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by Laika
Here's your chance to play film critic, or spread the word about a movie
you feel people here at BigCloset should know about...
By Transgender Cinema I mean roughly any film that deals with any of
the sorts of themes you find in stories at t.g. fiction sites, whether it be about
transsexuals, t.v.'s, magical transformations, or anyone cross-dressing for any reason...
Is your favorite t.g. film a drama?
A comedy?
Romantic fare?
A heavy tragedy about an infamous hate crime?
A zany farce about outrageous gay drag queens? (there seem to be a lot of those)
A story where someone (Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams) attempts to pass
his-or-herself off as the opposite gender due to some unusual circumstance?
A biopic?
Some obscure StudioCanal film based on a play by Jean Genet?
A documentary exploring the lives of teens in transition?
A flat out porno film (Latex Shemale Cheerleader Dominatrix IV...)?
Whatever it is, I think it might be a fun topic for discussion,
and if you have the time and the inclination I'd really like to hear about it.
Anything from just the title (or if you can't recall the title, describe it and maybe someone else will be able to) to some big old review, to a memoir of how this movie changed your life. And if you're doubtful about whether the film you would list has enough t.g. element in it to qualify as Transgender Cinema, I'd say go ahead.
Can't decide between two movies you love? Then feel free to list them both...
This is a casual and (famous last words) amiable forum.
I have two in mind- two films very different from each other that I can't decide between,
so you'll probably hear from me again in the comment boxes below.
70mm Technicolor Hugs, Laika
Comments
TG Film
In my book there's only one candidate "The Crying Game"
The crying game?
I'll have to look out for that one...
It's so hard to pick a
It's so hard to pick a favorite, I'll just go with the one I've seen most recently, "Breakfast On Pluto." Kitten felt very three-dimensional in her search to find a place to belong, and it was set in a fun time for fashion and experimentation.
Fave TG film?
It's got to be Pricilla, queen of the desert. It had everything; comedy, pathos and serious moments all wrapped up in one movie.
To Wong Foo was another good one. It was really weird seeing Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes in a film dressed in drag.
Seeing one in reverse had to be Connie and Carla and David Duchovny in the kiss scene was priceless!
Sorry, was I only supposed to choose one?
Can I pick more than one?
I've got a couple of favorites. The first two I could think of that weren't already mentioned were Ma vie en rose and Mulan.
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Heather Rose Brown
Author of Bobby's Rainy Day Adventure
I don't see why not
I did
:)
From the two wheeled world
There's a Brit flick titled "It's Different For Girls" Brit motorcycle courier during his school days defends a friend from the bullies. Roll forward in time Courier rider re-establishes contact with 'mate' who had SRS and is writing poems for greeting cards. Courier struggles with it all but they do get together. He teaches her to ride a DUCATI after she comes forward to get him out of trouble and sells her story.
It's an old Brit flick but it's not all that bad."Leather Boys" features 'mods' and 'rockers' and stars Rita Tushingham.
Dimelza
six picks
I liked Stardust from this summer with the CD pirate played by Robert DeNiro. and the innocent who had his gender expression changed by a witch.
Transamerica with the portrayal by Feliciy Huffman was very realistic. My one reservation is the use of the urination cliché. This was especially jarring since the focus character being TS should want to squat in the field like any other woman.
Tootsie was better than just the ''man in a dress' comedies that preceded it. Even better than Mrs Doubtfire with Robin Williams mostly cause I don't accept the movie cliché that anyone who put so much into their passing would make a stupid mistake about urination. 'Tootsie' is outed in the end (and consequences are suffered realistically) The acceptance of the title character's hope to '... do it without the dress" is fine since he isn't really cd, but actually is just playing a part.
My best in the F to M to F genre is a low budget film shot in 1986 in my hometown of Atlanta GA ,Willy Milly or Something Special with Pamela Segal as the title character and "Patty" Duke as the mother.
Another in the F to M to F genre is Victor / Victoria with Julie Andrews in the title role and featuring Robert Preston who coaches her how to pass in the drag world and love interest, James Garner. It was an early film that was kind to the glbt's in the world.
My pick for best stealth transition movie is The Little Mermaid. It has nothing to do with gender but has everything to do with a transition. In this case the transition is Ariel's from sea dweller to land dweller. The trials and tribulations that Ariel goes thru in her transition and the lengths that she tries to get what she has to have, boggle the mind. Its always great to know in the end she has a loving father who won't withhold a good thing from his daughter, even if it means leaving the world he lives in to be happy.
All my hopes,
Sasha Nexus
All my hopes
Ariel Montine Strickland
What was the flick...
...fairly recent, either French or Belgian, about a young pre-op street prostitute, steals her abuser pimp/boyfriend's drug money and takes off on the run with it; winds up staying at an isolated farmhouse
with this normal middle class couple, and gets a taste of what a regular life could be like, and wants to
leave her squalid past behind her, but the gangsters find out where she is and things turn very nasty?
Anyone see this one? Not my favorite, but pretty good, and I'm wracking my brain for the title...
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Forget the name
Saw this one many years ago: a hard-bitten misogynistic man (owns a distributing/warehouse company) tries to pick-up the wrong woman, a rad-fem lesbian who shoots him and he falls into the water. Must be a magic gun 'cause when he climbs out he's been transformed into a pretty young woman. Fights his change for awhile, but falls in love with his warehouse foreman. Then he changes back into his old self, and realizes he was happier as a woman, etc, etc, etc.
What I liked about it was his internal vocalizations when female start out in the male voice, but become female; then when he changes back to male the vocalizations are female still. Nice way of showing his change in attitude
Switch
He is reincarnated until someone gives him unconditional love.
Jimmy Smits (LA Law) makes her pregnant and she dies just after childbirth and the whole universe goes back to normal.
Blake Edwards film starring Ellen Barkin and JoBeth Williams
Good movie.
I think it was called ...
... Cleo/Leo, released in 1989. I saw it on HBO one late late night, long ago. Pretty broad comedy, neat idea but slightly flawed in execution by some less than stellar acting in minor roles. Still fun to watch how becoming a woman turns Leo into a better man when he changes back, only to find that he's happier as a woman in the end.
Switch was a different movie altogether, released two years later. A retread of Goodbye Charlie from the late sixties, they added a bet between God and the Devil and a bunch of other sub-plottish pieces.
For more details about Cleo/Leo, see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097069/
*hugs*
Randalynn
That's It!
Thanks, Randalynn! I looked at "Switch" but it just didn't seem quite the same. I'm sure I would have remembered the name actors, and I didn't. "Cleo/Leo" was a B-movie, no doubt, and I wasn't able to watch it all the way through 'cause I was at a party and kept getting interrupted. IMDB says it's hard to find, I may make the effort sometime anyway.
I like at the end he managed to engineer turning his company over to his female alter-ego, then went back to being a woman, and to the man she had come to love.
Some I haven't seen listed yet
A recent movie I haven't seen listed yet is "Kinky Boots". I wouldn't call it my favorite, but then...From the archives, a couple of films that jump out in my memory are "I Want What I Want", and Roman Polanski's "The Tenant".
Strictly as a film the Polanski is outstanding, though the TG element is extremely negative. Polanski himself portrays a guy who, after renting a room in a boarding hotel begins transforming himself into the previous tenant, who was a woman that killed herself by jumping out the window. Very dark and twisty, but a great film.
Never let it be said that I don't enjoy the occasional delusion of grandeur
Never let it be said that I don't enjoy the occasional delusion of grandeur
2 tragic, 2 happy
Thanks to everyone who has responded to my blog, there are several films here I need to look into. I didn't
know they had made a film of I WANT WHAT I WANT, a novel that really impressed me way back when
(it's out of print but have a bootleg of it if anyone wants to read it). Here are four that I really liked:
On the darker end of the emotional spectrum I have two favorites. Hector Babenko's psychological drama
Kiss of the Spider Woman. Two cell mates in a South American prison represent extreme and rather crippled versions of masculinity and femininity. Neither a very admirable human being. William Hurt is a shallow, narcissistic queen in a makeshift dress made of prison issue bedsheets, who wants nothing "unpleasant" in her life, living in a fantasy world of total self-indulgence and some weird kinda imagined aristocracy. Raul Julia is a grimly political sort, who refuses to consider anything as trivial as love or having fun so long as there is a revolution to be won. With nothing to do but talk, they tell their tales and argue their worldviews; and in the end the Marxist learns to soften and open his heart, to people and not just "the people" as some abstract; and the flighty hedonistic party girl learns that there are things more important than self-gratification, and even things worth putting your life on the line for......Even grimmer than this, but a really excellent film, is Boys Don't Cry- a devastating look at the last days of Brandon Teena. It's based on real events, so you know what's coming, and you watch in helpless dread as this sweet, naive young t.g. guy seriously misjudges his new low-life druggie buddies, thinking he's found the life he'd always wanted. Be prepared to sob uncontrollably. The anguish Brandon displays when he is reporting having been raped, and has to say
"my vagina" to the cops, is just one of the reasons Hillary Swank deserved the Oscar she got for this role...
My two favorite "feel good" t.g. movies have both been mentioned. It's Different for Girls is hilarious and sweet- like one of the better Meg Ryan romantic comedies. I was reminded of this movie when I read the short Hatbox offering Sledgehammer (great story Erin!), which has the same theme of best friends who hadn't seen each other in a while exploring romance after one transitions, though it's awkward, and takes some adjustment on the part of a guy who never dreamed he might fall for a transsexual. The drunken stunt that lands them in jail is just hilarious, and the girlfriend's courtroom scene at the end is wonderfully moving...
My other favorite is Ma Vie en Rose (not to be confused with the similarly titled La Vie en Rose, a biography of singer Edith Piaf); a heartwarming, triumphant story about a kid who refuses to accept the identity everyone is forcing on her. With no sex, no swearing, no violence, this film is rated R for absolutely
no reason, other than its subversive notions about being yourself in regards to this often
panic-provoking issue. Can't let the kids see THAT! - - -Hugs, Laika
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
R? Har har!
Ma Vie En Rose is a 12 in the UK. I'd make it a PG though...
... and is my vote for favourite TG film too. :)
Ma Vie En Rose
Oh god ... I can't believe they'd rate this movie R. If more kids saw movies like this maybe there would be less transgendered kids thinking they're mutant freaks or something and instead they might think, "Wow...maybe I ain't the only one." I remember watching this movie and saying things like "Oh, I remember wearing my shorts backwards like that, and being treated by other kids like that (though I never got anything nasty painted on my house), and just seeing so much of me in the main character. Hiding things like this ain't gonna stop kids from bein' transgender. It's just a part of bein' who we are, like bein' left handed or likeing peanut butter ripple better than marshmallow chocolate mint.
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Heather Rose Brown
Author of Bobby's Rainy Day Adventure
two come to mind
I know 'Some like it hot' doesn't treat TG very seriously, but it is a seriously funny film with the added bonus of Marilyn Monroe at her delicious best.
A more serious candidate is the 'Triple Echo' starring Alan Bates. I first read it as a short novel by H E Bates (of Ma and Pa Larkin fame). It concerns a young deserter during the war who hides out on a farm quite close to where his unit is based. He disguises himself as the sister of the woman who runs it but begins to take his disguise seriously when he agrees to go to a dance at the army base as the escort of Alan Bate's sergeant.
Another British film is 'I want what I want'. It's the story of a young man in Hull who uses a small legacy from his mother to leave his abusive father and live as a female. The part was played by an actress (whose name escapes my old brain) which may detract from the enjoyment for some. I haven't seen the film, but I have (had?) a copy of the book by Geoff Brown (not me :) but I remember his name for obvious reasons)
Geoff
Favourite Tg film
It is always interesting to find out what films other people like, especially the TG ones. Whilst my taste in films lies mainly in comedies, I have always looked out for films with a TG content. I agree with the previous comments about its Different for Girls it is a good film. I also enjoyed Switch, despite its flaws. A couple of films worth looking out for are Second Serve, starring Vanessa Redgrave, who looks too good portraying a man, Also, Improperly Dressed, a foreign language film about a soldier trying to get away from the first world war by dressing as a nurse at a health spa. The ending is sad however. I also have a copy of the book I Want What I want, by Geoff Brown, By the way, the actress playing the lead role in the film was Anne Haywood.
The film I would love to see made is No Half Measures, with music by Elton John. Ah well…
Love
Anne G.
Thanks for that ...
Strangely, the name Susan Haywood came to mind, but I knew it wasn't her. It was, as you write, ANNE Haywood.
I agree about No Half Measures but I suspect Chasing Hope would have a better chance as it's based in the USA. Not much chance of either I'm afraid.
Geoff
Lists
Some sites with lists of TG movies
http://www.superliminal.com/melinda/tgmovies.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_in_film_and_television
http://www.metamorphose.org/category/show.htp?name=gender%2C...
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I've got two TG that weren't mentioned by anyone else.
Though I also enjoyed Switch, Some Like It Hot, Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, my two favorite TG related films include "Just One of the Girls" (sorry can't remember anything about it, but it's great story of a kid in a new school who runs a foul of a local bully and has to pretend to be a girl to go to school and keep out of trouble.
But my all time favorite is "Just Like a Woman." It's a British film that really takes a good look at the average cross-dresser and all his trouble. Our hero/ine, Gerald/Geraldine is banker who's wife returns from a trip early and discovers his other wardrobe and assumes it belongs to his mistress. A divorce ensues with her never knowing he's a cross-dresser.
The rest of the story revolves around Gerald trying to pick up the pieces of his life which include him being fired from his job when his morals won't allow him as part of his bank to screw over a Japanese investor. With the encouragement of his new girl friend who know he's CD, he comes back en femme stick it to his boss.
In the meantime, there is a very realistic look at the TG world and the people who populate it. I highly recommend it as a film to show not-tg people just what it's really like for a cross-dresser. Aside from the happy ending, it's very realistic.
Hugs
Patricia
([email protected])
http://members.tripod.com/~Patricia_Marie/index.html
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper ubi femininus sub ubi
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
No one went there yet???
I can't believe no one has brought up Dr. Jeckel and Ms. Hyde. It's a gender swapping take on the old story. One of the brother's from the TV show Wings plays Dr. Jacks who invents a serum, and turns into Ms. Hyde. She, his female side, has plans to take over completly, but is foiled when HIS love intrest injects her with the "antidote."
Much love.
Toni
There was a Hammer Films movie with a similar tittle from 74?
In that one he dies half man half woman as the evil woman side tries to take over at the wrong time and they die from a fall.
He was looking for a serium, derived from a womans's blood to restore youth but it also changed your sex.
The Man was in the BBC series Poldark as the rich man who married Poldarks's first love and Ms Hyde was one of the Bond film actresses. Very creapy film. It was remade years later with Sean Young as Ms Hyde. That version was uiversally panned by the critics.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
It was called ...
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1972).
Freebie and the bean
James Caan, Allen Arkin and if I remember right Christopher Morley as the Transgendered character slash bad guy bad girl.1974 cop movie.There trying to catch a person in a kidnap ransom sceme involving the transgendered character.My favorite because it was the first time I'd ever scene a transgendered character.Typical of the early films portrayal of transgendered as the bad guys/girls.Plus I think the actor did a great job playing the role and looked good en femme.It's available on dvd at amazon Amy
Yeah yeah I know I'm way late
But I just can't let this sit without Soldier's Girl being mentioned. It's based on a true story, and really drives home that descrimination against TG individuals affects those who love them as well.
Melanie E.