degraded and discriminated all because of them being a gay. It was vividly shown in a scene where two gay characters are in the restaurant serving the customers with what they
“There are only two things more beautiful than a good gun--a Swiss watch, or a woman from anywhere. You ever had a Swiss watch?” A powerful line like the previous statement from the 1948 film Red River already suggests that, ever since the rise of the film industry in the Hollywood scene, the society already knows the concept of labels—of who is gay and who is not. However, the stereotyping of every character in the film as a gay person or not during the early times is very much boxed within the limited knowledge about gender and identity. Film critiques or even audiences were not as knowledgeable and critical at that time as compared to the modern critiques and audiences who observe film in almost all of the possible angles or lenses.
With thorough analyzation of the films presented in the documentary Celluloid Closet, I have come up with the three not-so-hidden faces of cinema—of queer cinema to be specific: first, the characters are blatantly presented as gays; second, the characters are real straight guys, but can be studied further with underlying meanings; third, the characters are blatantly presented …show more content…
Fancy as it may sound, the term sissy has a lot of understatements such as the lack of courage, strength, male libido, and coordination which are highly associated with masculinity during the early times. Thus, being called as a sissy is tantamount to having an effeminate behavior, being physically weak, and being a homosexual which absorbs so much negative connotations. As an example, the film The Gay Divorcee (1934) presented sissy in which the characters are degraded and discriminated all because of them being a gay. It was vividly shown in a scene where two gay characters are in the restaurant serving the customers with what they